discovering my system in depth with Powerstrip

[Byte 2.0]

parts refer to thread Geforce3 T2 Frame Rates

Asus A7V MB
800 T-Bird @840 mhz using cpu steping in the bios.
384 meg of PC-100 Ram @133
32 meg DDR Raideon ATI Video

Win98 first Ed, stable.
Directx 8.1

I have been thinking about upgrading my video card to Geforce3 T2.
and i was reading about the slows thread Geforce3 T2 Frame Rates
and decided to try the Power Strip program Lord Prism listed to check and see if my system was truly using what it was suppose to.

It seems my AGP does not go about 2x. If that is the case a GeForce 3 isnt' going to help me much

direct from Powerstrip since the card i have seems to support upto 4X but my system board doesn't. Is that correct? I have the Asus A7V. I believe i have the drivers from the CD installed for the MB on this install. I know i have the latest drivers from ATI for my video card.

I am thinking upgrading to a GeForce 3 Ti 200 isn't going to help if my AGP is only a 2x correct??? However is my bios my AGP is listed as 4X.

I will check the drivers I have, i am pretty sure that my MB CD only has the 4 in 1 driver.

Lord Prism, since you got your AGP unlocked with 4.32 drivers I am going to try and get that driver. IF i can't find it maybe you could zip it and Email me the driver?
vontar@hotmail.com


Diagnostic report
--------------------------------------------------
CPU speed - 840 MHz
System board - VIA
Primary graphics card - ATI 5144h
Silicon revision - 00h
Graphics memory clock - 164 MHz
Graphics engine clock - 164 MHz
Graphics card BIOS version - N 113-70601-102 SAM
Graphics card IRQ - IRQ11, shared
Graphics card AGP revision - 2.00
System board AGP aperture - 128 MB
************* System board AGP transfer support - 1x, 2x *********
Graphics card AGP transfer support - 1x, 2x, 4x
AGP traffic currently enabled - 2x
System board SBA - supported
Graphics card SBA - supported
AGP sideband currently enabled - yes
Pipelined transactions - supported, queue depth of 32
System board fast writes - supported
Graphics card fast writes - n/a
Fast write protocal currently enabled - no
Graphics card memory - 32 MB
DirectX memory - 120 MB
AGP mode - DMA
Windows version - 4.10.1998
DirectX version - 4.08.01.0881
AGP driver - viagart.vxd - 4.00.0000
GART manager - n/a
Display driver name - ati2drag.drv
Display driver version - 4.13.7189
OpenGL driver - opengl32.dll
OpenGL version - 4.00

Device enumeration
--------------------------------------------------
VIA CPU bridge (03051106h)
VIA PCI bridge (83051106h)
VIA ISA bridge (06861106h)
VIA IDE controller (05711106h) - using IRQ15
VIA USB (30381106h) - using IRQ3
VIA PM controller (30571106h)
National Semiconductors Ethernet controller (0020100Bh) - using IRQ3
Creative Labs audio device (00021102h) - using IRQ5
Creative Labs input controller (70021102h)
Sigma Designs multimedia device (83001105h) - using IRQ11
National Semiconductors Ethernet controller (0020100Bh) - using IRQ3
Promise mass storage controller (0D30105Ah) - using IRQ10
ATI VGA controller (51441002h) - using IRQ11

[Lord Prism]

Byte,
Hi, you can get 4.32 drivers here:

http://www.epox.com/html/english/sup...s/via-4in1.htm

Also, I'm not sure WHICH A7V mobo you're using, but you can check your specific board here to see if it supports up to AGP 4x:

http://www.asus.com.tw/mb/mbindex.htm

It looks like the A7VE, A7V-133 and the A7V-266 all support 4x.

I am thinking upgrading to a GeForce 3 Ti 200 isn't going to help if my AGP is only a 2x correct???

If you're jumping from a 32MB video card to a 64MB card, I BELIEVE IT IS GOING TO HELP.

For me, it was a matter of setting the mobo bios to 4x and installing the correct 4-in-1 drivers, and DirectX 8.

It sounds like you have NOT bought the card yet, right? From which manufacturer are you planning to buy the GF3 T2?

[Byte 2.0]

My MB is just the AV7

but my bios says Write agp 4x. I will try those drivers.

the most that can go wrong is i screw up windows. hehe.
then i would just have to reinstall, no big deal.

Thanks for the links.


Found my MB
The A7V is based on VIA KT133 chipset in ATX form factor for the latest support in AMD® ThunderbirdTM / DuronTM 550MHz ~ 1GHz processors. Such new chipset is ASUS's first Socket A version to incorporate 200MHz FSB and 1.5GB PC133 / PC100 / VCM133 SDRAM capability in the x86 platforms. This marvelous mainboard features support for Stepless Frequency Selection, a new technology which allows CPU frequency setting to be set in 1MHz-increments and also Ultra-Fast DMA/100 data transfer, and AGP Pro/4X, etc. The additional upgrades provided include up to 7 USB ports and Promise® PCI-ATA100 controller for Ultra DMA/100 support


It is listed at a AGP PRO 4X.

BTW that driver didn't unlock me i am only get 2x AGP showing with Power Strip.

Something is wrong here. and That is my problem i believe.
Probaby why i never saw the performance from this video card that i expected.

For the time being i change the System board AGP aperture - From 128MB to 256 MB The max my system board has. Maybe i will get a little better preformance in the mean time.

Any More ideas on getting up to 4X AGP???

[Lord Prism]

Hi, from what I understand, increasing the aperture to anything more than 1/2 of your total system RAM may actually DECREASE performance!

I hope that trying the 4.32 drivers didn't mess up your Windows!



I did happen to find this little article that might shed some light on things...

http://www.speedy3d.com/articles/amd...ms/index.shtml

[Byte 2.0]

Windows runs just fine with the 4.32 driver. I will read over that link.

I have 384 meg of ram. and I saw no change in performce increasing that to 256meg of ram.

[Byte 2.0]

Just for kicks i tried Asus Email support last night.
here is the eamil i sent them.

Subject was
Asus A7V Motherboard AGP SLOT PROBLEM
----- Original Message -----

This Mother Board is listed as having a 4X AGP Slot.
I have a 4X AGP card that can't run to it full abilities.
Runings a few system programs I discovered My AGP slot is only working
at 2X. I have tried Updated Drivers and it still only a 2X AGP Slot. I
have checked and rechecked the Bios setting. How Can I make this Slot
4x AGP???

Daniel ****** (Note I never use my last name on the net )
WIn 98
386 MEG PC-100 RAM
The Video Card I am trying to use is
32 Meg DDR Raideon ATI Which i know is a 4X AGP Card


********************Their Reply*****************8

Dear sir,

Thanks for choosing ASUSTek.

Please install VIA 4in1 driver before VGA driver to try:
http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=2

Best Regard,

ASUS Customer Service Center Shanghai
ASUS Web site :<http://www.asus.com.tw>
ASUS Ftp site :<ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw>



SO i am going to try this set of drivers what can it hurt.

Wait that is the same drivers I had. I will reply back to Asus.

[Byte 2.0]

Ok, that didn't do it.

their AGP driver was for my chipset and said it was installing AGP 4X.

According to Power Strip it still isn't 4X AGP slot.

[Lord Prism]

Gee, I'm not really being much help am I!?!?

Maybe it's an issue with Powerstrip? Maybe it's an issue the ATI 32DDR card drivers? (Is it the LE version of the card?)

Here's couple of other Video Card utilities that might help:

http://www.tweakpc.com/Video.htm

[Byte 2.0]

I think you missed my new thread.

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?threadid=23180

[Lord Prism]

Oh, okay. Boy, you like posting new threads!