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Reviews (4)
06 June 2013
Doesn't get much better than this for AGP...
By which I mean, it does get a little better(or maybe even A LOT better if you REALLY want it to). You could start by flashing the BIOS to a better version to set the boot clocks to 720/910(core/mem). Which is free in and of itself(affording a little know-how that is). Then you can OC it on up from there(or start OCing from scratch with the inferior BIOS provided). Of course, you'd probably better upgrade the cooling system to be sure it can manage a decent OC first. Plenty of VGA coolers/kits to choose from out there. Just make sure it either comes with some decent heatsinks for the BGA/ICs, or that you purchase some separately(since they're absent on this model from the factory). Though I'm already finding that it runs just fine(even heavily loaded) with just the stock cooling overclocked @ 835/875(apparently the max the stock bios will allow). Which is about as far as I'm think I'm going to push it for now, until I upgrade the cooling components(just to be on the safe side). I might think about volt modding it if I decide to go water cooled. There's a tutorial to be found on how to do that, if you google it.
Yes!!! You CAN rock an old 512MB AGP card with an even older 2.8ghz single core processor, with only 2GB RAM, on Windows XP, and STILL get BETTER than PS3 results!!! I can PROVE it now!!!
HINT: The only thing that hung up the install of this particular video card on my ASRock K8Upgrade-NF3 was failure to lower the AGP bus speed. I had it set @ 99mhz from my previous card(6800 Ultra OC), which needed the extra bus speed to perform well. The HD 3850 AGP evidently does not. Because it would not play video(games or movies) with the AGP bus cranked that high. It locked up every time I tried. Meaning, if you don't have a system that allows asynchronous CPU/AGP OCing, you might not be able to overclock very much(or at all). Since this card can't deal with the AGP clock being too high, and still function correctly. It appears to perform optimally on my system with the AGP bus @ ~82mhz and the mobo BIOS AGP voltage setting on "Auto" or "High"(which are really both the same thing since Auto = the "default" setting, which = "High"), which happens to be ~1.74V.
19 April 2014
It's a POWERHOUSE!!!
And a STEAL for the prices they can be had these days(I just paid $93 for mine a month ago). It'll run stable for me at 975MHz core 6300MHz memory without going over 73°F under full load(benchmarking). That's a +125MHz/+1100MHz OC. All while only adding another +0.16v(1.31v) to the core, stock voltages to the memory and aux, and using the stock fan profile(which never spins the fans at more than 75%). Meaning...IT'S FRICKEN AMAZINGLY FAST, OUTSTANDINGLY STABLE, AND SURPRISINGLY QUIET...EVEN OVERCLOCKED TO THE GILLS!!!
06 June 2013
Hands down THE best Socket 754 + AGP motherboard still readily available
If you're wanting to build/rebuild a cheap Socket 754 system with an AGP that m/ROCKSm/(pardon the pun), you can't hardly beat this motherboard. You'll be hard pressed to find anything better or cheaper(for such purposes) around these days. If you can find a good used NF4 Socket 754 with an AGP, then good for you. But if you can't find one(or if they don't even actually exist, since I've never seen one with AGP myself), then passing on this NF3 would be probably be a HUGE mistake. Since there's VERY little besides an NF4 that's even worth considering, and/or that can be found for sale on the used market(at ANY price). And it almost certainly won't be any cheaper. I can promise you that much. Been there, done that.