Author Topic: Should "Fast Writes" be enabled? (Read 967 times)

Wanker · « **on:** November 14, 2003, 09:34:36 PM »

Was looking through the tabs on the 3.8 catalyst drivers and noticed that I have "fast writes" disabled. What do "fast writes" do, and should I have this enabled?

Video card is the Radeon 9800 Pro.

bloom25 · « **Reply #1 on:** November 14, 2003, 11:20:43 PM »

No, I'd strongly recommend leaving it off. It typically gives extremely little to no performance gain, and there can be stability problems on a lot of systems with it enabled.

zroostr · « **Reply #2 on:** November 15, 2003, 01:03:06 AM »

nothin but trouble. leave it disabled.

BB Gun · « **Reply #3 on:** November 15, 2003, 03:14:33 AM »

Interesting. I just went and took a look at my tabs, 'cause I thought mine was "on". And it is. Always has been, I think.

No stability problems at all. WBIII, MOHAA, Call of Duty Demo, etc all work fine. (Radeon9500 Pro, Epox 8RDA3+, Barton2500, WinXP)

*shrug*

BB

Wanker · « **Reply #4 on:** November 15, 2003, 11:35:15 AM »

Well, I have a confession to make. After seeing that it was off, I turned it on, and immediately got a 5 fps increase in the AHII beta video tests.

But then when I logged into WWIIOL last night, I was getting some strange stuttering and some sound anomolies that had never been there before. Recognizing that this is the only thing that has changed in my system, I went back and turned it off. That eliminated my problems in WWIIOL.

So, I guess I'll be leaving it off, permanently.

Replicant · « **Reply #5 on:** November 15, 2003, 03:27:37 PM »

I've had some unstability with it too.

BTW banana, check this http://www.fanta.dk/showmovie.asp?mid=45FFFA94-0CF1-4CDA-8967-4E75C0A359A8

Wanker · « **Reply #6 on:** November 17, 2003, 10:35:38 AM »

beet1e · « **Reply #7 on:** November 18, 2003, 06:07:00 AM »

Glad I read this. I've got a Radeon 9600. By default, fast writes were on. I was getting two different problems. [list=1]

A strange DDhelp error message - typical Microsoft error message. An error has been reported, but they don't actually tell you what the error is. I found that this message has come from DirectX... currently running 9.0b.
Crashes to desktop after about 5 minutes online play.

So I have disabled fast writes, and initial tests indicate that both problems have been solved.

Before the change, the Radeon 9600 was giving me triple digit frame rates - anything up to 120fps. Now, I'm getting a much more consistent 75fps.

The AH video setup panel has a feature which allows max frame rate to be limited to 60 or 45 - was this feature designed to achieve the same thing as is achieved by turning off Fast Writes?

About that 9600. I went and bought it retail after I realised I was in deadlock with my supplier over the suspect 9800. I'm getting a refund. The 9600 works just fine. Surely 75fps is good enough for games like AH?

straffo · « **Reply #8 on:** November 18, 2003, 06:44:24 AM »

I have fastwrite enabled on a A78NX deluxe and a radeon 9600
I've no problem so far with : OPF , AH ,IL2,IL2-FB

Wanker · « **Reply #9 on:** November 18, 2003, 09:21:25 AM »

Quote

Before the change, the Radeon 9600 was giving me triple digit frame rates - anything up to 120fps. Now, I'm getting a much more consistent 75fps.

beetle, are you sure you didn't also turn vsync on as well when you turned fast writes off?

It sounds like you're pegged at your monitor's vertical refresh rate of 75.

WhiteHawk · « **Reply #10 on:** November 18, 2003, 09:50:29 AM »

I just turned fastwrites off to see if my sound lockups were caused by it. So far I have no problems w sound. But this is not a clean test as i am experimenting w overclocking also.

beet1e · « **Reply #11 on:** November 18, 2003, 10:18:05 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by banana
beetle, are you sure you didn't also turn vsync on as well when you turned fast writes off?

I didn't change vsync. I can't even find that setting anywhere. Where is it?

zmeg · « **Reply #12 on:** November 18, 2003, 11:49:22 AM »

After removing my audigy card and using onboard 5.1 sound I noticed occasional sound stutters with vid card overclocked, turning off fastwrites fixed the problem with no noticable loss of fps.

Wanker · « **Reply #13 on:** November 19, 2003, 11:03:10 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by beet1e
I didn't change vsync. I can't even find that setting anywhere. Where is it?

To be honest, I don't know, either. It's in there in one of the tabs, probably.

zmeg · « **Reply #14 on:** November 19, 2003, 05:51:47 PM »

For nvidia it's under the agp tab, dont know about ati.