I orderd 2 4850s for myself and my brother. My friend Bob also got one. We just recieved them and are having major problems. First off my videocard hoggs 3gb of ram. I know this cause when I install my old x800 it doesnt. Not only that but my CPU usage goes from 0% for the x800 card to 30% with the 4850. Games arnt even playable. My brother's computer has a gigabyte mobo but still has the memory problem yet his CPU stays at 0% usage. I have an Abit mobo so I know its the cards. The cards are by Asus.


Ive done a fresh reformat with no luck. Im running 64bit vista but my frined Bob is using 32bit vista and still has the same proble.


Why does everybody else on newegg say the card is perfect when im having so many issues?

Since you don't list any system specs or temps, people will pretty much be guessing what your problem is. Here are some possible culprits...

Not enough power from PSU
Too much heat in case
Driver problem

Assuming you're playing at the same settings, that 4850 should murder the X800 card you have at gaming.

That makes no sense, the video card would have no effect on your system RAM.

You guys are probably doing something very wrong. What PSU are you using? Did you install the latest drivers? Does your case have decent airflow?

Im sorry im new to forums. This problem exist on two of my computers.

Mobo Abit AW9D-MAX
CPU E8400
PSU Antec Earthworks 500w
Memory 4gb

Bro's system
Mobo Gigabyte Ga-ex38-DS4
CPU E8400
PSU Antec 400w
Memory 4gb G -Skill

This problem occurs with a fresh install of vista 64bit before any drivers are installed and even with the drivers installed it still has problems. Im A+ certified and have had lots of experience in computers but this is just unbelievable.

With the x800gt installed I have no problems but with the 4850 installed windows keeps hogging ram till it gets to 2882 cached then stops with only 165 mb free ram. On only my computer does the CPU usage go up to 30% but this does not occur on my brothers computer with the gigabyte mobo.

What could be wrong?

Do you have the 6pin power connector pluged into the power supply?

Are you going to try to run 2X 4850 with a 500watt power supply or just one. That is not clear.

And your Bro, 400watt prob. is not enough for a single 4850

quote:
450 Watt or greater power supply with 75 Watt 6-pin PCI Express power connector recommended.

is 500 or even 400w enough power to run these cards??? I would think no but I'm sure ATI has some "recommended" minimum power requirements on their site, you may want to check that.

Yes i do have a 6 pin power connector to my video card. The PSU actually comes with two 6 pin power connectors.

My friend Bob just message me saying its cause of superfetch and that vista is made to use all your ram as a cache but that doesnt explain why when i use a x800gt card my computer only uses 700mg of ram.

Lol I ran these cards in crossfire when I first got them and it didnt crash. I think the recommended PSU for crossfire is 550w with dedicated 6 pin connectors

Did you remember to install the motherboard chipset drivers with your fresh install of Vista?

Installing the altest GPU drivers are one thing, but the card won't work right at all without the proper/latest chipset drivers.

Yes I installed the mobo driver from the manufacturers website. I think I fixed the problem with my brothers computer. All i did was disable the superfetch service in vista. Now it uses only 771 mb instead of 3gb. According to my friend bob his visiontek didnt have the same problem the ausus 4850 did with superfetch enabled.

Now I just have to figure out why my CPU usage jumps after installing the 4850 in my computer with the abit mobo

Did you remove all the old Video Card drivers before installing new drivers? @Control Panel

and use something like, Nasty File Remover ( Google, its a free download)
before installing new drivers

Install xp.

That's weird. I have Windows Vista (with superfetch on to my knowledge) and it chows down only 300-400MB of ram with an Asus 4850. Very odd.

No i didnt but what i did do was show hidden drivers in device manager and got rid of every other display driver.

When you install a fresh copy of Vista, it takes a while for the OS to "calm down". Let it do what it needs to do and after a couple of days you should notice the OS behaving a little better.

Keep in mind that your video card does not use computer memory. It has it's own memory. Unless there is a driver bug, it's just a fluke in my opinion.

I installed a 4850 yesterday and I'm running Vista 32bit. I haven't noticed anything strange yet. I did not reinstall Vista. I'm also using the Catalyst 8.6 Hotfix drivers. The card works well.

I heard that HIS brand video cards had some issues but thats about it.