Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: kbman on June 27, 2000, 06:46:00 PM
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Hi Folks,
I have been asked to make this post by Hangtime, Bash and a few others
about performance settings and drivers for TNT IIs. I have had my V770 Ultra for
over a year now and have managed to learn a little bit about it in that time.
All my experience is with the Diamond card and drivers but most of this will apply
to all TNT IIs. I have included some benchmark results from 3D Mark 2000 and WinTune98
for my machine for comparative analysis of Diamond 4.01 and Nvidia Det2(5.22) drivers.
There is alot of stuff I want to try and cover here so please bear with the excessive
length and please excuse any format problems as I am very poor at word processing. (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif)
This is a very confusing topic because there are many different factors which can
have a dramatic effect on performance. There are also alot of different opinions and
misinformation and even some mystery about what settings and drivers yield the "best"
results. I am no expert so my intention here is to share what I know and ask a few
questions to start a discussion about it and get some input from others as well.
First, you need to run a clean machine with minimal running applications, defrag
your HD often and optimize swapfile etc. A fresh install of Windows can make a huge
difference but I dont know too many people willing to do that regularly, not me (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif)
You can also set the primary function of your PC to "Network Server" instead of
"Desktop PC" in the perfomance tab of My Computer/ Properties to open up system
memory somewhat. It helps to optimize your BIOS settings to get the most out of your
hardware and there are numerous guides available on the web which can do a much
more thorough job than I could do here. www.tweak3d.net (http://www.tweak3d.net) is one of the best and I
highly recommend it for all tweaking info.
Next, I would also strongly advocate using a tweak utility called PowerStrip
available at www.entechtaiwan.com (http://www.entechtaiwan.com) as a fully functional free demo. The only
drawback of not registering it is that it will randomly dump your preferences
at boot-up and you have to reset them. It is an exceptional program that will
allow you to control all aspects of your video graphics hardware in many cases
much better than than the manufacturers software and all through a single, well
configured interface. It also has a graphics system information and diagnostics
tab that will tell you everything about your hardware and let you configure it for
maximum performance.
Once you have your machine set up properly you are down to the card itself and
the drivers. The V770 Ultra is CPU limited up to about 600mhz which means you will
derive little benefit, if any, from overclocking the chipset if under that threshold.
After that point it becomes fillrate limited and overclocking the core clock and
memory can yield signifcant improvement. The abilty of any given card to tolerate
this will vary with your specific setup and conditions, heat buildup being a critical
factor as well as FSB/AGP settings etc. I have mine running stable at 165/210, well
over the stock settings of 150/183 core clk/memory. The practical limits for the
chipset are about 185/225 but very few will be stable at those speeds. In order to get
my machine stable at 133/89 mhz FSB/AGP, I had to disable AGP 2x and it no longer
likes to run above 165 core clk. I did not see the hit in performance I had been
anticipating from that setting and everything runs stable but results will vary
from system to system and specific cards. Others have theirs stable without needing to
disable AGP 2x although I havent seen reports about overclocking the card under
those conditions. Use Powerstrip and see what you can get out of your machine.
The Boost Utility in the Diamond In/Control Tools will do this also but with much
less "control" over the increments than PowerStrip. In my experience, the Diamond
drivers have shown to be more stable than Nvidia reference drivers when overclocking,
which brings us to the next subject, drivers.
Here is where it gets really confusing and mysterious. Drivers probably have
the single greatest impact on performance and image quality of a given harware
configuration and there is much debate about them. As to the question of which
drivers yield the best performance(highest FPS) in both AH and WB, the answer has
ALWAYS been the same, the 4.01 initial release from Diamond. This has been extensively
tested by myself and others and has not changed through 4 releases of official
drivers from Diamond and inumerable Nvidia reference builds, beta and official.
FPS will be on average 20-25% higher with the 4.01s than any reference build.
The 4.02s yield similar results with a slight edge to the 4.01s. The reasons why
are rather mysterious because the 5.22 Nvidia build shows HUGE increases in(see below)
synthetic D3D benchmarks for both single and multitexture fillrate but the same
DECREASED performance in both sims. I have another thread going on AGW H&S Forum
about this that has opened up some interesting discussion about why this is so
and I suggest reading it if you are interested. I e-mailed HT with some questions
but haven't recieved an answer yet as he has been a bit busy lately. (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/wink.gif)
I did manage to ask him about it in the arena and he said he didnt know anything
about specific drivers and their relative performance but perhaps if we continue
that discussion here he may respond more in depth if he has time. (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif)(PLEASE!!! HT)
Another advantage of the Diamond drivers is the the ease of use of the In/Control
Tools over the Nvidia interface which require you to make registry changes to access
all of the cards feature settings. Also, there is a profile feature which remembers
different preferences for each 3D app you run and saves them. This can be convenient
and useful although sometimes it can get confused and needs to be cleared and reset.
Now we get to the driver settings themselves. Basically you are balancing
image quality (eye candy) against performance (FPS). If, like me, you have a fairly
powerful machine, then you want to maximize quality over performance. If, on the
other hand, you are trying to get more from a marginal machine, you will want
to sacrifice quality to get a playable framerate. In my experience, only 2 or three
settings will result in a signifcant change in FPS besides V-synch, which is
a separate topic altogether. They are Anti-aliasing and Auto Mipmapping and Mipmap
Level. Antialiasing reduces the "jaggies" at the edges of different objects and
reducing the supersampling rate or turning it off will yield a few FPS on most rigs.
Mipmapping affects texture quality (shimmering terrain) and also how objects moving
towards or away from you (cons) are rendered. Setting the level to 0 and turning off
Automipmapping will also give a couple FPS on most systems. Diabling Fog Table may
yield 1 FPS or so.
On to v-sync!! More confusion ensues (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif) LEAVE V-SYNC ON!!! Disabling v-sync is only
useful for benchmarking the theoretical capabilties of your hardware. It will result in
an increase in the displayed framerate but you will NOT "see" this as these "extra"
frames are just dumped into the frame buffer because your monitor cant display them fast
enough even though your card can render them. You are also more likely to see tearing
and other graphic anomilies with v-sync disabled and gunnery and bombing will
likely suffer as result as well as screen jumps etc. The key to maximizing FPS
with v-sync enabled is to set your monitor refresh rate as high as possible to find
the right balance that the card will produce and your monitor will display.
This involves some experimenting with different refresh rates to see which yields the
highest stable framerate, stability being the desired effect more just x FPS in any
given load situation. Bloom25 has made an excellent post about this already and I
have little to add except that AH doesnt show this as clearly as WB does in terms
of the FPS displayed and the factors of the refresh rate of the monitor. This was
one of my questions to HT in the e-mail and one I would be most curious to know
the answer to. I asked Pyro online one night and got a "dunno kbman" from him (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif)
Okay, I am about done here, finally!!! (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif) I am looking forward to seeing this
discussion develope as others chime in, hopefully HT and Pyro too. There are alot
more questions to be resolved about the driver issues and we might all learn
something valuable here from what flows from that. In the meantime, I hope I have
answered some questions and provided an overview for how to get the most from
your box. Anything I missed just ask and I'll try to help. Once again, sorry
for the booklength post, but there aint no easy way to say it (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/biggrin.gif) Good Luck!!
kbman
PS It took me three friggin hours to write this damn thing because of how poorly I type.!! I hope your happy now!!!! (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/biggrin.gif)
WinTune 98 Test Results: Diamond 4.01
CPU(1) Intel Pentium III@735 MHz
Video BoardDiamond Viper V770 Ultra for Windows 98
Video Mode1024x768@32bits/pixel
RAM128 MB
OSWindows 98 4.10.1998
Area TestedValue
CPU Integer2135.969 MIPS
CPU Floating Point856.0626 MFLOPS
Video(2D)106.9316 MPixels/s
Direct3D128.4961 MPixels/s
OpenGL80.76997 MPixels/s
Memory1467.626 MB/s
Cached Disk136.1452 MB/s
Uncached Disk3.726743 MB/s
WinTune 98 Test Results: Nvidia Det2 (5.22)
CPU(1) Intel Pentium III@735 MHz
Video Board
Video Mode1024x768@32bits/pixel
RAM128 MB
OSWindows 98 4.10.1998
Area TestedValue
CPU Integer2136.904 MIPS
CPU Floating Point856.8002 MFLOPS
Video(2D)88.68829 MPixels/s
Direct3D274.7307 MPixels/s
OpenGL24.55497 MPixels/s
Memory1555.23 MB/s
Cached Disk138.6056 MB/s
Uncached Disk3.767028 MB/s
3DMark 2000: Diamond 4.01
RESULTS
Platform: Internal
3DMark Result: 3200 3D marks
CPU Speed: 263 CPU 3D marks
Game 1 - Helicopter - Low Detail: 64.3 FPS
Game 1 - Helicopter - Medium Detail: 48.3 FPS
Game 1 - Helicopter - High Detail: 23.1 FPS
Game 2 - Adventure - Low Detail: 53.8 FPS
Game 2 - Adventure - Medium Detail: 45.7 FPS
Game 2 - Adventure - High Detail: 31.5 FPS
Fill Rate (Single-Texturing): 137.6 MTexels/s
Fill Rate (Multi-Texturing): 239.6 MTexels/s
High Polygon Count (1 Light): 3840 KTriangles/s
High Polygon Count (4 Lights): 3370 KTriangles/s
High Polygon Count (8 Lights): 2928 KTriangles/s
8MB Texture Rendering Speed: 115.7 FPS
16MB Texture Rendering Speed: 115.4 FPS
32MB Texture Rendering Speed: 108.6 FPS
64MB Texture Rendering Speed: Not enough AGP memory FPS
Bump Mapping (Emboss, 3-pass): 82.8 FPS
Bump Mapping (Emboss, 2-pass): 105.5 FPS
Bump Mapping (Emboss, 1-pass): 156.6 FPS
Bump Mapping (Environment): Not supported FPS
3DMark 2000: Nvidia Det2 (5.22)
RESULTS
Platform: Internal
3DMark Result: 3625 3D marks
CPU Speed: 264 CPU 3D marks
Game 1 - Helicopter - Low Detail: 76.6 FPS
Game 1 - Helicopter - Medium Detail: 54.4 FPS
Game 1 - Helicopter - High Detail: 25.1 FPS
Game 2 - Adventure - Low Detail: 64.5 FPS
Game 2 - Adventure - Medium Detail: 49.8 FPS
Game 2 - Adventure - High Detail: 31.8 FPS
Fill Rate (Single-Texturing): 289.0 MTexels/s
Fill Rate (Multi-Texturing): 265.9 MTexels/s
High Polygon Count (1 Light): 3975 KTriangles/s
High Polygon Count (4 Lights): 3513 KTriangles/s
High Polygon Count (8 Lights): 3015 KTriangles/s
8MB Texture Rendering Speed: 210.1 FPS
16MB Texture Rendering Speed: 205.9 FPS
32MB Texture Rendering Speed: 184.6 FPS
64MB Texture Rendering Speed: Not enough AGP memory FPS
Bump Mapping (Emboss, 3-pass): 113.9 FPS
Bump Mapping (Emboss, 2-pass): 132.1 FPS
Bump Mapping (Emboss, 1-pass): 199.0 FPS
Bump Mapping (Environment): Not supported FPS
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Thanks kbman, good stuff here. I havn't had time yet to sit down and run benchmarks or overhaul/analyze my overclocked system yet, but this info is definately a big help to me in tuning my tnt ultra... <SALUTE>
(http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif)
(http://www.ropescourse.org/cgunthr.jpg)
332nd Flying Mongrels
------------------
(http://www.ropescourse.org/cgunthr.jpg)
332nd Flying Mongrels
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WOW! (printed)
This topic is very timely as I use a Viper V770 Ultra but on a PII 333mhz and I'm beginning to feel the squeeze. I've been spoiled by the 32bit eye candy so much so that after the release of 1.03 I dropped from 1280X1024 res to 1024X768 to get my FPS back into the mid 20's and sometimes into the low 30's (although after this latest 1.03 patch I'm back into the 30's and low 40's so I may go back up). Anyway. FPS has been on my mind alot lately and I will be upgrading sometime this year, I just hope I can fly AH fine till whenever that occurs. I'd bought the Viper V770 as a "bridge" card for that inevitablilty. One that could help along the systme I do have for a while (almost a year now) and still work well in a system two or three times faster.
What FPS do you get when online in AH? What resolution are you running?
-Westy
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700 mhz P-3 overclocked @ 933 mhz, 128 mb 133 mhz ram,
I get 85 fps climbing out in clear blue sky,
less in furballs, smoke.
Diamond Viper 770 Ultra, 32 mb
800x600
[This message has been edited by Gunthr (edited 06-28-2000).]
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Hi westy and gunthr,
Glad to see someone's getting something from this. (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif)I realized I didnt include my system specs and AH & WB numbers so I will do so here.
PIII 550E O/Cd to 733mhz
Abit BX6r2 (BIOS rev NW)
128 MB PC100 CAS 3 generic RAM
Diamond V770 Ultra O/Cd to 165/210
WD Caviar 20.4 GB
CL AWE 64 Value
LS 120 Super Floppy 120MB
USR 56k Faxmodem int. (hardware Non-Winmodem)
ViewSonic G790 19" Monitor
MS Pre Pro USB
Win98 1st Ed. (fully updated)
I run it at 1024x768 32bit 85hz refresh and get between 43 (1 frame every other refresh)
and 84 (1 frame every refresh approx.)
depending upon load in AH.(v-sync enabled) In the WB/Avin batmark test I get 45 in Hi Res(1024) and 82 in Lo Res(640) (v-sync disabled) There isn't yet a suitable protocol in AH for comparative results so I gave the range of FPS that I see normally.
The low end being when I take off from A1 and the High end being flying view at alt with no cons.
Anything else I missed, just ask (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif)
kbman
[This message has been edited by kbman (edited 06-28-2000).]
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Thanks Kbman. (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif)
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Hmmmm,
Can't read any posts after Gunthr's (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/frown.gif)
Cookie issues...deleted and still cant so maybe this will help (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/wink.gif)
kbman
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Thanks for the fps observations and the sys specs!
-Westy
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Kbman.. thanks man. U get 1 get outta furball free card. (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif)
Dumped the 4.11 drivers and loaded 4.12. Wallah. A bird house. FPS now up to 28.. game even boots faster. Runs now at less than 10 fps from what I had previously. A significant improvement.
Will futz with it some more; but now I know what to futz with... thanks to you again.
Make that 2 get outta furball free cards. (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif)
You da man. <S!>
Hang
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Kbman,
I thank you for that lengthy explanation. Again thx. I just found out that i have 3 different type of drivers for my Tnt2ultra card. Know only i can find a way to get rid of these drivers. I cannot never get old drivers out complete hmm.
Bash
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Hi Bash!
Try this (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif) It is copied from the tweak3d tweaking guide which you should really go read (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/wink.gif) Post back after you do this and we should have a fresh place to start playing around in. (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/biggrin.gif) Good Luck!!
kbman
Right click your desktop
Choose Properties
Choose Settings
Choose Advanced
Choose Adapter
Click Change
Here you'll be presented with a couple of options. Choose to display a list of drivers. In the left pane, scroll all the way to the top and choose (Standard display types). Then, in the right pane, choose Standard PCI Graphics Adapter (VGA). Follow the prompts, and reboot.
Step Two
The second step before installing the new drivers is making certain that there's no driver "residue" left behind from previous driver installs. If you're upgrading from a previous set of Nvidia reference drivers, do the following:
Click the Start button and select Find, and then Files and Folders...
Make sure the Find applet is set to search your C:\ drive and do a search for "nv*.*" - without the quotes
Look for any files found in the C:\Windows\System and C:\Windows\Inf and C:\Windows\Help
Select these files and delete them (do NOT empty them from the Recycle Bin until you know your upgrade has been a success)
Exit the Find applet
Click the Start button and select Run
In the Run box, type regedit; this will open the Windows Registry Editor
In the left-hand pane, navigate to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\NVIDIA Corporation
Right-click on the Nvidia Corporation key in the left-pane, select Delete, and click Yes to confirm the deletion
Exit Regedit and hit the F5 key to refresh the registry
If you're upgrading to Nvidia reference drivers from a manufacturer's proprietary drivers, you have two options. The first option is using an uninstall utility that may or may not have come with your video card. If there is such a utility, you'll find it in the Add/Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel. There may also be such a utility on the drivers CD that came with the card. If you have an uninstall applet, use it. If not, you'll have to take a different approach to "uninstalling" the old drivers. This is where System Info comes in. It's a handy little applet in Windows that displays information about installed components, drivers, resources, etc.. To use it, do the following:
Click the Start button and select Run
In the Run box, type msinfo32
Once System Information opens, click on Components and then Display (in the left-hand pane)
In the right-hand pane, System Info will display a list of information about the display drivers that are CURRENTLY INSTALLED. Each file has a Company Name entry, which you need to pay attention to. If a file's Company Name is either Intel Corporation or Microsoft Corporation, forget that you ever saw it. As for the rest of the files listed, write down the name of each one. Do a Find for these files as outlined in step two (above), deleting each file as you go.
Next, from the System Information utility, select System Configuration Utility from the Tools menu, and select the Startup tab. Look through the list for anything related to your old drivers. For example, when removing Creative Labs' drivers, you may find something that refers to a "Blaster Control," such as bcontrol.exe or blasterc.exe. Uncheck these items, and close the utilities. (If you're prompted to restart, it is recommended that you do so.)
Step Three
Now to install the new drivers.... Make sure you have extracted the .zip containing the driver files to an easy-to-find location. Once you've done so:
(The following pertains only to Nvidia reference drivers, and may not work properly with non-Nvidia drivers.)
Right-click the desktop and select Properties
Click the Settings tab, and click the Advanced button
Click the Adapter tab, and click the Change button
Click Next, in the update Device Driver Wizard
Select the radio button for Display a list of all the drivers in a specific location...
Click the Next button and click the Have Disk button
In the Install From Disk box, click the Browse button, and point Windows to where you extracted the new driver files
Click Okay, then Okay again, and in the Select Device window, select GeForce 256.
Click Okay, and then click Next
Let Windows install the new drivers, and click Finish
Click Okay, Apply, and Okay
When prompted to restart your computer, do so.
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Hi folks,
I just wanted topunt this thread back up where you'll see it with respect to Rip's FR thread.
kbman
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Thanks Kbman,
After reading your post, I decided it was high time I try to O/C my CPU (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif) I know thats not what your post was really about, but it gave me inspuration. So Ive spent the last 2 or 3 hours reading up on O/C'ing from the link you provided, Tom's Hardware Guide, and my Abit manual. Then after about 2 or 3 seconds, I got my c466 to 525, no sweat! I am amazed at how easy it was! Its only been about an hour, and I havent done much but run AH offline, and reboot a few times just for the hell of it, but so far so GOOD! Now I gota go and figure out more of this tweak stuff (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/wink.gif) So if you where a knucklehead like me, and just O/C'ed your first puter, what would a guy like you, suggest I do next? (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/wink.gif)
Thanks again for your info on the TNT2. It will come in handy after I get some education on O/c'ing the CPU, and puchase a c566 from Step ThermoDynamics (thanks Jihad).
Camel
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Ok, I ran the Stability Test from Tweak3d for about 2 hours, and had 0 errors. Everything seems fine! I'll probably go pick up another case fan today, and some more PC100 ram.
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Really just a punt, but I now have a second case fan, and 64mb more ram installed! All is running smooth @ 525 and 128mb (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/cool.gif)
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HiFolks,
A little update..Got this puppy humming at760mhz last night. That seems to be the limit for the CAS 3RAM that I have as it would post but not load Windows at 790(143FSB). WTG!! camel BTW (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif) After you prance around call yourself a genious a few times, you might try getting it to hit 581 with 83mhz FSB.Some will some wont and more than stock cooling is almost certainly required.
kbman
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(http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/wink.gif) Already tried 581.
Im still a knuckle head. I tried 581, but after it posted, Windoze wouldnt load, had a "vxd. 32"(i think)(could not find, or damaged file error) issue. So, not really knowing much about that, I went back to 75mhz, I havent messed with it since (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/wink.gif) I am getting ready to buy a c566(hoping to get 850 @ 100mhz with cooling system)from www.step-thermodynamics.com (http://www.step-thermodynamics.com) , but need to flash my Bios for 566 support(available from Abit, for my board).
I was able to O/C my v770(standard) to 150/185, and adjust my Bios for the card. Im still goofin with my L2 latencey.
BTW you(kbman), Undertaker, and Weazel helped me decide what to buy for this computer(entire system) about 9 months ago at AGW. Thanks again!
Camel
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Well Camel, what are your FPS differences?
Alot better?
I have a Celery 400 O/Ced to 450, but the wife gave me permission to get new computer in the fall! Woof! Woof!
BTW Kbman! great post!! (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif)
[This message has been edited by Swager (edited 07-13-2000).]
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Hiya Swag,
I wish I had used a more formal test to track my results, instead I used Rip's test from his thread here in the H&S forum. I ran the test after each change to the system, but basicaly I went from
(Stock setup)
Front 24 (20 after left, right)
Left 31
Right 34
to
(Tweaked)(including the bells and whistles on the 770 suggestions from Kbman)
Front 26 (22 after left, right)
Left 41
Right 43
While all this O/C'ing and tweaking is alot of fun, AH ran fine on my puter before. The one thing that I have to mention, would be turning "on" Vsynch, and adjusting your refresh rate. This setting has cleaned up most of the jumpiness I had before, and possibly some of the mini warps. Things seem smoother. With all the changes made to my box, I should go back to Vsynch "off", and my refresh to "optimal" to confirm this, but havent yet.
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Kbman I used that PowerStrip utility and it said that I was using the wrong driver and reinstalled a different one. But now my frame rate has dropped from about 27 to 21 when I'm just sitting in the cockpit looking forward . Conversely, when I look up at the blank sky my fps shoots up into the 80's, where as before it would only go up into the 40's . <Sigh>I give up .
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Hi suave,
I'm not sure what you mean about PowerStrip telling you you were using the "wrong" driver. Where and what did it tell you about them? Did you do a proper deinsall/install of them? Which ones are you using? Is V-sync enabled or disabled? Slow down and regain your patience,it can be very frustrating if you dive in and start messing around with things before you are sure what you are doing. It often makes it hard to get back to your original settings if you find that they were better.Post back with more info including system specs and I'll try to help.
kbman
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Kbman, I haven't been able to get my Viper 770 TnT2 Ultra 32 mb card stable at 933mhz FSB, although it does boot into Win98 and will do 3d2000 up to the third helo (high detail) test, where it staggers and locks up. So I'm pretty close to getting it stable since I disabled side band addressing.
I thinking about taking out my 4.01 drivers and installing the latest Nvidia Reference drivers (5.32), which I understand may give more stability at 933mhz FSB.
If that doesn't get it fully stable at 933mhz, I may flash the Viper bios to the latest Nvidia Reference bios in the hopes that it may help.
What do you think?
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Hi gunthr,
I have my original video BIOS and was actually unaware that there was an update available. I checked both Diamonds site and Nvidia's and couldn't find one.
I did update the BIOS on my old Banshee once without incident so if you do it right it couldn't hurt. I have sidebanding enabled and its perfectly stable at 733. I had it at 760(138) and it went through WinTune98 and 3DMark fine but started to show memory related Windows errors rather than AGP type lock-ups. You have tried AGP1x I assume, that is what I had to do for stability.
I am now going to take it off the mobo for a good cleaning of chipset Fan/HS and see if that helps it at all. I would like to compare the results AGP 2x and see if I could get it to hit 175 core clk like it used to when I had my Cel 400@500. Good Luck and let me know about the BIOS update.
kbman
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nVidia Reference bios ver. 2.05.19.03.00 for TNT2 Ultra is here: http://www.xs4all.nl/~bmsmit/ (http://www.xs4all.nl/~bmsmit/) .
Using nVidia Reference bios to overclock higher is dicussed here: http://64.27.77.160/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000324.html (http://64.27.77.160/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000324.html)
I did try APG X1 setting, it did not make any significant difference as far as stability at 933mhz.
Disableing Side band addressing helped some, in that I could get a bit further in running 3d2000 before locking up. I was going to suggest that you try this for more stability, but you indicate you may have memory errors, so ...
There is a program called "vgabios" that will allow you to use the new bios to evaluate it's performance without actually flashing your chip. I guess I'll do that first as it seems safer than changing drivers...
Gunthr
[This message has been edited by Gunthr (edited 07-17-2000).]
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[punt]
New folks need to see this.
-Westy
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I don't have the diamond v770.. I have the stealth extreme 3. Now a couple questions.. on the monitor refresh rate.. what are the signs that it isn't stable when you increase
the refresh rate?
Also, do any of you have any experience with software controlled clock speeds? I've got my PII-350 o/cd to 420 and would like to get it going faster.
Have an Iwill MB if that helps at all with the 440BX chipset.
Bane
13th TAS