Questions about gf3 bios settings.........

[Blakhart]

Hi

What does a mobo do if you do not select read/write wait states for agp? I heard that they default to 2. You can select 1 or 2 but not disabled. What is best for performance?

What about drive strength, anyone have any experience with settings for gf3ti200s?

Thanks

[TwoRails]

Hi Blakhart,

I checked my BIOS after reading your post. I don't have those options so I couldn't play with them.... all I have is Fast Writes On / Off, and one other switch, but I forgot what it is already...

TwoRails

[Blakhart]

He he I used rivatuner (very nice, I see why it is recommended) as opposed to GTU and it told me that the mobo could not do fastwrites but could do sideband. Then rivatuner went on to say that my vid card could do fastwrites but not sideband!
That is real communication there folks! Funny that I have something in bios that says it can be enabled or disabled and the rivatuner says the chipset or vid card will not support it.
Wonder what other bios options are smoke and mirrors?
Thanks for taking the time to check your bios.

[TwoRails]

Blakhart, one day I have to download RivaTuner and play with it.

I'm running the Asus V8200 Deluxe drivers, think that'll make a difference?? I imagine it should still work....

TwoRails

[Lord Prism]

Hi,
I wish I could remember where I read it, but read/write wait stages should be set to the lowest number.
I e-mailed Epox regarding the BEST AGP drive strength to set for my GF3 Ti200/450 and they wrote back saying that the DEFAULT is the best.
...I wonder if they are just lazy.......

Good Luck,

[Blakhart]

Hi guys.
I have found out that If you set the drive strength too low you will not be able to boot.
The way to fix this is to use a pci vid card and use it to get back into bios and set the drive strength to default.
I have seen the strength DA and EA spoken of as being good, whatever good is. My strength is at DA for now and I have left the wait states for agp at default.
I emailed visiontek and the reply was made by someone who did not use english very well. They did not answer one of my questions and the other was a typical get lost/leave it alone reply...grrrr
Oh well

PS
Coolbits allows one to use the vid card properties/driver settings menu to oc the card. This keeps one from using the typical ute that can get one into trouble with other more dangerous settings...such as GTU and rivatuner, but I feel riva is the better of the two. Less settings to muck up.

[Tony Glass]

Anyone know where you can get a list of drive strengths?
I've heard of FF, DA, EA, And Default. Are there more?

Tony

[Blakhart]

There are more, Tony, but if you go too low in strength you will lose all video out of the agp slot and you will need a pci card to get back into bios and set the drive again. I have heard that ff is the strongest but do not know for sure.

[Tony Glass]

Thanks Blackhart,

Just asking because I have been trying to get a Gainward GF3 Ti 450 to post on an Abit KT7A mobo(see my questions here and in Hardware).

Was looking on Microsofts site and they said to try different settings starting with FF, the max and work your way down but didn't give any other settings. Just tried FF and still didn't work so I figured if the most powerful didn't help nothing would.

Tony