Well since Asus tech support has been their usual helpful selves (HAH!), I'll put the question here. I have a P2B-F, with a Celeron 1GHz on a slotket adaptor. My video card is ancient, and I want to upgrade it. What I'd like to do is get an AGP 3.0 card like an nvidia 4200-8x or a 4800SE chipset (don't ask about ATI--it's not going to happen), and even an Asus card possibly (9280 or 9480). The problem is that NO ONE seems to know for sure if these AGP 3.0 cards will work in the AGP 1.0 slot on this motherboard. Can I put one of these cards in my system? And if not, then what? Thanks, Colin
Yes you can. Even the dustbuster (aka nvidia fx5800ultra), fx5900ultra and ati radeon 9800pro will work (as they are backwards compatible to AGP 1.0). Almost all cards today available are backwards compatible to AGP 1.0, the exceptions are ati radeon 9600/9600pro and Matrox P650/P750. Roland
This web page puts the Radeon 9800 in the same catagory as the 9600/9600pro. http://www.ati.com/support/agpchart/agp.html I don't understand - what good is keying those cards as "universal" connectors, if the cards cannot take 3.3V ? Does this mean 9600/9600pro/9800 burn when you put them in an old 3.3V only motherboard ? Why wouldn't the cards have a "1.5V only" slot cut in them ? Strange, Paul
The 9600/9600pro do not have a universal connector, regardless what ATI writes (you can easily see that on pictures). However, the Radeon 9800pro indeed has a universal connector. As said, the 9600/9600pro indeed have a 1.5V only connector. I'm not so sure about the 9800. Since it is keyed for 3.3V operation (in contrast to the 9600) it SHOULD run in those old boards. It certainly shouldn't (and I'm pretty confident it won't) blow up. I don't know why ati lists it as not 3.3V signal voltage compliant, it is possible it's a simple error on the website, or it's possible there might be some small compatibility problem with 3.3V operation (for instance it might not run 100% stable). It could also just mean it's not officially supported. The preorder listed it as 3.3V compliant, so do several vendors (for instance crucial, http://www.crucial.com/store/partspecs.asp?imodule=CTV9800P128A28). I don't know if anyone has tested it, it's probably a bit overkill... Roland
