AGP 4x and fast write/control panel

Think · Post by **Think** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 8:24 am

For some odd reason, my ATI smart gart feature shows 4x and fast write being disabled. Yet in my bios, I have AGP at 8x and fast writed enabled.

ATI 9700pro
Asus A7n8x deluxe version2.0

Catalyst 3.6 drivers

Cypher · Post by **Cypher** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 8:50 am

You could try hitting the "retest all" button. There's really not much of a performance difference between 4 and 8X when benched. There is with fast writes but this feature usually causes stability issues on most systems.

Think · Post by **Think** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 9:15 am

Still, I never had that problem with the older drivers. I did have a temperature problem with the GPU but I removed my dangerden waterblock and installed the Zalman Heatpipe cooler with the Zalman fan. The reason being that my Exos water cooling system is inneffecient to to cool the cpu,nb and the gpu.

I think I better re-install Rage3d again and hopefully this will solve the issue.

Think · Post by **Think** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 10:35 am

btw I assume you don't need to have the ATI control panel installed if you have the Rage3d program?

Cypher · Post by **Cypher** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 10:56 am

No need for the CP.

TrevGlas · Post by **TrevGlas** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 1:29 pm

Rage3d has more baggage than the CP does... plus you can then just install radclocker, and it fits right in with the display properties.. no memory resident programs or anything like rage3d has.. stupid gameutil.exe and all that crap.

Brent · Post by **Brent** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 3:30 pm

Think

First of all you have an old driver, the latest Catalyst version is 3.9. In fact 3.10 will be released next week, so that will be the newest one. Yours is old, update.

Secondly make sure you have your chipset drivers installed. Since you have the Asus A7n8x you need to install the latest Forceware drivers for the motherboard. http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_udp_winxp_3.13

Thirdly you can have the CP, in fact do. Install the whole driver, driver and CP.

Rage3D Tweak has alot of options, but unless you know what they all are and what they all do and how they effect performance and iq in games, I would suggest not using it.

If you want to overclock just install the overclocking part of Rage3D Tweak. All the options that you need for setting AA and AF are provided in the ATI Control Panel.

So Think, your first steps are to install the latest forceware driver, and then install the latest ATI driver, the whole thing. Then report back what happens.

TrevGlas · Post by **TrevGlas** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 6:37 pm

Did you mean 4.10 will be released next week?

JTMON · Post by **JTMON** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 6:51 pm

Originally posted by TrevGlas
Did you mean 4.10 will be released next week?

No, he meant 3.10. You can find a link to them here:

NOTE: AFAIK These are still currently beta but I have not had any issues thus far.

Win2K/XP
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/wxp-w2k-cod ... 12324e.exe

Win98/ME
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/wme-cod-7-96-012324e.exe

Fixed issues I had with Star Wars KotoR

TrevGlas · Post by **TrevGlas** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 7:05 pm

I saw what he typed, but isnt 3.9 higher than 3.1? Why would they go from 3.9 to 3.1? If the most current is 3.9 wouldnt they go to 4.1 instead of back to 3.1 ? lol

Just wondering. Thanks for the links.

Brent · Post by **Brent** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 7:08 pm

Originally posted by TrevGlas
I saw what he typed, but isnt 3.9 higher than 3.1? Why would they go from 3.9 to 3.1? If the most current is 3.9 wouldnt they go to 4.1 instead of back to 3.1 ? lol

Just wondering.

don't think in terms of numeration

3.10 is Driver 2003 Release 10 (10 WHQL releases a year)

3 Indicates the year, '03

10 Indicates the release number

its a very logical system, and one many manufacturers use

3.9's are the latest now and 3.10's will be out next week

Driver 4.1 will be out in 2004 sometime

TrevGlas · Post by **TrevGlas** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 7:11 pm

Ahh makes sense... thanks for the update.

JTMON · Post by **JTMON** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 8:36 pm

yes, thanks for the info. I knew it was 3.10 but I had forgotten what the naming convention was.