ATI 3650 = crap Nvidia?

[sleonard]

OK, just installed the 2nd Sapphire 3650 video card and the latest ATI drivers and got the same crap results. The video starts out OK but as soon as I skip, pause/play, go fullscreen or just wait a few minutes the frames start bluring together until its just a smear of color that kind of looks like a Jackson Pollack painting.

I'm going to return it and give up on ATI but don't know much about nVidia cards. I see 9500GT, 9600GT, 9600GSO, 9800 GT, all of which have some cards that might fall into my price range. Can anyone give me a quick primer?

S

[Conejo]

Matching a video card to your system has become more and more a science that few understand.

To get it right, it's really come down to walking in someone else's footsteps; matching your motherboard and OS with someone who has a successful rig and no complaints running the same things you do, then finding out what they're using!

If your card/drivers are working with everything outside of SageTV then it's probably a codec/renderer issue, otherwise you could be in for a diagnostic nightmare. My VisionTek HD3650 has been rock solid. My PNY nVidia 8500GT is hiding in its box hoping I forget it exists (and it better stay there if it knows what's good for it). I did the trial and error route.

Hopefully you will find that footprint that matches your own.
(And hope it's not your own footprint from going in circles)

[ben_95sl1]

did you try disabling hw accel for HDPVR recordings (assuming those are the files with the problem). I have similar issue, but it only has occured in sagetv, and disabling hw accel fixes my problems. I still get occasional minor stutters, but it's better in overlay, and my cpu is almost maxed out so its no surprise.

Ben

[sleonard]

The mobo is a Gigabyte GA-965G-DS3. All video plays perfectly with the onboard video so it's not a codec/renderer issue.

I did not try disabling HA with the 3650 because HA is the reason for purchasing the card. Without it I might as well use the free onboard video.

Take a look at the link in my OP. Notice that there is no external power connector even though every other 3650 in existance requires one. Also, go to Sapphire's website and try to find this card. You can't because it's not there. Something's sketchy about this card.

It could be a different 3650 would work fine, it could be that the ATI drivers are incompatible with my system. I don't want to spend the money and time to find out. I just want to go to Fry's and purchase an nVidia card and try it out.

S

[Fuzzy]

The initial problem i can see is that vid card is PCI-E 2.0, and the board has 1.1 slots... they are SUPPOSED to be backwards compatable, but i have hear reports to the contrary with some vid cards.