Ordered a Sapphire X850XT AGP but received X850 PRO!?!?

[paul06660]

Very Impressed

Hey guys.
I have just pushed the absolute hell out of my card playing
Prey until I beat it.
I think that I have the genuine x850xt. The level of detail I recieved from my card is absolutely amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It loves 1024x768 at MAXIMUM detail with 4x antialiasing.
No freeze ups, artifatcs, or anything!
I still stand by my belief that it was programed the x850 pro bios by mistake.
Keep in mind that I have the Single slot card with the crappy fan (still looking for my silencer!)
I have no reason to suffer 4 weeks of downtime by sending it in. I am still running 520/540 with 16 pipes and I am sure that I can clock it higher, but I have no need to as Prey, which is a totally tweeked out version of Quake 4 runs smooth as glass!!!

Here are a few things for you to think about.
I ran ATIflash before the boot cd to see if all quadrants were open and they were.
ATItool specifically said it was "open" so I ran the cd and flashed the x850xt bios, rebooted and Catalyst 6.11 and Windows IMMEDITALLY seen the card as the x850xt!!!
I have the ATI x850pro in an all Intel based computer and I ran ATIflash and it said the quadrant was "locked". I still flashed it with the x850xt bios and after reboot we got VERY strange color patterns and windows did NOT like it, as it was still seen as an "x850 series" card. So I flashed it back to what it was.

My Sapphire x850xt clearly kicks the ass of the ATI x850pro in shader detail and framerates and it even runs 15 degrees cooler.
My friends saw Need 4 Speed Carbon with the x850pro bios and then after I flashed it to the x850xt and they noticed the differience too!!!

Final thought.
If you can just flash the bios and get the x850xt that you ordered, as long as the card works fine why return it if it has no problems?
If the card dies within the 2 year warranty, just RMA the stupid thing.
I dont think that you can get caught with the wrong bios, if that bios is the one that it was supposed to come with out the box, and did not.
And if it dies after those 2 years, you got your $139.99 + $5.49 out of the Damn thing!!!!!

 

[TUngsten]

I have kept mine also. But, I have the 2slot card with 1.6ns memory the x850xt is supposed to have, meaning it is essentially the right card that had the wrong bios.

The single slot card with (perhaps) the 2.0ns ram is a flashed x850pro. Still a deal, but something I would have returned.

 

[dtimm612]

Yeah, I might have kept mine too if it had a double slot fan. The idea of having to by a double slot artic cooling fan for the wrong card was too much for me though. That's the main reason I sent it back to the company. I never checked if ram was 1.6 or 2

 

[dolf]

Yeah, I might have kept mine too if it had a double slot fan. The idea of having to by a double slot artic cooling fan for the wrong card was too much for me though. That's the main reason I sent it back to the company. I never checked if ram was 1.6 or 2

Guys from the other hand $139.99 is nice price for X850PRO VIVO AGP and I am telling that because I have paid $ 500 for the X800XT in the beggining of 2005 (after that changed with X850PRO converted to X850XT PE for $ 360). Even with 2 slot cooler on the X850 I have installed the ATI Silencer 4 rev.2 on the X850XT PE because it is silent and more effective. You should be happy with 16 pipes X850 AGP because even old it is still very nice card. Of course from the other hand some of you will prefer to return it (absolutely right) because something is ordered but something different is received.

My idea behind is to assess the situation (to test) and only then to return such cards because X850 AGP isn't in production for a long time and there is no guarantee that you will receive something better.

Good luck to all who will keep their cards and to all who will return .

 

[dtimm612]

I've worried about getting back a better/worse card too, for that exact reason that dolf talk about in that they haven't been made for so long (apparently other than this crappy batch). Hopefully (cross fingers) they have some parts or spares/leftovers anything to replace ours with. I wouldn’t think they would send back anything less than the published specs, but who knows. Even if they replace my fan with a 2 slot and flash my bios to XT spec wouldn't be too bad I guess. If some of you are waiting for results from Rob or me on what we actually get back from the company I don't blame you. Someone had to be a guinea pig
Dylan

 

[paul06660]

single slot with 1.6 RAM

Oh yeah, I thought you guys already knew, but My single slot Card has the 1.6 ms RAM.
So I got the right card with the wrong fan and the wrong bios, thought I would tell ya!!!

 

[NSF·Serge]

I have this card but its getting old hat now upgrading in the next few weeks to x1950pro. then I will upgrade the whole system in the middle of next year to a dual core system

 

[radeonpro]

Guys from the other hand $139.99 is nice price for X850PRO VIVO AGP and I am telling that because I have paid $ 500 for the X800XT in the beggining of 2005 (after that changed with X850PRO converted to X850XT PE for $ 360). Even with 2 slot cooler on the X850 I have installed the ATI Silencer 4 rev.2 on the X850XT PE because it is silent and more effective. You should be happy with 16 pipes X850 AGP because even old it is still very nice card. Of course from the other hand some of you will prefer to return it (absolutely right) because something is ordered but something different is received.

My idea behind is to assess the situation (to test) and only then to return such cards because X850 AGP isn't in production for a long time and there is no guarantee that you will receive something better.

Good luck to all who will keep their cards and to all who will return .

I very agree with dolf. I can see most of us who bought the X850 pro is becoz of its legacy n overclock ability. Me neither. Getting a genuine R481 core is a bonus if u buy a "PRO" version. I bet on it when i placed my order at newegg. There is nothing to lose if its not unlockable. Its still a powerful card comparing to X1600. Soon or later we all gonna jump to new system eventually, maybe 1 or 2 years? its unwisely to think that u buy coz u can unlock it to 16 pipeline; only if u need a low price mid-range powerful AGP card. otherwise, get a X1950pro or 7800GS. Remember we always lose in RMA games, time, shipping .... well i really appreciate my 850pro. To make u feel better, ITS MORE POWERFUL THAN x1600

 

[TUngsten]

Admittedly it was strange to see that batch of Sapphire x850xt pop up on NE for the same price as the x850pro, and not suprisingly they were sold out in a matter of hours. It's just plain weird that Sapphire would pack up both single- and dual-slot cards, some w/ 1.6ns ram and some w/ 2.0ns ram, ALL with the x850pro bios in an x850xt box...Immediately after a multitude of them appeared on Ebay for $150-200 and higher.

can anyone say quality control department? lol

 

[dolf]

Sapphire and the others just get rid of available boards (cards), R481 cores, memory (2.0ns or 1.6ns) and finally coolers. Fortunately the "best cores" are only left (we have to be happy about that) because 2.0ns or 1.6ns it is not very important but 16 pipes and 520 or 540MHz on the core it is something serious .

 

[paul06660]

Superb Card

I guess I really don't care now that I didn't get the fancy fan on it, that is why they make aftermarket cooling systems that work better anyways.
So what if I had to flash the right bios? As long as it works to proper specs (520/540 with 1.6ns RAM), I dont really care as this is why we have this AWESOME forum and Dolf with his Autoflash CD and technical know how!!!

If Sapphire has been making these cards from leftover parts then I think
we are all very lucky to have these cards. It is impossible to find any X850pro or XT in an AGP slot anywhere for sale.

This is why these x850XT's sold out on Newegg in 12 hours (and for $140 at that)!!

With these cards you get 16 pixel pipes without having to spend $225 on a 7800 which has a slower core speed. (So what about Shader Model 3, only one game that supports it!!)
And the Nvidia is a Microsoft product, so ATI is our lord and savior to us Microsoft haters.

(Now why Microsoft had ATI do the Xbox 360 Video confuses me!!!)


I have 2 socket 478 based Presott systems.
One is a 3.0E on an Epox EP-4pda5+ Motherboard with the 865 PE chipset
It has the Sapphire X850XT
The other is a 3.2 (which runs 20 degrees hotter than the 3.0E!!)
it is on an Intel 875P motherboard (Intel Made).
It has the ATI x850pro
Both computers have 1 gig of Patriot Signature Series Dual channel DDR 400 at 2.5-7-3-3
Both Computers have Western Digital 74 gig Raptors.
Both computers are just as fast as socket 775 Prescott with 915-925 chipsets (without the so called PCI Express x16 bus speeds).

I used to have Geforce 5200 256 DDR agp's in both of them and they were old and crappy and they slowed the rest of the system down. So I needed a graphics solution for both of them that would not be too much without having to go to 775 and pci express.

The ATI x850pro and the Sapphire x850XT are a perfect balance of Value and performance to match the blistering performance of these setups.

I built both of these computers one month before socket 775 with PCI Express hit the market.
I felt cheated when I had spent $3000 for 2 computers that were outdated in one month!!!

Now I can hold on to these setups for another year till the Core 2 Duo's come down in price or if something else comes along!!

 

[McDee]

Nice. It can almost be seen as a bonus to not have the stock fan too. It's a leaf blower and should be replaced ASAP anyways. Then do the VGPU, VDD, and VDDQ voltmods

 

[Robkins]

Card Received!

Attention all!

Today I received the REAL XT, yes this time it is the correct model. 520/540 clocks, 16 pipelines, dual slot fan. It was packaged appropriately and I just put it in 10 mins ago, so all I can really say is that it wasn't DOA or a pseudo XT. Running about 35-37 Celcius idle.

The whole process took 2 weeks. Sent out card on 12/04, arrived at their warehouse the 8th, and I got the product back today (18th). Good luck to everyone else! I will post again if problems arise.

 

[TUngsten]

With these cards you get 16 pixel pipes without having to spend $225 on a 7800 which has a slower core speed. (So what about Shader Model 3, only one game that supports it!!)

There are a pretty serious number of shader3.0 games out there...most games from the last year use it. That is the only reason in my mind to go for the 7800, and what makes the x1950pro look REALLY good to me right now...aging AGP lol. But I like my x850

 

[TUngsten]

Attention all!

Today I received the REAL XT, yes this time it is the correct model. 520/540 clocks, 16 pipelines, dual slot fan. It was packaged appropriately and I just put it in 10 mins ago, so all I can really say is that it wasn't DOA or a pseudo XT. Running about 35-37 Celcius idle.

The whole process took 2 weeks. Sent out card on 12/04, arrived at their warehouse the 8th, and I got the product back today (18th). Good luck to everyone else! I will post again if problems arise.

Congratz Rob! Now to see if you can OC the thing

 

[dolf]

Attention all!

Today I received the REAL XT, yes this time it is the correct model. 520/540 clocks, 16 pipelines, dual slot fan. It was packaged appropriately and I just put it in 10 mins ago, so all I can really say is that it wasn't DOA or a pseudo XT. Running about 35-37 Celcius idle.

The whole process took 2 weeks. Sent out card on 12/04, arrived at their warehouse the 8th, and I got the product back today (18th). Good luck to everyone else! I will post again if problems arise.

Please tell us how the max. core/memory are? And what are the temperatures under load?

 

[Robkins]

After 206 minutes of running "scan artifact" on ATItool (3hr 26 min) the card reached temperatures of 82 Celsius w/out OCing and did not get hotter. I don't plan to OC atleast yet because the card is fast enough as it is and I don't want to risk anything.

Something to note was that NWN2 crashed at 10 mins ingame, although I couldn't get any other game to crash (played oblivion for ~45 min). The temps do concern me though.

 

[dtimm612]

Dolf, for these cards how do you check max. core/memory? I think it was stated before but I forgot.

 

[Robkins]

I think he means by using ATItool. I guess you could use auto find clocks or just slide it up in 5mhz increments until artifacts show then back down 10 mhz.

 

[dolf]

Dolf, for these cards how do you check max. core/memory? I think it was stated before but I forgot.

Yes I am also using ATITool but older versions or the new versions with checking the option "use old (more compatible?) scanning method". For X850 series it is beter to use that option.

 

[Robkins]

I found out why it was getting so hot. The fan was running at 14% all the time! even at 82 degrees! Using ATItool fan control I've adjusted it to dynamic based so that I max at 70 degrees. Is that still too hot? I understand that if I should ever OC the thing I should get a silencer 5 or something like that.

 

[dolf]

I found out why it was getting so hot. The fan was running at 14% all the time! even at 82 degrees! Using ATItool fan control I've adjusted it to dynamic based so that I max at 70 degrees. Is that still too hot? I understand that if I should ever OC the thing I should get a silencer 5 or something like that.

These 14% are constant up to 85C which is crazy. But as you already heard the noise is awfull and this is the reason for so low fan speed.

 

[Robkins]

Good thing for me I have headphones . Also it seems that ATitool taxes the GPU much harder than any game... games only bring me up to around 57 degrees while ATItool will go up to 70

 

[dtimm612]

Good to hear Rob, I figured it was something along those lines. You've put me at ease
From the sound of it, these fans should be powerful enough to lift my PC off the ground and fly away, or at least my MoBo
Apparently mine arrived today too (Tuesday), though I'm out of town until Thursday, so I'll update then.

 

[TUngsten]

I got the AS5 just for the noise reduction lol, I don't really get a better OC from it but it is truly silent even @ 100%