Video Upgrade/Asrock 4 Core Dual VSTA

I have the above motherboard installed in my PC; a family member is in
need of a videocard and I have a vanilla 6800(AGP) card presently
installed and am thinking of passing this videocard on and getting another.

I realize the board can do both PCI-e and AGP but the PCI-e choices are
limited, at least that's what I was told.

I have WinXP SP2 and 2GBram and I play CRPG's...no FPS.

I am not real good at the technicalities involving the choices of
videocards that my motherboard can handle. It makes no difference to me
if the card is AGP or PCI-e, but need to know which would be the
best/fastest choice given the limitations of my Mobo. TIA.

D.

 

Limited by what? I am running a PCI-e 8800GTS just fine.

 

find out the model number of the motherboard and post back
you want a pci express video card most likley
i assume your advice about pci express choices being limited is old?

 

Yes, I asked last Aug at a hardware forum, can't remember which and was
told the best I could do was a 7900GS because "the board only has a 4X
pci-e slot so you are limted". I know it was the 7900 GS(either
AGP/PCI-e) because I jotted that number down in my manual for future
reference. I also jotted down what the person in the forum responded. I
looked in the manual and the choices are very limited. The best card
listed was an ASUS Extreme 6800/TD and a couple of ATI cards.

I could not locate a model number on my documentation, but on the box I
have a serial#, part# 90-MXG4S0-A0UAYZ and the following
"4COREDUAL-VSTA/A/ASR". The box also calls the board ASrock DUAL series
4COREDual-VSTA. When the board was installed, I flashed the BIOS because
that's what the mfr recommended in the manual. My BIOS version is 1.80.

I really don't want to have to reflash the BIOS or do any major
reconfiguration, but just want to replace this board so it can be used
in a backup PC we are putting together from some parts we have. I would
like to get a card that will run with some stability with this board and
perhaps provide an improvement in performance. I've replaced videocards
before, so the operation is not totally foreign to me.

I thought I would ask here because of the age of the previous advice,
and because my knowledge of the technical side of graphics cards is
limited. Thanks again for your help.

Diane

 

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=4COREDUAL-VSTA

this it ?
looks ok to me

there is a nice 'VGA support list' link on the page for you

looks like they are trying to go into too much detail with model numbers
and driver versions though, mainly look at the chipset field

make sure you buy pci express and not AGP

 

Yes that is it..I guess the info I got previously was good at the time,
not now.

There's a long list of cards there on the VGA support page. What's
decent in the 7900 series. I didn't want to go into the GeF 8's. Cards
look huge and I only have a Lian-Li mid-tower vintage 2002 and not much
room. PSupply only 450W and I don't want to get involved in rebuilding
the PC just a little boost performance wise. Thanks again.

D.

 

I don't think your limited on PCI-e cards. The 4COREDual-VSTA
does have it's PCI-e video bus only running at 4x, but PCI-e graphics
cards are backwards comparable with different bus speeds. The PCI-e
2.0 cards should run in it as well. They will just run at 4x instead
of 16x. I'm not sure if this would have any "real-world" performance
penalty though.

 

'Diane' wrote:
| Yes, I asked last Aug at a hardware forum, can't remember which and was
| told the best I could do was a 7900GS because "the board only has a 4X
| pci-e slot so you are limted". I know it was the 7900 GS(either
| AGP/PCI-e) because I jotted that number down in my manual for future
| reference. I also jotted down what the person in the forum responded. I
| looked in the manual and the choices are very limited. The best card
| listed was an ASUS Extreme 6800/TD and a couple of ATI cards.
|
| I could not locate a model number on my documentation, but on the box I
| have a serial#, part# 90-MXG4S0-A0UAYZ and the following
| "4COREDUAL-VSTA/A/ASR". The box also calls the board ASrock DUAL series
| 4COREDual-VSTA. When the board was installed, I flashed the BIOS because
| that's what the mfr recommended in the manual. My BIOS version is 1.80.
|
| I really don't want to have to reflash the BIOS or do any major
| reconfiguration, but just want to replace this board so it can be used
| in a backup PC we are putting together from some parts we have. I would
| like to get a card that will run with some stability with this board and
| perhaps provide an improvement in performance. I've replaced videocards
| before, so the operation is not totally foreign to me.
|
| I thought I would ask here because of the age of the previous advice,
| and because my knowledge of the technical side of graphics cards is
| limited. Thanks again for your help.
_____

Your 4COREDUAL-VSTA motherboard has an AGP slot AND a PCI-e slot. AGP video
cards are obsolescent. All of the more powerful cards now are PCI-e. The
advice you got at the hardware forum is beside the point. For a new video
card you should choose a PCI-e card. A range of nVidia 8x00 series video
cards are available from
~ $40 US for a GeForce 8400 GS128 MB (perhaps no more powerful than your
present GeForce 6800)
to a GeForce 8600 GTS Superclocked 512 MB for ~ $170 US
to a GeForce 8800 GT 256 MB for ~ $220 US
and the GeForce GT 512 MB for ~ $250 US
to versions of the GeForce 8800 GTX for ~ $420 US and up.

New games, even non first-person-shooter games, benefit greatly from more
powerful video cards (Civilization 4, for example). But of course the
first-person-shooter games benefit even more. I'd suggest you consider a
8600 GTS or a 8800 GT video card.

Phil Weldon


| Geoff wrote:
| > DMP wrote:
| >> I have the above motherboard installed in my PC; a family member is in
| >> need of a videocard and I have a vanilla 6800(AGP) card presently
| >> installed and am thinking of passing this videocard on and getting
| >> another.
| >>
| >> I realize the board can do both PCI-e and AGP but the PCI-e choices
| >> are limited, at least that's what I was told.
| >>
| >> I have WinXP SP2 and 2GBram and I play CRPG's...no FPS.
| >>
| >> I am not real good at the technicalities involving the choices of
| >> videocards that my motherboard can handle. It makes no difference to
| >> me if the card is AGP or PCI-e, but need to know which would be the
| >> best/fastest choice given the limitations of my Mobo. TIA.
| >>
| >> D.
| >
| > find out the model number of the motherboard and post back
| > you want a pci express video card most likley
| > i assume your advice about pci express choices being limited is old?
|
|
| Yes, I asked last Aug at a hardware forum, can't remember which and was
| told the best I could do was a 7900GS because "the board only has a 4X
| pci-e slot so you are limted". I know it was the 7900 GS(either
| AGP/PCI-e) because I jotted that number down in my manual for future
| reference. I also jotted down what the person in the forum responded. I
| looked in the manual and the choices are very limited. The best card
| listed was an ASUS Extreme 6800/TD and a couple of ATI cards.
|
| I could not locate a model number on my documentation, but on the box I
| have a serial#, part# 90-MXG4S0-A0UAYZ and the following
| "4COREDUAL-VSTA/A/ASR". The box also calls the board ASrock DUAL series
| 4COREDual-VSTA. When the board was installed, I flashed the BIOS because
| that's what the mfr recommended in the manual. My BIOS version is 1.80.
|
| I really don't want to have to reflash the BIOS or do any major
| reconfiguration, but just want to replace this board so it can be used
| in a backup PC we are putting together from some parts we have. I would
| like to get a card that will run with some stability with this board and
| perhaps provide an improvement in performance. I've replaced videocards
| before, so the operation is not totally foreign to me.
|
| I thought I would ask here because of the age of the previous advice,
| and because my knowledge of the technical side of graphics cards is
| limited. Thanks again for your help.
|
| Diane

 

You can still use faster cards, they will just run at 4x which is no
real loss.

I can't remember which BIOS I have, but the one it shipped with was
buggy, cured by a simple Windows based reflash.

 

I have a similar board, and remember the answer to this question lies in the
strangely thorough product FAQ on the Asrock website. Something to do with a
setting in a videocard's BIOS telling the card whether it's a GEN1 or a
GEN2:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/faq.asp?Model=4CoreDual-VSTA&s=

And click on the question about using an 8800GT. The PCI-E slot on your
board is indeed 4x but that in itself is not the limiting factor. So, if you
don't want to flash any VGA BIOS'es, you can still use, in the PCI-E slot:

Any Geforce 6xxx or 7xxx series
Any ATI up to and including the HD 2x00 series
All geforce 8xxx except 8800 series (Although the original 320-bit 8800GTS
should work according to Asrock)
That said, the best card that would work out of the box appears to be the
original 8800GTS 320 or 640MB.
Or you can use any card you like, if you take it to another PC and flash the
VGA card to a GEN1 BIOS.

Cheers,

Dr.White.

 

8800GT do not work on that MB. from FAQ:

"The NVIDIA® 8800GT PCIE VGA card is GEN2 mode VGA card. Unfortunately
VIA ® ® ® chipset does not support GEN2 mode VGA card. The only solution
is to set 8800GT PCIE VGA card to GEN1 mode.
We have tested 8800GT PCIE VGA card. After flashing GEN1 mode BIOS for
8800GT, it works fine on VIA ® ® ® chipset motherboard. "