Replace ATI Radeon 9800 XT Video Card?

[MikeHenry]

Replace ATI Radeon 9800 XT Video Card?

The Radeo 9800 XT video card that came with my Dell Dimension XPS 3.2 MHz PC last spring has always given me problems, especially with Alibre, unless the HW acceleration is turned way down. Parts and assemblies displayed in the default window size are always severly pixellated although the pixellation usually disappears when the window is maximized. I'm using a Dell 20" LCD with 1600x1200 resolution.

I've fiddled with settings in the driver and tried newer drivers from ATI and Dell without any improvement. It's beginning to look it would be best just to replace the video card, probably with an NVidia card as my Dell Optiplex system at work runs Alibre just fine.

Has anybody else had a problem with the Radeon XT card?

Can anybody recommend a good replacement?

Mike

PS: Merry Christmas!

 

[krisz]

I have been using Alibre for over a year now and i always had ATI video cards, never had a problem. First i had the Radeon 9800 PRO, and now i use the new Radeon X800. I wouldnt buy Nvidia, but thats just me.

 

[Mibe]

Re:

I have been using Alibre for over a year now and i always had ATI video cards, never had a problem. First i had the Radeon 9800 PRO, and now i use the new Radeon X800. I wouldnt buy Nvidia, but thats just me.

I agree. ATI kicks Nvidia's butt anyday

 

[MikeHenry]

Thanks for the feedback. Are either/both of you running a hi-res display? I'm at 1600x1200, 16-bit on my home system with ATI card. No problems at all on my work system with NVidia card but the display rs is lower there - 1280x1024.

Maybe something is screwed up with my system since no one else seems to be having any problems with ATI cards or maybe I just have a flaky card. I've searched the web and newsgroups and haven't found any mention of similar problems.

I've tried updating drivers from both the Dell and ATI web sites but both seemed to make the problems worse. I've uninstalled the updated drivers and the system is usable and reasonably stable with HW acceleration at the second highest setting but get pixellated displays in Alibre on part or asssembly views when a file is opened to the default size. The display returns to normal when the part/assembly windows are maximized. Useable but pretty annoying.

Do the higher HW acceleration settings make any significant difference in Alibre performance?

Mike

 

[jemmej]

Are you sure this is a Card problem and not an Alibre problem? Isn't the recommended screen res 1024x768 for Alibre? I know some that can't see constraint icons or dimension text unless their display settings are the recommended ones (16 bit - 1024x768). Just a thought.

Jim

 

[MikeHenry]

I'm pretty sure that it's either a video card or some other hardware problem. I'm currently at the 2nd highest HW accelration setting and some web pages also display pixellated graphics. Oddly enough a page refresh will usually correctly display the web site images.

I sure hope that Alibre isn't intended to run only at 1280x1024 - CAD is one application where higher res is a major benefit.

Guess I should call Alibre and/or ATI tech support.

Mike

 

[jemmej]

Just something I thought of....are you using an LCD monitor? LCD monitors pretty much have a fixed resolution. Running it outside of that resolution causes problems like you describe.

Jim

 

[MikeHenry]

Yep - it's a 20" Dell LCD monitor. Max res is 1600x1200, which is what I'm using. The corrupted display problems disappear if software emulation is used instead of Direct3D 9.0c. The display doesn't seem to update any faster with either emulation or Direct3D so maybe I'm beating a dead horse.

Played with driver downloads a bit today and tried both the WinXP Update site driver as well as the latest Dell driver with no help. That leaves the latest ATI driver and one from some other independent site. I tried to call Alibre but they must have been closed so I just left voice mail for tech support.

Mike

 

[MikeHenry]

Alibre tech support confirms that 1024x768 is indeed the recommended resolution and sympathizes with my desire to run at 1600x1200.

He didn't think that running in software emulation would reduce performance too significantly and I sure can't see much difference in performance with or without Direct3D active.

As the problem isn't limited to Alibre it seems that a resolution is best sought from either Dell or ATI, if it is even worth pursuing.

Just thought I'd post this follow up in case anyone else encounters the same problem later.

Mike