Powercolor AGP HD 3850

Discussion in 'Videocards - AMD Radeon' started by Paladinchan, Jan 16, 2008.

  1. braddles69

    braddles69 Member

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    GPU:
    HIS HD3850 @ 770/950
    Well, Just had a trip to Singapore for work and got the Sapphire HD 3850 card and cxxld, the Powercolor. Boy is this puppy big or what! Just squeezes into my case practically up against one of my Sata drives:bang: it's head. But it's nice, easy install, just uninstalled the ATI drivers, took out the X1650 Pro, put in the new Coolermaster Extreme 460W and then worked to get the big boy inside and started her up and loaded the latest Cat 9.1. No problemo:)
    Have it on Auto tune Overdrive @ 709 and 929 mhz, temp @ idle is 58C and under load 78C, can really see where it bottlenecks the CPU as it's temp consistently now runs at 72-72C in game.
    Just playing MOHA at the moment all settings maxed and it's a sight to see compared to the old card:nerd:
    Must remember to change my specs:)
    Cheers
     
  2. braddles69

    braddles69 Member

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    GPU:
    HIS HD3850 @ 770/950
    Sorry, A$210 for the Sapphire and $53 for the Coolermaster and :) all around.
     
  3. enoch

    enoch Banned

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    GPU:
    Powercolor HD4870
    Same here with the stuttering.The game runs smooth even in firefights .It's just when it's loading or saving that the stuttering happens.I hope there's a fix soon.
     
  4. enoch

    enoch Banned

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    GPU:
    Powercolor HD4870
    You're lucky overdrive works.I can't get the settings to stick for some reason.
     

  5. braddles69

    braddles69 Member

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    GPU:
    HIS HD3850 @ 770/950
    The overdrive worked straight away, didn't have any problems. I did however, manage to stuff up my my sys tray by messing around with manual oc in the bios:bang: It was taking 5-6 mins to boot up, tried a windows repair and you guessed it...got halfway through and failed and had to do a complete reinstall. The wife was not impressed but after a day of tweaking and reloading everything I have (it was due for a format anyway:3eyes:) It's going perfect now oc'd @ 3.83 ghz (dram @ 150 mhz), the ATI overdrive is 709 @ 939:wanker:
    Only thing is the SB Audigy 2 ZS drivers have installed but the software suite seems to have changed, I don't have the EAX console, speaker calibrator etc.
    Just a basic Audigy console with similair but not as many functions.
    Anybody had this? I have uninstalled, reinstalled old software, new web software but always goes to the same reduced functionality Audigy console Strange!
     
  6. braddles69

    braddles69 Member

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    GPU:
    HIS HD3850 @ 770/950
    Just a further update if anyone is reading this thread, I came home and tweaked the Sapphire card as stated above, then found out the stupid bid I had put in for a HIS card (HD3850 not the ICEQ version) on eBay was accepted @ A$200.:bang:
    Now, my last card was a HIS so I thought I might use it and it is definitely quieter than the Sapphire ( by about 4 db). It runs hotter though @ 64 @ idle and up to 77-78 @ load with fan spooling up to 70%. (Sort of matches my Prescott huh!)
    The lack of noise is a critical factor in keeping the card, I am selling the Sapphire on eBay now, but the drivers for this card are...:biggun: really testy!
    I could load the ATI Cat 8.4 from the HIS driver DVD, but any further updates proved a pain in the ass!:banana:
    The only way to update (I have tried a driver forced install through windows but it always quits saying this driver is not matched to the hardware blah, blah, blah), is to download from HIS site and install OVER the original DVD driver!
    It won't take a clean install? Very weird, so at the moment I have the HIS version of 8.5. I have tried disabling the HDMI audio driver, read that somewhere, and all other methods but it wants to install over the originals:3eyes:
    Also anybody who gets this card, make sure you use the molex to GPU adapter cable, not the PCI-e cable from your PSU, that stopped ANY driver installation.
    So now it's oc'd with ATT @ 796 and 1980. It's a good card, much quieter than the Sapphire but the driver issues are tricky. I am keeping it, I am a glutton for punishment...why else would I be married:bang:
    Just thought someone might want info about it. Good luck
     
  7. braddles69

    braddles69 Member

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    GPU:
    HIS HD3850 @ 770/950
    Finally, worked it! The 9.2 agp hotfix, after using the uninstall utility, then rebooting in safe mode and running cache cleaner, driver sweeper and deleting the user/local settings//application data/ati folders, then rebooting again into safe mode and running the hotfix, it failed but the subsequent forced driver instal through device manager took.:wanker:


    Thanks to all who have contributed to the various hd3850 agp forums and to Kouresh and his tweaking guide http://www.tweakguides.com/ATICAT_1.html .
    I now have the latest 9.2 hotfix and all seems good will post 3dmark06 bench to check for any performance increases. I am very happy now I know how to keep my card updated.:infinity:

    HIS HD3850 is oc'd core 760 & mem @ 950

    3dmark06

    @ high quality CCC setting ..... 5897

    @ optimal performance ..... 6024

    I cracked the 6000 :banana:

    Also previously has problems with performance setting in CCC causing artifacts in Canyon Flight test and severe colour aberration in Deep Freeze test. These are now gone so I believe everything is running perfectly.

    Now to wait for and then install my 1 TB Samsung Spinpoint, clone my OS to my other Sata drive and have a backup OS, and speed from my Sata mains:nerd:

    Thanks again to all who have spent time pondering their HD3850 and various problems to be rectified. :)

    Cheers Brad
     
  8. Speed

    Speed New Member

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    GPU:
    PowerColor HD 3850 agp
    hey quys i had the exact same problem with that card (powercolor hd3850 (not the zerotherm version)) and i tried everything to fix it (bios updates, driver updates and changing settings) and i found that changing to 4x agp just prolonged my stable time before a freeze (this was using crysis everything else ran forever without freezing at 4x). so i therefore thought about why it just prolonged the stable time and i did some temperature probing around the card and found that the pci-e to agp converter chip was alarmingly hot, i have a burn to prove it so what i did was installed a heatsync onto this chip and now i have no freezing problems whatsoever.

    so i have ultimately put the problem down to this, it makes sense, let me explain. if agp 4x is enabled the data flow through the converter chip is reduced reducing the number of bits of data to be converted reducing heat production therefore lengthening the time taken to heat the chip to unstable levels. also the more gpu intensive the game the faster my comp would stuff up also showing that the less the info that is being transfered to the gpu through the converter chip reducing the amount of heat produced.

    so my conculsion is that the idiots over at powercolor didn't test this card enough [the one without the zerotherm cooler (i don't know if the zerotherm version has a heatsync on the converter chip)] so for those of you out there that that are having anoying problems with there powercolor cards just stick you hand in the case and feel the converter chip (located on the back of the card near the agp connector) and see if it is unbearably hot (during gameplay) if so install a heatsync and see if this makes a difference i want to test my theory.

    also my mobo is a soltek with a via K8T800 chipset
     
  9. Drwal

    Drwal New Member

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    GPU:
    PowerColor HD3850 AGP
    I have the same problem. I have Zerotherm version with two jumpers. Maybe this jumpers are blocking OC. I wrote to Powercolor but they didn't answered.
     
    Last edited: Mar 17, 2009
  10. Loster

    Loster Master Guru

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    GPU:
    TUF 4090
    You right Speed, the transitional bridge RIALTO chip is getting really hot.
    I put a small heatsink (actually made for VGA RAM) on it, but no difference @ AGP 8x.

    [​IMG]

    Sure the heatsink is to small to handle the heat, but there isnt much space to place a big cooler on it. Any tips ?
     

  11. roadie

    roadie New Member

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    GPU:
    bfg 6800 ultra
    Has anyone ever gotten a HIS 3850 agp to work on a Asrock 775i65g motherboard? I had a BFG 6800 ultra running without a problem at all. I try to install the HIS 3850 and get nothing at all, not even a beep from the bios posting and nothing at all on the screen, just blank black screen. I have a 775i65g motherboard, qx6700 cpu, 2 gig OCZ platinum ram, a corsair hx850w power supply, and absolutely nothing happens when I try to boot with this card in the agp slot. All fans are turning, the old card works just fine if I put it back in, and I know the HIS 3850 card works as I took it to a store and had them test it and it started right up and displayed the image on screen as it was supposed to, and their test rig had an asus motherboard. Is there a compatibility issue with the 3850 and the asrock 775i65g? I've looked for every jumper setting I could and there is nothing to adjust on the board. I've checked the bios for everything I could think of, and there are only 2 chipset voltage settings that you can adjust, so I put them on high, and still absolutely nothing comes on screen. Has anyone gotten a 3850 agp card to work with the asrock 775i65g motherboard? A little help please, thank you.
     
  12. Finch

    Finch New Member

    Messages:
    5
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    GPU:
    Powercolor 3850 AGP
    Just got the Powercolor 3850 AGP card. Cooler isn't the copper Zerotherm one but it's not black plastic either. Looks like a hundred or so thin steel segments joined together; the fan rotating away inside it. Looks flying saucer-ish. GPU idling around 36 degrees. What demo would be best to test 100% temps (WinXP)?

    Quite happy with the card so far. Making a big difference in games like Swat4. Got this one after RMA-ing an HIS Radeon 4670 IceQ AGP card due to some sort of refresh rate problem. That card wouldn't display a refresh rate higher than 60hz. Wondered if it was this motherboard. Glad now it was just a defective card.

    Currently using the drivers I downloaded from the Powercolor website but they appear to be fairly old.

    HD3850 AGP, Catalyst 8.6, 8.501, Win XP 32bit, 2009/2/17.

    I had an Nvidia card before so the Catalyst control center is a bit foreign to me. I can't find a screen to adjust the fan control. Pretty sure this card said it had the capability. Will it show up in later versions of the CCC?

    I have rigged a Zalman Fanmate 2 to control the fan speed for now. That works well except of course now my CPU fan is noisy. Perhaps I'll find a y-splitter and run them both off it. Would naturally prefer a software solution though. Is it possible to install the 9.11 AGP Hotfix with this card?
     

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