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captainalias
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October 31st, 2004 11:00
XFX 6600GT and 8400 question
Hi everyone,
Longtime lurker, but first-time poster here, so excuse me if I make any mistakes. :)
So, I just purchased a Dell 8400, and like many of the people here, am upgrading it with a XFX 6600 GT. However, after skimming the boards here, it seems that many people have some sort of problem with it; I was wondering what the general consensus is; should I cancel the order and wait for Dell to issue new drivers (which would potentially save me trouble in the future), or just go ahead and get the card and cross my fingers.
Some of the problems so far seem to have been:
1) AOpen cards are defective- go with Chaintech or some other brand instead.
2) Some sort of non-parity error message- the solution to that seems to be to uninstall all ATI drivers and components, upgrade BIOS to A02, and upgrade of Nvidia beta drivers version 66.81 which you can download from NZONE.
3) Some overheating issues= can be mitigated by moving some of your PCI cards around.
4) Not enough power? I'm a bit confused on this issue, since the 6600 GT does not require an extra molex connector right? But some sites list it as requiring a hard drive power connector.
Are those all the problems? Does buying a non-Aopen brand+ using the solutions from step 2 generally get the card working?
Thanks in advance!
- Just make sure you update your bios and remove all the ati drivers before you install the card and you should have no problems.You might wanna download driver cleaner to make sure you get rid of all the ATI drivers.On my 8400 I yanked out the modem....Have DSL....Added Audigy 2 ZS gamer to bottom pci slot....You wanna have as much open space under the card as possible.I must have been the first one to have the 6600GT blues thanks to Aopen :(Later,Kenmitch
- I've had zero problems once I popped the Chaintech in....No xtra power connector needed for any of the 6600GT's I believe.I'm running the 66.72 drivers tho....For some reason I think that they look a little better than the newer ones.Later,Kenmitch
- I installed an eVGA 6600 GT in a 8400 a little while back. At first I got the"I/O Card Parity Interrupt at 1000:8A62, Type (S)hut Off NMI, (R)eboot, other keys to continue" message and pushed (S). After that, it's been going good, no problems so far.
captainalias
11 Posts
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Posted October 31st, 2004 20:00
Great, thanks both of you!:smileyhappy:Message Edited by captainalias on 10-31-2004 04:18 PM
- I bought the Chaintech 6600 GT for my 8400, too. It rocks. I can play Halo or Counterstrike: Source at 1600x1200 with silky smooth framerates. I got 100FPS in the Source engine Stress Test at 1182x852 with all settings maxed (set on HIGH), 16x anisotropic filtering, and 6x anti-aliasing. I bought this card for Half-Life 2, so I'm stoked with that result.It does get pretty hot. My Dell sits in in a cubby which traps all the hot air coming out the back. The machine gets so hot inside that the plastic on the top of the case (near the back) gets warm to the touch. A little alarming, but the Nvidia control panel shows the GPU within temperature limits so I'm not sweating it.All in all, it really hits the sweet spot for me in terms of price, performance, energy requirements, heat and noise.
captainalias
11 Posts
353
0
Posted October 31st, 2004 14:00
Message Edited by captainalias on 10-31-2004 10:34 AM