AGP X Problem
 

Well I got that system, works great but I got a problem with the graphics card. The problem is that on the box it says the card is 4x compatible, and so is the motherboard. I updated the graphics drivers to the latest, and checked the AGP information and it said the VGA card was compatible with 2x and 1x, and the motherboard was compatible with 4x, 2x, and 1x. The card is SUPPOSED to be set to 4x, it's set to 4x in the BIOS too. Any ideas why it won't shift from 2x? It's making my card lack of speed when looking at long distances on counter strike (which when in close spaces, I get an FPS of 90-100).

Thanks for you help :D

Re: AGP X Problem
 

Which card is it?
How do you know it's running at 2x?

Re: AGP X Problem
 

It's a Pine 3D Phantom XP-3800 which has the SIS 315E GPU, and 64MB of DDR memory. AIDA32 and the AGP information program I got with the card both say it's in 2X AGP mode.

Re: AGP X Problem
 

You could try updating the AGP driver for your motherboard.

Re: AGP X Problem
 

I wasn't able to find it, I'm not sure if I found the correct one or not because it didn't seem to work if it was the right one :erm:

Re: AGP X Problem
 

agp 4x wont help you much there im afraid, you'll be lacking raw graphics processing power. Close spaces go faster as it has less to draw, i could hit 100fps and stay there mostly with a 1GHz amd tbird and a gefroce 256, needless to say the counter stops at 100, i'm sure my current system would prob be past 400 or so.
Tho i havent play cs in donkeys so i wouldn't know
(3.22GHz P4 and Asus 9800xt)

K

Re: AGP X Problem
 

Yeh but this card shouldn't drop to 20FPS at long distances, my notebook which has a S3 Twister, which is intergrated and uses 32mb of the SD-RAM doesn't drop that much. I usually get about 40-50 at close range with that one, then at long distance something around 35-40.

Re: AGP X Problem
 

It should actually, onboard graphics cards are not very good.

Re: AGP X Problem
 

Try the driver from http://download.sis.com/download_ste...os=4&x=16&y=11

it is the graphics driver for that Sis chipset.

Re: AGP X Problem
 

That's the one I already downloaded and installed. Still says 2X AGP, and lags at long distances.

Re: AGP X Problem
 

hiya

what have you got your agp aperture set to in the bios?

according to this

http://www.ocfaq.com/article.php/ove...ing/vidcard/43

128MB may work better with 64MB cards?

- doesn't solve the 2X problem, but it may get your frame rate up?

Re: AGP X Problem
 

The BIOS default is 128mb, so I left it at that.

Re: AGP X Problem
 

bum, I was hoping it had been set at 64MB, I don't think you will get anywhere allocating more than 128MB, either.

- is there a GART setting page in the control panel for your card? Mine has a 'retest settings' button to check the agp multiplier is being detected correctly.

Re: AGP X Problem
 

I'm running Windows ME, i'm trying to get XP on but I got to find a place that sells it cheap. Iv'e also heard it's because of my hard drive being very old, so being very slow and so pulling the graphics card down. Could this be the problem?

Re: AGP X Problem
 

Try the AGP (GART) driver from http://download.sis.com/agreement.php?id=155871

Re: AGP X Problem
 

Already have that installed, no good.

Re: AGP X Problem
 

how much physical memory have you got installed on your motherboard?

- a slow hard disk can be problematic if you need a large swap file, < 512MB of memory, may contribute to that, especially when you have 128MB mapped out for agp textures?

Re: AGP X Problem
 

Iv'e got 256mb DDR memory. Should I put the AGP texture down to 64mb to help?

Re: AGP X Problem
 

It's worth a try, allocating 25% of physical memory back to the 'pool' may reduce calling the swap file - if the HD is as slow as you say, that's a good thing :)

Re: AGP X Problem
 

Do you notice your hard drive reading or 'seeking' as it is known whilst your playing your games (you can hear it usually and there should be a light on the case as well)
What resolution are you trying to play at and do you have any fancy effects turned on like fsaa, or anistrophic filtering.
What chip does the laptop have, it might be worth comparing the specs
to see if the performance is inline. oh and win Me = bad :-(
K

Re: AGP X Problem
 

Heh, ME I know is bad, that's why i'm going XP. I think my dad is getting me a 512mb DDR stick and a new HDD thought (keeps talking about it).

Resolution is somit like 600X400, at 16-bit colour. No extra effects, everything is default.

I think the chip is the laptop is a VIA KN133A, i'm not totally sure. All I know is it is KN133 something.

Yes, the HDD seeks a lot while in game, especially when a sound is played first time.

Re: AGP X Problem
 

hmm seeking is generaly bad news and an indication of a lack of ram. What cpu's does each computer have ?

K

Btw a link to the specs of your normal graphics card is here, http://www.sis.com/products/graphics/315.htm

Unfortunutly it does not say what your fill rate is but i doubt its that high with only a 166mhz core clock speed. It doesnt mention number of pipelines either i do hope it was more than the one

Re: AGP X Problem
 

My laptop has a mobile AMD Athlon XP 1.6ghz, and this one has a AMD Duron 1.8ghz. My laptop has 356mb SD-RAM, and this one has 256mb DDR.

Re: AGP X Problem
 

Iv'e heard theres a BIOS upate out for my motherboard (Syntax SV266A) that fixes this "Unknown CPU" problem with AMD Durons, but I can't find the correct update. Can any one help me find it? I tried the one on there website, but it says it doesn't match my motherboard.

Re: AGP X Problem
 

For the KT266A chipset, the AGP driver is part of the VIA "4 in 1" / Hyperion drivers.
http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=300

http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=403 - direct to 32 bit OS version
Note:
1. 4.51 are the latest
2. 4.43 arre suggested for older chipsets (including the KT266)


http://whitebunny.demon.nl/hardware/....html#vgaxabre
You may find the Xabre (also supports Sis315) driver more satisfactory - either the 3.11 (performance) driver, or the 3.57 - for some reason, they dropped everything above 3.10 from the official site.

There's a SV266A and an SV266AD - simple recognition, the "A" has TWO pairs of DIMM sockets (PC133 SDRAM or DDR), while the "AD" has ONE pair of DIMM sockets and ONLY supports DDR

Re: AGP X Problem
 

OK, I am now on XP Pro, with DirectX 9.0B, updated graphics drivers and updated AGP driver but still in 2X AGP speed. Any thing else that I could do?

Re: AGP X Problem
 

I forgot to download the AGP GART driver for my chipset, so I'm downloading that now (it's 5mb, yeesh!).