rec.autos.simulators

How AGP aperture can change your life!

The Black Cat =^..^

How AGP aperture can change your life!

by The Black Cat =^..^ » Sat, 23 Jun 2001 12:44:29



Thanks Dave -- just break my heart...  :)

Dave Henri

How AGP aperture can change your life!

by Dave Henri » Sat, 23 Jun 2001 12:53:07

  nono Paul it's just ONE less thing to break...
Trust me I'm an expert in breaking computers....
dave henrie




> >3dfx users 'should'
> >get zero benefit from changing the AGP Aperature size since those cards
> >access the memory in a different way.

> Thanks Dave -- just break my heart...  :)

Rafe McAulif

How AGP aperture can change your life!

by Rafe McAulif » Sat, 23 Jun 2001 16:19:37

Yup, 3dfx cards have a VERY minimal usage of agp memory transfers. But
it will only affect games when the textures are unable to be held in
local memory, gpl not being one of them. N4 is tho...



>  I should mention that from what I've read here, that 3dfx users 'should'
>get zero benefit from changing the AGP Aperature size since those cards
>access the memory in a different way.
>  I hope I'm correct about that info.
>dave henrie


>> Well, it changed mine! :-)

>> I have a duron 750, hercules GF2 mx 32meg, 128 meg memory, and MSFF
>> gameport.

>> Somewhere I read to set the AGP aperture in the bios to 256, and if it
>> worked, leave it alone.

>> After hearing other rumours, I decided to have a play last night.

>> Before - I was getting glitches in GPL. I'm currently at Monaco, and they
>> occurred leaving the pits, 'till half way up the hill. At the start of the
>> race, they would settle down once through the first corner.

>> I changed the aperture to 128, then 64 to see the difference. At 64, it
>was
>> the same as at 256, but setting it to 128 made an enormous difference!

>> The glitches disappeared completely, and I was able to run full details in
>> the mirrors at 1600, but that's not the most important bit.
>> This is - I suddenly found that driving 'round Monaco was much easier, and
>I
>> was much more consistent. It's made a huge difference to the feel of the
>> car! Try it.

>> I then wondered how it would affect GP3. Straight in, I discovered at 10%
>> drop in PO! I then discovered I could run it at absolute max, in the
>highest
>> res - EVEN IN THE RAIN!!! Yet again, the car felt much better, and I could
>> drive much more consistently.

>> Now I don't know what the aperture is, and how it should be set depending
>on
>> one's system, but getting it right's made such a difference, that I would
>> say it's well worth having a quick fiddle with.

>> R.

>> --
>> Posted from motgate4.mot.com [144.189.100.102]
>> via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG

Rafe McAulif

How AGP aperture can change your life!

by Rafe McAulif » Sat, 23 Jun 2001 16:31:11

Pretty good explanation Simon, but one point that I'll disagree on.
Non-local video memory is a LOT slower than local memory, not a
little. Accessing memory via the agp aperature happens at 66mhz (agp
bus speed) whereas local memory is 166mhz for v3, up to 266 for a
Geforce3.

Pretty surprised that there should be any change with any game, let
alone gpl. You will always end up running the game at whatever
settings which DON'T use the agp aperature, cos the performance hit is
so big.

From N4 readme.txt:

"Because of the large amount of textures used in NASCAR? Racing 4, it
is recommended that 32-bit color only be used on video cards with 64
MB or more texture memory."

Manually setting texture size:
"Increasing this value above the detected value may prevent the game
from dropping mip levels as more textures are loaded, but note that
setting too large of a value may result in SIGNIFICANT performance
hits as textures begin to swap in and out of memory."

So it's got me ***ed as to why you would find any difference. But
if it works, what the hell!

Rafe Mc

On Thu, 21 Jun 2001 14:32:09 GMT, "Simon Brown"


>Everyone seems to get different results with AGP Aperture size.

>I found that with it on 64MB, GPL crashed quite regularly.  I also found
>that with it on 32MB (which is the same size as the amount of VRAM on my
>32MB GF2 gts), GPL and 3DMark2000 all performed better, so i've left it on
>32 MB since.

>I'll have a go at explaining what I believe AGP Aperture size does-

>Basically you have local VRAM, this is the memory on your video card.  Then
>you have system memory, this is your normal main memory.  AGP Aperture
>enables your video card to have extremely fast access to a portion of your
>system memory.  This memory is then refered to as non-local video memory
>(because your video card can access it, but it's not physically on your
>video card).  Non-local video memory is slower than local-video memory, but
>faster than system memory (in terms of how quickly it can be accessed by
>your video card).

>Say your video card has 32 MB, and a game needs 50 MB of video card memory
>to run with high-res textures.  Your video card can use the non-local video
>memory (AGP memory) along with the local video memory to act like a card
>that has more memory than it really does.  The results would be a little
>slower than using a genuine 64MB video card, but at least the high-res
>textures would work.

>And obviously the aperture size controls how much system memory can be
>controlled this way by your video card.

>Anyway, those are interesting results you got, I think I'll try a little
>experimenting myself :)



>> Well, it changed mine! :-)

>> I have a duron 750, hercules GF2 mx 32meg, 128 meg memory, and MSFF
>> gameport.

><snip>

>> Now I don't know what the aperture is, and how it should be set depending
>on
>> one's system, but getting it right's made such a difference, that I would
>> say it's well worth having a quick fiddle with.

>> R.

Rafe McAulif

How AGP aperture can change your life!

by Rafe McAulif » Sat, 23 Jun 2001 16:32:14

It'll run faster painted red :)

Tony Lak

How AGP aperture can change your life!

by Tony Lak » Sat, 23 Jun 2001 18:47:30

"Arto Wikla" wrote ...
In the bios setup before windows load - something like hit <del> while
booting.
Tony

Thom j

How AGP aperture can change your life!

by Thom j » Sat, 23 Jun 2001 19:25:01

It'll run even faster painted red with bright yellow, orange & white stripes
:)

| It'll run faster painted red :)

| >Err...P3-650 / Creative Labs GF2 GTS 32 MB / 256 MB pc133 / Win98 first
| >edition / cool looking speakers / go-faster stripes / *** dice / racing
| >socks ;)

---
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Gunnar Horrigm

How AGP aperture can change your life!

by Gunnar Horrigm » Sat, 23 Jun 2001 20:34:49


> Err...P3-650 / Creative Labs GF2 GTS 32 MB / 256 MB pc133 / Win98 first
> edition / cool looking speakers / go-faster stripes / *** dice / racing
> socks ;)

way cool.  I walways imagined I was alone in having a dedicated pair
of socks for armchair racing.

--
Gunnar
    #31 SUCKS#015 Tupperware MC#002 DoD#0x1B DoDRT#003 DoD:CT#4,8 Kibo: 2
                          DE RECTIS NON TOLERANDUM EST

MadDAW

How AGP aperture can change your life!

by MadDAW » Sat, 23 Jun 2001 21:10:33

First I wouldn't consider a 950 slow if a 997 is fast. As far as the other
bus speeds go that could be a possiblitly and part of the "differance". The
whole point of my post was that these things shouldn't have effected the
physics but they did.

MadDAWG

MadDAW

How AGP aperture can change your life!

by MadDAW » Sat, 23 Jun 2001 21:16:03

Last time I checked into it  ATI Rage chips and Nvidia Geforce were the only
ones actually using the AGP aperture. The rest of the video cards just use
the AGP interface for the faster bus speed.  Not 100% sure about the v5 but
I know the v3 doesn't. If you want to know if your card uses it or not just
use the DX properties to see if AGP is enabled or disabled if enabled then
run the test to make sure it works. I would think that if your card doesn't
use AGP you would want to turn this off or set to smallest setting, but I
haven't actually tried that my self.

MadDAWG

MadDAW

How AGP aperture can change your life!

by MadDAW » Sat, 23 Jun 2001 21:16:52

Also don't forget the change in operating system

MadDAWG

MadDAW

How AGP aperture can change your life!

by MadDAW » Sat, 23 Jun 2001 21:27:01

As far as WinME vs. Win98SE goes I feel that ME is better. I know alot of
people have had problems with ME and my guess on that would be that like any
newer software you will need more hardware to run it. As I said before I
have a 950 mhz AMD k7 Athlon, 256 ram and a Geforce 2 GTS 64 meg video card.
I have seen alot of people recommending that you turn of PC health, but I
have not done so and have had no performance problems. I think it also has
to do with what type of system you are running. I built my own so I know all
the system drivers that are used a what settings they are in stalled at. My
parents have a Compaq and there is no way I would consider doing anything to
that system because of the way its set up. I run a 56k dial up and I feel
that my connection quality for *** has gotten better in ME over Win98SE.
One thing that may be a problem for some people is the lack of a DOS mode.
So if you have any old software that requires a "restart in Dos mode" to run
don't even think about ME. I know there is alot of bad press about ME but
I'm pretty happy with it. Granted this is just my experience and yours may
vary.

MadDAWG

Simon Brow

How AGP aperture can change your life!

by Simon Brow » Sat, 23 Jun 2001 21:48:13

Ok, thanks for the info :)

I was also surprised, I expected since GPL works fine with 16 MB cards and
doesn't use a lot of textures, that it wouldn't need or use any AGP memory.
It's probably just a peculiarity of the drivers.


Lannie Schafrot

How AGP aperture can change your life!

by Lannie Schafrot » Sat, 23 Jun 2001 23:17:21

I agree, Windows ME, when setup right, is MUCH better.


Ian

How AGP aperture can change your life!

by Ian » Sun, 24 Jun 2001 00:01:54

I'm using WinME and have absolutely no problems with it, it even shuts down
properly, something 98se hardly ever did.
Speaking of which, I had a crazy problem with 98se, when I tried to shut it
down it would hang at the windows is shutting down screen, until I turned
off the power (at the socket outlet) to either my speakers or FF wheel, then
it would continue and shut down. Didn't happen every time, sometimes it
would complete straight away. Anyone ever had that problem and found a cure
?

--

Ian P
<email invalid due to spammers>


> I agree, Windows ME, when setup right, is MUCH better.



> > As far as WinME vs. Win98SE goes I feel that ME is better. I know alot
of
> > people have had problems with ME and my guess on that would be that like
> any
> > newer software you will need more hardware to run it. As I said before I
> > have a 950 mhz AMD k7 Athlon, 256 ram and a Geforce 2 GTS 64 meg video
> card.
> > I have seen alot of people recommending that you turn of PC health, but
I
> > have not done so and have had no performance problems. I think it also
has
> > to do with what type of system you are running. I built my own so I know
> all
> > the system drivers that are used a what settings they are in stalled at.
> My
> > parents have a Compaq and there is no way I would consider doing
anything
> to
> > that system because of the way its set up. I run a 56k dial up and I
feel
> > that my connection quality for *** has gotten better in ME over
> Win98SE.
> > One thing that may be a problem for some people is the lack of a DOS
mode.
> > So if you have any old software that requires a "restart in Dos mode" to
> run
> > don't even think about ME. I know there is alot of bad press about ME
but
> > I'm pretty happy with it. Granted this is just my experience and yours
may
> > vary.

> > MadDAWG


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