This picture shows it has a slot cut for 1.5V only operation. The
CUSL2 motherboard manual, in the picture of the motherboard, shows
no keys, so the CUSL2 is universal 1.5/3.3V capable.
http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage.asp?image=14-102-327-04.JPG
Now, one problem could be, that the video card supports 4x/8x, and
the motherboard support 1x,2x,4x. Due to differing AGP standards,
the "8x capable" coding of an AGP 3.0 card, shows up as "2x capable"
on an AGP 2.0 Northbridge, due to the way the coding works. There
is nothing wrong with this, except when the motherboard then
runs the AGP slot at 2X, and the video card doesn't support it.
Somehow, the motherboard needs to be convinced to try 4X, or even
1X, on the off chance that the video card can fall back to this
mode successfully. It won't do 4X, if it thinks the video card is
limited to 2X. (Try inserting the working video card, enter
BIOS, set rate to 1X, shut down, insert new video card, and hope...)
(ATI product info).
http://mirror.ati.com/support/faq/agpchart.html
http://www.ati.com/support/agpchart/agp.html
Generally, it pays to find cards with AGP specs that match the
motherboard, for best user experience. A 1x/2x/4x motherboard
should be matched to a 1x/2x/4x video card, as there is good
overlap between modes.
If you can convince the card to run at 1X AGP, there might still
be hope. I've noticed, for example, that the ATI Catalyst drivers
and the SmartGART util, tend to ignore the BIOS, and it is just
possible that SmartGART might be able to retest the AGP slot
at the 4X rate, by ignoring what the BIOS tells it. But, you have
to get booted in 1X mode first, for that to even be possible.
The Sapphire 9100 depicted here:
http://www.pricewatch.com/ri/T4885097-1072.jpg
has slots cut for 1.5V and 3.3V, and is a 4X max card, judging
by the description of the product. This makes the card a
perfect match (overlaps nicely) with the AGP capabilities of
the CUSL2 motherboard. That might explain why it works.
I think the 9100 is a rebadged R8500, which is a respectable
card. If you look at this chart:
http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/vga-charts-03.html#unreal_tournament_2003
the R8500-64 and R8500-128 do 38.7 and 39.8 FPS, while the 9600SE
does 29.3 FPS. Maybe you should be glad the 9600SE isn't working ?
I don't know if you can find a recent review of the 9100 to confirm
this info or not. The SE, by the way, stands for Slow Edition -
onboard memory bandwidth starved thanks to ATI. The model numbers
don't always reflect the performance.
Sapphiretech isn't likely to admit the card is rebadged, but the
9100 model number isn't listed on the ATI chart links above:
http://www.sapphiretech.com/vga/9100.asp
This page makes the relationship clearer. Scroll down to the table:
http://www.benchmark.pl/artykuly/recenzje/Radeon_9100/sapphire_9100.html
HTH,
Paul
