Which graphic cards can i use for my GBF 865 Motherboard?

[abulreesh]

Can you guys help me chose a 256MB or a 512MB graphics card for this motherboard (GBF865) because i just cant seem to get help from these stupid shops that i tried to purchase a graphics card from.. I want this card to play games such as Quake 4 and so on and i also want it to be compatible with other motherboards just incase i buy a new one!
Thank you in advance for your help!
Regards,
Abulreesh!

[Chaky]

I believe that "865 GBF" is a chipset (Intel), and not a motherboard brand/model. Without knowing what motherboard you are referring to, it is not possible to know what VGA slot you have.

Anyway there are 3 possibilities: AGP (x4 or x8), PCI-E (x8 or x16) and Crossfire (for ATI) /Sli (for NVIDIA)
Crossfire and Sli are 2 names for same thing. 2 PCI-E VGAs in parallel. I doubt that the last option concerns you.

There aren't many choices for quality VGA today. With ATI being part of AMD (and 90% shut down), it's NVIDIA GPU. Only questions remaining are what manufacturer you will choose (I've chosen Gainward and got a free game - Deus Ex: Invisible war) and amount of $$$ you want to spend. I suggest that you don't go under GeForce 7800. Beware that some newer GPUs are already in Sli mode, so I don't think that mobos that don't support Sli mode can use VGA that is practically 2 VGAs on a single slot.

[abulreesh]

Thank you for your reply! According to Intel: http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/D865GBF/index.htm My motherboard does not support PCI-Express so i think i would need to buy an AGP graphics card. I know that you have mentioned Geforce 7800 but what do you think about Geforce 7200?
There is detailed information about my motherboard on this PDF document:
ftp://download.intel.com/design/motherbd/bf/C3263401.pdf
Thanks again for your help!
Abulreesh

[Chaky]

Yup, 8x AGP. You can't miss. Any VGA you get now will be compatible with future AGP mobos and retro-compatible with older AGP mobos.

You did mention Quake 4 as game you would like to run. I suggest that your PC has at least 2 GB of RAM. I have 1 GB of RAM, Athlon 3700+ @2200 MHz and GeForce 7800 GT (512 MB) and I get excessive paging during the game. Otherwise, it runs smooth (while it is not paging). It's a lack of RAM that is causing this (1600 x 1200 all details at max.). Quake's readme says that 512 MB is minimum and 1 GB is recommended (yaeh, right). I contacted Activision describing the symptoms and suggesting that this was a memory leakage that they haven't released the patch for, and they replied me in a manner "So, you have only 1 gig of RAM?"

[abulreesh]

Hahaha.. I think that you would need a super computer to run their games man.. My only problem when running games is that my processor heats up quickly.. Today i went to the computer shops and bought myself a 1gb ddr ram over what i already have which is a 512mb which gives me 1.5 which was a mistake because i think i need to have 512 with 512 and not 1gb with 512 (i don’t know, i get the system beep whenever i switch it on). I also bought a 256mb AGP Geforce 6600 NVIDIA graphics card and that’s all they had.. That was the highest because now you have the new stuff that came out such as PCI-Express and all that so AGP is like "OLD", i can believe it man i bought my computer like two years ago and everything is changed completely now... Anyways, this AGP card i bought did not work for some reason, first i put it in the motherboard and the computer never switched ON until i realized that i had to attach power to it, but even when i attach power to it its fan does not work.. Anyways, i attached power to it and attached the screen to it, still didn’t work.. I even put the settings from the Bios to run from AGP slot but nothing.. I am going to return it to them tomorrow with my desktop so that they can see what the problem is!
Sorry about the long essay!
Abulreesh

[Chaky]

Regarding the memory:
I suggest that you go back to the store and replace the 1 G stick for 2 512 MB sticks. 1 gig sticks are slower than 2 (or 3) 512 MB sticks. Also, you must take in consideration that you have 2 memory channels. 1st and 3rd slot is the channel #1 and 2nd and 4th slot is channel#2. You can't mix different sticks on the same channel. They must be identical.

P.S.
AGP cards are still being made, only not as many as PCI-E cards. I'm pretty certain I've seen 7600 or 7800 AGP somewhere.

[abulreesh]

That was fast! Thank you for a fast reply! Regarding RAM, can i put different sizes in different channels? For example, can i put 512 in the first slot and 1gb in the second slot? What i have done is i put the 512 in the secound slot and the 1gb in the 4th slot.. I think thats wrong but it still works.. When i check the properties on my computer the combined RAM is 1.48gb.. The other problem is that 2 512 ram is more expensive then 1gb ram..
And regarding the AGP graphics card, do you have any idea why it didn’t work with me?
Thank you very much for the great support you have given me!
Appreciated!
Abulreesh

Abulreesh

[Chaky]

I can't really tell why the VGA wouldn't work., or why your PC wouldn't POST after you changed the VGA. Your motherboard supports 8x AGP, that VGA is 8x AGP, it is not drastically different from other VGAs...
I can think of only 3 reasons why that combination wouldn't work:

- Not enough power -> I seriously doubt that. No VGA, especially 6600 is THAT power demanding

- Faulty VGA -> that is very possible.

- Not properly plugged in -> in that case you would hear 1 long and 2 short beeps (Beep-code for missing VGA) and all of the fans and drives would be spinning like everything is OK.

MY best guess is bad VGA. (1 word of advice: Warranty)

About memory: I suggest that you place one stick in 1st slot, and other in 2nd slot. That way you will utilize dual channel mode, which will give you some performance increase.

P.S.
I happened to be online when you replied. I'm not usually that quick.

[abulreesh]

Hehe! At least you did reply!
I will go with the warranty because i got no beeps at all.. I mean after a while of trying to get it to work, the computer never eve goes ON when i attach the VGA card..
Thank you very much!

[abulreesh]

Today i went back to them and took my desktop with me, they couldn’t make it work, they tried many different pieces but non of them worked.. I think its the power and the unit is not faulty.. Anyways, what i did is asked them to try ATI Radeon and it did work! so i bought the ATI Radeon 9550 256mb/128bit and its working fine.. I just hope that it does not take memory from the RAM.. Oh and by the way, i took your advice and replaced the 1gb RAM with 2 512mb so now i have 3 512 mb of RAM.. I do have a problem though, i get a beep when i switch on the computer and i think its because of the ram.. Is it okay to mix different brands of RAM? I have 512 Xtreme in the first slot and 512 (i forgot the brands name) in the second slot and 512 Xtreme in the third slot while the last on is empty!.
One last thing, my computer was a bit slow after i installed the graphics card but then it went fine after startup was finished i dont know why, maybe its because its still new?

Thank you for you help!
Abulreesh

[Chaky]

First boot after new card was plugged in is normally very long. That is because the system is looking for new drivers for the new piece of hardware.

I suggest that you install video drivers and DirectX drivers yourself, regardless of weather it has been properly installed or not by the system.
Insert the CD that came with ATI card, and use the setup program to install both video and DirectX 9.0c drivers.

You can use DirectX diagnostic tool (type "dxdiag" in the run menu) to check if there are out-dated drivers in the system ("DirectX files" tab). Also you can test the video card in the "Display" tab.

Regarding the memory, how many (long or short) beeps do you hear?

[abulreesh]

Oh man, sorry for the late reply... Actually, i usually get emails when i receive messages here but for the last message you sent me i never got an email and i also got a little busy so i never checked in Daniweb... Anyways, i only get 1 short beep and that’s it! The slow computer was only at the start when i installed the video card just like you said but now its fine!
Thank you very much!
Abulreesh

[Chaky]

Regarding memory, I believe that I mislead you. Your motherboard layout (pdf you posted) clearly indicates that 1st 2nd memory slots are of the same channel (unlike most mobos where are 1st and 3rd same channel), so you'll need to organize the modules so the brands aren't mixed on the single channel....like this:
1st slot - new ram
2nd slot - new ram
3rd slot - old ram
4th slot - empty

P.S.

1 beep = (memory) refresh faliure - That can happen if the 2 different brands of sticks are on same channel.

[abulreesh]

Thanks for the reply man! That’s the setting i currently have, i will change is so that i have the same brands in the 1st and the 2nd slot! I will do it tomorrow and give you some feedback on what happens (i have to go to sleep now, very tired and i can’t be bothered opening the case!)
Thanks again,
Abulreesh