GeForce 8800 GT, and any ways to edit out PCI Express 2.0? - 2007/11/02 11:22I have an awesome new Inno3D GeForce 8800 GT graphics card. The thing is, I also have a cheap ASRock 775Dual VSTA mainboard and they do not even boot together. ASRock got back to me really fast to inform me that the GeForce 8800 GT is a Gen2 which means PCI Express 2.0 and that it wasn't compatible with this mainboard. But they had a BIOS on their testbed from the ASUS GeForce 8800 GT to be Gen1 and it works!
Inno3D are not replying, but I do have the Inno3D GeForce 8800 GT BIOS from your forums. Is there anyway I can do the Gen1 edit myself? Anyone know if I'm even on the right track? Would the ASUS BIOS work on my card?
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Mavke
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Re:GeForce 8800 GT, and any ways to edit out PCI Express 2.0? - 2007/11/02 11:55Well I would find that a but strange cause as far as I knew from the GeForce 8800 GT specifications it states that, that these are compatible with the new PCI Express 2.0 bus architecture, offering a future proofing bridge to tomorrow's most bandwidth hungry games and 3D applications. So I don't see really what ASRock is saying as all GeForce 8800 GT are compatible with the PCI Express 2.0 specifications. Now if you can get that ASUS we are willing to look at this for you...
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androo87
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Re:GeForce 8800 GT, and any ways to edit out PCI Express 2.0? - 2007/11/02 12:06I should clarify. I think that it is the ASRock mainboard that is not compatible with the standard. I need to BIOS edit the GeForce 8800 GT to the old Gen1 which is PCI Express 1.0 or 1.0a if I understand correctly, to be compatible. I am trying to get the BIOS that the ASRock staff used but they may not want to be handing out 3rd party BIOS. Do you have any idea how they may have edited it to revert the card to Gen1?
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Mavke
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Re:GeForce 8800 GT, and any ways to edit out PCI Express 2.0? - 2007/11/02 14:03Well no I have no idea, and if that would really be the case that GeForce 8800 GT can't do PCI Express 1.0 then there would be a lot more users starting to complain. So although I understand what you mean, I really doubt that a BIOS will make a difference in this case. But no currently we don't know what should be changed so we are also looking forward to that ASUS BIOS, although we don't think it is controlled in the BIOS at all thet PCI Express version.
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androo87
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Re:GeForce 8800 GT, and any ways to edit out PCI Express 2.0? - 2007/11/02 20:04Okay thanks, that's what I expected. I think this mainboard is something of a special case, it fudged some of the standards in order to have AGP, PCI Express, DDR and DDR2 all on the same board. I imagine the GeForce 8800 GT will work with the majority.
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Mavke
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Re:GeForce 8800 GT, and any ways to edit out PCI Express 2.0? - 2007/11/02 20:15Oh, yeah now I get it... Your board is indeed a bit special and isn't really a standard as such and I believe the PCI Express is not a real real PCI Express 1.0 and therefore is showing up some incompatibility issues with the newer PCI Express 2.0 supporting graphics cards. If you are now switched to PCI Express and DDR2 (or even DDR3 soon) then I would consider a better mainboard.
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androo87
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Re:GeForce 8800 GT, and any ways to edit out PCI Express 2.0? - 2007/11/05 22:50I got the ASUS Gen1 BIOS from the ASRock technical support and risked it on my Inno3D card. My GeForce 8800 GT now works with my 775Dual VSTA. Now I'm hitting 8500 on 3DMark06 and running Bioshock at 1680x1050 with ease and saved the £50 that would have gone a new mainboard. I have uploaded the Gen1 BIOS to this website for the sake of comparison, and in case anyone else would need it in the future. ASUS GeForce 8800 GT (Gen1) Edition - Memory : 512MB - Bus Type : PCI Express (Gen1)
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Mavke
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Re:GeForce 8800 GT, and any ways to edit out PCI Express 2.0? - 2007/11/05 23:14Yes, we can compare but then we need your original Inno3D BIOS cause the one we had received via another visitor is no different at all from this ASUS BIOS, except the date and the text string. But that has no impact at all on the PCI Express stuff. So we really need your original Inno3D BIOS to compare, cause at this moment I would think you had a Inn3D card with a bad BIOS no matter what mainboard you would have used. As I confirmed with NVIDIA and the GeForce 8800 GT is fully backwards compatible to PCI Express 1.0, and that means all cards...
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androo87
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Re:GeForce 8800 GT, and any ways to edit out PCI Express 2.0? - 2007/11/06 12:28Sure, I took a backup just in case. I have compared the two and the only differences that are obvious are the manufacturer etc. Maybe something cryptic? It was definitely the BIOS update that allowed the card to work. Here is the original GeForce 8800 GT Gen2 BIOS that worked in a new Intel P35 motherboard but not in my old ASRock 775Dual VSTA. Likely cause being PCI Express incompatibility. Inno3D GeForce 8800 GT 512MB Edition - Memory : 512MB - Bus Type : PCI Express
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optimumm
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Re:GeForce 8800 GT, and any ways to edit out PCI Express 2.0? - 2007/11/06 20:52I can confirm that his Gen1 version ASUS GeForce 8800 GT BIOS enables the GeForce 8800 GT to work on the ASRock 775Dual VSTA. I flashed my EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GT KO with it and it works now. Before the flash, I had to use the card on the Gigabyte P35C-DS3R mainboard. After the flash, the GeForce 8800 GT works on both the Gigabyte and ASRock mainboards.
By the way, I've also received the official EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GT KO modified BIOS from EVGA technical support and he said his team changed it from Gen2 mode to Gen1 mode. After I get home later, I'm going to try the flash with the EVGA one as he said it wouldn't void my card's warranty.
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