AMD/ATI video cards and Intel Chipset compatibility issues

[Jun aka Pekto]

i'm having some issues with my old Intel 915 mobo and my ATI X1650 pro. i was told that since AMD acquired ATI, their graphics cards had issues with intel motherboards. Is anyone else experiencing this?

For problems like this, it's good to list a description of the exact issues right off the bat. Were the issues there right from the start or did the issues just started happening? While you're at it, you might as well list your hardware, OS, driver versions.

That said, my Dell P4 XP Pro workstation at work has built-in Intel graphics with 2 pci ATI video cards driving four 19" LCD monitors and one 42" plasma tv. The ATI cards are using the latest Catalyst drivers. So far, I haven't noticed a problem with either Intel or ATI video.

[moe]

^ sorry, my bad.

System: Windows XP pro sp3, 2 gb ddr, P4 630 3.0 ghz, Asus mobo with intel chipset former video card was a slow but reliable radeon x300. i recently changed it to an ATI X1650 Pro and the only problem i had was when i tried to benchmark using 3dMArk. the utility froze on me. aside from that, nothing yet. just want to hear from others who've had problems with the intel chipset-ATI gpu combo. thanks

[Jun aka Pekto]

^ sorry, my bad.

System: Windows XP pro sp3, 2 gb ddr, P4 630 3.0 ghz, Asus mobo with intel chipset former video card was a slow but reliable radeon x300. i recently changed it to an ATI X1650 Pro and the only problem i had was when i tried to benchmark using 3dMArk. the utility froze on me. aside from that, nothing yet. just want to hear from others who've had problems with the intel chipset-ATI gpu combo. thanks

Is it only the 3D that seems bad? Hmmm. Both the X300 and X1650 Pro are Radeon ATI cards. ATI drivers are now unified. So, both cards should have the same drivers. The only thing I can suggest is uninstalling then reinstalling the Catalyst driver (the latest version if possible).

Also, update/reinstall DirectX since 3DMark is primarily for testing game performance. Another possibility is disabling (through the bios) the Intel video if it's present.

I have a pci-e X800XL myself in my AMD X2 4200+ pc. So, no problems here. The only other Intel pc with ATI video is my wife's old Sager laptop with P4 1.8ghz and ATI 7500 plus XP Home. No problems with that one.

Add: This one's a longshot. But, if you go to Start--->All Programs--->Accessories--->System Tools--->System Information, see if your ATI X1650 has an IRQ and if it does, see if it's sharing that IRQ with any other hardware device (eg sound).

IRQ conflicts shouldn't be a problem anymore, esp with Vista. But, it still happens sometimes with XP.

[moe]

^ thanks sir! you're right, IRQ shared with sound. hmmmm.... i'm gonna wait and see, if it doesn't crash or reboot the next couple of days then it's all good. i don't do games anyway, just NFS. i also plan to install vista in a day or two, maybe that'll sort things out.

btw sir jun, between Nvidia and ATI, who has the upperhand nowadays? all things considered (price, performance, power consumption, heat output, etc) say a midrange ATI vs midrange Nvidia.

[Jun aka Pekto]

^ thanks sir! you're right, IRQ shared with sound. hmmmm.... i'm gonna wait and see, if it doesn't crash or reboot the next couple of days then it's all good. i don't do games anyway, just NFS. i also plan to install vista in a day or two, maybe that'll sort things out.

Besides games, videos also make use of both graphics and sound. Sharing an IRQ may or may not result in problems. But, there may be the occasional hiccup or glitch.

Interestingly enough, my AMD Athlon64 X2 4200+ pc (XP Home), has an nVidia nForce4 Ultra chipset and an ASUS ATI X800XL ViVo videocard. Yet, not a single component shares an IRQ.

btw sir jun, between Nvidia and ATI, who has the upperhand nowadays? all things considered (price, performance, power consumption, heat output, etc) say a midrange ATI vs midrange Nvidia.

Last I heard, it was ATI who's on top. Now whether it's on top in a cost-effective way (like nVidia) remains to be seen. I've been tempted to upgrade from my X800XL. But, the only 3 games I bought since 2005: Battlefield 2, Command & Conquer 3, and Flight Simulator X all seem to run ok. So, I've been holding off on buying a newer video card. But, I've tended to alternate between nVidia and ATI whenever I bought a new card. In 2000, I bought the original ATI Radeon. In 2002, I bought an nVidia GF4-Ti4200. In 2005, I bought my ATI Radeon X800XL. My next video card will most likely be an nVidia card. The only common denominator so far is the last 2 cards were made by ASUS and both have ViVo (Video In/Video Out) capability. It looks like I'm going to continue that trend.

Speedwise, I don't really care if it's nVidia or ATI that's faster. In most cases, the only way to tell is by benchmarking. I'm done with that. So long as my games run fine and the cards are problem-free.