Video card compatibility

  • Thread starter Thread starter DaveJr
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DaveJr

hi group. I was just wondering if the A7V classic is compatible with 2x AGP
video card?
 
DaveJr said:
hi group. I was just wondering if the A7V classic is compatible with 2x AGP
video card?
Click to expand...
ASUS A7V Motherboard Specifications
CPUs Supported Socket A, currently 550MHz-1 GHz+ (compatible with AMD
Duron/Thunderbird series)
Chipset VIA VT8363 (KT-133) Northbridge
VIA 82C686A Southbridge and I/O Controller
Bus Speeds 100-133MHz in 1MHz increments (200-266MHz effective rate)
CPU voltage settings Voltage Autodetect
Manually adjustable to 1.60-2.10v (.05v increments), 2.20v, 2.30v
Formula used: -.4v to +.1v (.05 increments) and +.2v and +.3v
BIOS 2Mbit Award BIOS (Full ACPI, DMI, PnP, Trend ChipAway Boot Virus
Protect)
Form Factor ATX, 24.5 cm x 30.5 cm.
Overclocking Rev 1.02 (no audio) supports CPU multiplier adjustment
(will not help with factory locked CPU)
Voltage control in .05v increments
System Memory 3 168 Pin SDRAM DIMMs, Maximum 1.5GB
PC100, PC133, and PC133 VCM (Virtual Channel)
Expansion Slots 1 AGP Pro AGP 4x
5 PCI v2.2
1 Audio/Modem Riser (shared with PCI slot)
IDE Support 2 Ultra DMA/100, Promise PDC20265 EIDE Controller
2 Ultra DMA/66, VIA Southbridge EIDE Controller
Sound Support AC '97 Compliant 2D Audio Controller (optional)
Crystal 4299 Audio Codec
Ports 2 USB v1.1 standard, with support for 5 more
1 Parallel, ECP and EPP supported
2 Serial, max 115,200bps FIFO
1 PS/2 Keyboard
1 PS/2 Mouse
1 Game/Midi/Audio Riser (optional)
PC Monitoring CPU and Motherboard temperature detection
Fan speed detection
Voltage detection
Boot Options IDE HDD (Promise and VIA Controllers)
CD-ROM (VIA Controller Only)
Floppy Drive
SCSI
ZIP/LS-120
 
"DaveJr" said:
hi group. I was just wondering if the A7V classic is compatible with 2x AGP
video card?
Click to expand...

The A7V manual mentions 4X AGP. To do 4X AGP, that motherboard uses
1.5V AGP voltage.

The picture in the manual shows an AGP pro slot (has the two sections
on the end of the connector - extra power pins for cards that need
them). In the center section of the connector, there are no
plastic keys. That means the connector is actually AGP pro universal,
and can run at 3.3V or 1.5V.

At 1.5V, it can run at 1X/2X/4X
At 3.3V, it can run at 1X/2X

I found some really good pages you might enjoy. The first
page should answer your question. If you look at the
"Practical Motherboard And Card Compatibility" table,
your motherboard is the middle row, and any card will
plug into your AGP slot.

"AGP Compatibility For Sticklers"
http://www.playtool.com/PT/AGPCompat/agp.html

"Video RAM Memory Bandwidth" (consult before shopping)
http://www.playtool.com/PT/VRAMWidth/width.html

"Troubleshooting AGP" (using tuner tools)
http://www.playtool.com/PT/AGPFix/agpfix.html

One question I would have liked to see answered on those
pages, is what happens when an AGP 3.0 card (that only
runs 3.0 protocol, and is not a dual personality card)
meets an AGP 2.0 Northbridge (like yours). The register
definition of the AGP speed, for the 3.0 device, is 1001=8x
and 1000=4x, while for the 2.0 device, it is 100=4x, 010=2x,
001=1x, and there is no fourth (MSB) bit.

What I am concerned about there, is not the video card
driver, which can probably work out that it is dealing
with such a combo, but with the motherboard BIOS. How
can a BIOS designed for a AGP 2.0 world, deal with what
it reads in the AGP 3.0 video card speed bits ? I
still haven't worked out how that works. (Some motherboards
"black screen" with certain video cards, and I'm just
suspicious. After all, motherboards have a BIOS AGP speed
setting, suggesting the BIOS does try to configure things
before booting.)

HTH,
Paul
 
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