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  • G400 giving poor performance---Q3

    I need help.
    My G400 32mb dh is running quite slowly. I am getting a bad frame rate on Q3 with only a rate of 800/600! Any ideas?

    BTW, anyone willing to explain how to obtain the frame rates in Q3? I'm not quite clear, but /cg_drawfps gives me a frame rate of about 20-30 when there are a few bots running around. When the screen is basically empty, my fps is about 30-40. BAAAD.


    IRQ Distribution...
    0 System timer
    1 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard
    2 Programmable interrupt controller
    3 Communications Port (COM2)
    4 Communications Port (COM1)
    5 Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead - English
    5 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
    6 Standard Floppy Disk Controller
    7 Printer Port (LPT1)
    8 System CMOS/real time clock
    9 Creative SB16 Emulation
    10 Creative SB Live!
    10 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
    11 HPT366 Ultra DMA Controller
    11 HPT366 Ultra DMA Controller
    11 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
    12 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
    12 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
    13 Numeric data processor
    14 Primary IDE controller (dual fifo)
    14 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller
    15 Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo)
    15 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller

    Need help bad.


    ------------------
    PIII 500mhz @ 520
    Matrox Millennium G400 32mb dh (no max)
    SB Live! Deluxe
    ABit BE-6 mb
    256mb SD Ram

    PIII 500mhz @ 520
    Matrox Millennium G400 32mb dh (no max)
    SB Live! Deluxe
    ABit BE-6 mb
    256mb SD Ram

  • #2
    This is how I benchmark.

    HOW I BENCHMARK

    I was surfing around the net looking at the different ways people were benchmarking and I found
    one site that showed a very good way to benchmark. I would mention his/her name but I don't remember nor do I remember which site I got it from! In other words I am not trying to steal any credit! I just wanted to get that out of the way. Ok, this is how I benchmarked.

    1. Delete the Q3CONFIG.CFG file in the BASEQ3 directory in your Q3 folder. The reason why you
    should do this is that Q3 will set it's own defaults that will be a good default if you want
    to compare your benchmarks to others. If you have made customizations to your Q3CONFIG.CFG, just make a backup of the file.

    2. Make a different shortcut on your desktop named for all the resolutions Quake 3 supports
    on your computer. For example my shortcuts are: Quake 3 1152X864, Quake 3 1024X768, Quake
    3 800X600, etc etc.

    3. Right click on the shortcut. Do a Properties. Enter this line into the TARGET box.
    F:\Q3Ademo\QUAKE3.EXE +seta r_mode 7 +seta r_fullscreen 1 +seta r_swapinterval 0 +vid_restart +s_initsound 0 +snd_restart +timedemo 1 +demo demo001

    (I am using the demo version of Quake 3...so the full game may have a different command to
    implement the demos)
    You will also have to change the drive letter and destination directory of where your own Q3 installation is. (of course)
    (If you want to change the resolutions to match your shortcut's name change the +seta r_mode
    7 to another number.
    These are the resolutions I use.
    r_mode 7 = 1152X864
    r_mode 6 = 1024X768
    r_mode 5 = 960X720
    r_mode 4 = 800X600
    r_mode 3 = 640X480
    r_mode 2 = 512X384
    r_mode 1 = 400X300
    r_mode 0 = 320X240

    After you get your shortcuts all configured just click on any shortcut and it will run the
    timedemos. After it is done it will exit back to the Q3 menu screen. Hit the ~ key and take note of the number it gives you for FPS. Exit the game and double click on any resolution you wish for more benchmarking!


    ------------------
    C:\DOS
    C:\DOS\RUN
    \RUN\DOS\RUN
    C:\DOS
    C:\DOS\RUN
    \RUN\DOS\RUN

    Comment


    • #3
      Well.

      You can start by attempting to get your G400 to grab either IRQ 9,10,11 (in that order).

      If you don't use your USB, then disable it in your BIOS. That should help (IRQ wise).

      Install (if you haven't ) the latest PD 5.50 Beta. (and please, do use the UnInstall Util.)

      Try to set your APG Aparture size to 256, it might help or it might not. See for yourself.

      Good luck

      ------------------
      Abit BH6, PII-333@416(5x83), 128mb MCT 8ns, G400MAX, SBLIVE, AHA 2940AU, WDC 4.3, WDC 6.4, IBM GXP34 20.5, Mitsumi FX40, Yamaha 4416S, Zyxel Prestige 100IH, 3Com 905B-TX On WIN98SE, DX 7.0a, PD 5.50


      Abit BE6-2 (Rev 2.), P3-1000E@1050(10x105/3), 768mb Kingston 7.5ns CAS3, G400MAX, SBLIVE, AHA 2940AU, IBM GXP75 60Gb (*2), IBM IBM GXP75 45Gb, Mitsumi FX48, Yamaha 4416S, Zyxel Prestige 200, 3Com 905C-TX On W98SE Lite, DX 8.1, PD 6.82

      Comment


      • #4
        By the way!

        You should be able to squeeze that PIII to at least 560 (5*112) on an BE-6 MB.

        ------------------
        Abit BH6, PII-333@416(5x83), 128mb MCT 8ns, G400MAX, SBLIVE, AHA 2940AU, WDC 4.3, WDC 6.4, IBM GXP34 20.5, Mitsumi FX40, Yamaha 4416S, Zyxel Prestige 100IH, 3Com 905B-TX On WIN98SE, DX 7.0a, PD 5.50


        Abit BE6-2 (Rev 2.), P3-1000E@1050(10x105/3), 768mb Kingston 7.5ns CAS3, G400MAX, SBLIVE, AHA 2940AU, IBM GXP75 60Gb (*2), IBM IBM GXP75 45Gb, Mitsumi FX48, Yamaha 4416S, Zyxel Prestige 200, 3Com 905C-TX On W98SE Lite, DX 8.1, PD 6.82

        Comment


        • #5
          It is definitely your G400 being on IRQ 5 !!!

          Its modern design needs to be placed on IRQ 9 or above and you SB16 emulation should be on IRQ 5 instead ...

          Try to swap those two and you should be very happy ...

          ------------------
          Cheers,
          Maggi

          Despite my nickname causing confusion, I am not female ...
          Despite my nickname causing confusion, I am not female ...

          ASRock Fatal1ty X79 Professional
          Intel Core i7-3930K@4.3GHz
          be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 2
          4x 8GB G.Skill TridentX PC3-19200U@CR1
          2x MSI N670GTX PE OC (SLI)
          OCZ Vertex 4 256GB
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          Super Flower Golden Green Modular 800W
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          Comment


          • #6
            Also, having two Highpoint controllers? I don't own this board, but should there be two?
            Gigabyte P35-DS3L with a Q6600, 2GB Kingston HyperX (after *3* bad pairs of Crucial Ballistix 1066), Galaxy 8800GT 512MB, SB X-Fi, some drives, and a Dell 2005fpw. Running WinXP.

            Comment


            • #7
              Yes, Wombat, there are two HighPoint Controllers listed for this motherboard. I have the same one.

              As far as disabling the USB goes- try it, but there's no guarantee that it'll work. With the BE6 (rev.1), and the latest BIOS, the USB keeps getting an IRQ, no matter whether I set it to disabled or not- Win98 kept allocating it anyway! In Win98, I disabled the SB16 emulation of my Live, as well as both COM ports and the parallel port (I hooked my printer up to the other PC in my home and shared it out, and I use a cable modem now, myself). All that still didn't get my Max to an IRQ of 9 or better. I ended up having to forcibly get the SbLive to a lower IRQ by playing with the PCI IRQ settings in the BIOS.

              I haven't yet checked to see what IRQ the G400 got in Win2K (dual booting, now), but it appears to be getting framerates comparable to what others are reporting in games, so...

              ------------------
              Ace
              "..so much for subtlety.."

              System specs:
              Gainward Ti4600
              AMD Athlon XP2100+ (o.c. to 1845MHz)

              Comment


              • #8
                Er..... I've heard of the thing about changing the IRQ to 9 and above, but I don't seem to be able to do it! Can anyone who has a BE-6 help me with this?

                I'll give the 5.50.001 drivers a shot, but I still need to change the IRQ for the G400.


                Thanks again.
                PIII 500mhz @ 520
                Matrox Millennium G400 32mb dh (no max)
                SB Live! Deluxe
                ABit BE-6 mb
                256mb SD Ram

                Comment


                • #9
                  Ace
                  You're half-right about the USB problem, I've installed two BE-6 MB's one of didn't react on disabling USB, but the other one did !?!(Same BIOS, Current level).

                  Kamiyu
                  Do you actually use the SB 16 Emulation? If you don't, then disable it.

                  What about your Controllers on 14,15, do you use them? You might be able to reallocate your USB to 14 or 15 if you disable one of them in your BIOS.

                  You should use 5.50.010 not 5.50.001.

                  ------------------
                  Abit BH6, PII-333@416(5x83), 128mb MCT 8ns, G400MAX, SBLIVE, AHA 2940AU, WDC 4.3, WDC 6.4, IBM GXP34 20.5, Mitsumi FX40, Yamaha 4416S, Zyxel Prestige 100IH, 3Com 905B-TX On WIN98SE, DX 7.0a, PD 5.50


                  Abit BE6-2 (Rev 2.), P3-1000E@1050(10x105/3), 768mb Kingston 7.5ns CAS3, G400MAX, SBLIVE, AHA 2940AU, IBM GXP75 60Gb (*2), IBM IBM GXP75 45Gb, Mitsumi FX48, Yamaha 4416S, Zyxel Prestige 200, 3Com 905C-TX On W98SE Lite, DX 8.1, PD 6.82

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Are you using both the serial ports and the parallel port? if not the try disabling the ones your using. I tried to force the agp to 10 or 11 (pirq0 in the bios)but it seems that all the irqs are already assigned before the agp asks for one, leaving the unfortunate situation where the only available irq is 5. I've now re-activated the serial ports and everything seems fine. Just try disabling every thing in the bios and then re-enabling them one at a time until everthing you need is now working.

                    irqs:
                    System Information report written at: 24-February-2000 21:11:56
                    [IRQs]

                    IRQ Number Device
                    10 Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead - English
                    14 Primary IDE Channel
                    15 Secondary IDE Channel
                    11 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
                    11 C-Media CM8738 Audio Driver (WDM)
                    5 3Com EtherLink III Bus-Master PCI Ethernet Adapter
                    5 Highpoint Technology Inc. HPT366 Ultra DMA 66 Controller
                    5 Highpoint Technology Inc. HPT366 Ultra DMA 66 Controller
                    1 PC/AT Enhanced PS/2 Keyboard (101/102-Key)
                    4 Communications Port (COM1)
                    3 Communications Port (COM2)
                    6 Standard floppy disk controller
                    8 System CMOS/real time clock
                    13 Numeric data processor
                    12 Microsoft PS/2 Port Mouse (IntelliPoint)

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Ace
                      Yes it's a weird case you have there.

                      I cannot test it cause I don't have a BE-6 available. But it might have to do with the fact that you disabled that Parallel Port.

                      The G-Card has a stupid tendency to grab the low IRQ's first (although I have not seen it grab lower than 5)

                      My own expirence with similar issues is to make sure that everything below 9 is occupied. Then uninstall the G400 drivers, start in safemode and remove the device itself. Do a cold reboot into normal mode and then follow the normal install procedure.

                      Yep! I definitely agree that Abit do have IRQ assignment problems.

                      One last thing. A lot of people ignores to flash their BIOS proberly (I'm not saying it's the case for you ). I mean to reset all BIOS data (PnP tables fx.) during the flash process. It has helped me once or twice!

                      ------------------
                      Abit BH6, PII-333@416(5x83), 128mb MCT 8ns, G400MAX, SBLIVE, AHA 2940AU, WDC 4.3, WDC 6.4, IBM GXP34 20.5, Mitsumi FX40, Yamaha 4416S, Zyxel Prestige 100IH, 3Com 905B-TX On WIN98SE, DX 7.0a, PD 5.50


                      Abit BE6-2 (Rev 2.), P3-1000E@1050(10x105/3), 768mb Kingston 7.5ns CAS3, G400MAX, SBLIVE, AHA 2940AU, IBM GXP75 60Gb (*2), IBM IBM GXP75 45Gb, Mitsumi FX48, Yamaha 4416S, Zyxel Prestige 200, 3Com 905C-TX On W98SE Lite, DX 8.1, PD 6.82

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Hehe. I have downloaded the latest BE6(1) BIOS, but I've been too occupied lately to get around to flashing it.

                        I usually do make sure to have the BIOS reset the PnP info (there's a command line switch for the flash utility, among other things).

                        Thanks for the tips. I'll probably go ahead and flash the BIOS next chance I get. Unfortunately, that may not be tonight.

                        ------------------
                        Ace
                        "..so much for subtlety.."

                        System specs:
                        Gainward Ti4600
                        AMD Athlon XP2100+ (o.c. to 1845MHz)

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          To fix the IRQ assignment problem, you must:

                          1. Make sure the Sound Blaster isn't in PCI slot 1 (next to the G400).

                          2. Go into your BIOS.

                          3. Manually assign Slot1 (or SlotA, I forget how the BE6 does things) to IRQ 9.

                          4. Turn OFF "plug and play OS".

                          5. Set IRQ 5 to "Legacy ISA" instead of "PCI / ISA Plug'n'Play". Do the same with DMA's 1 and 5.

                          6. Reboot. Windows will fix the IRQ for the emulation.

                          - Gurm

                          ------------------
                          Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.
                          The Internet - where men are men, women are men, and teenage girls are FBI agents!

                          I'm the least you could do
                          If only life were as easy as you
                          I'm the least you could do, oh yeah
                          If only life were as easy as you
                          I would still get screwed

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Hey, thanks a lot Gurm!

                            That sounds quite a bit like what I did the last time I had the Max on IRQ 9. I arrived at the end result through trial and error, though, and was facing the prospect of doing it again, at least until you posted that message. I'll give it a try as soon as I get the chance.

                            ------------------
                            Ace
                            "..so much for subtlety.."

                            System specs:
                            Gainward Ti4600
                            AMD Athlon XP2100+ (o.c. to 1845MHz)

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              That's what I figured TTCharon. After I got from work home yesterday, I checked the IRQ assignements under Windows 2000, and found that, as usual, the USB controller IS assigned an IRQ, and also that the Max is on IRQ 7.

                              Here's the really interesting part of my situation (besides the fact that the USB has an IRQ, even though I disabled it)- IRQ 9 is OPEN. In fact, there are several available IRQs in the system, thanks to the fact that I disabled the serial and parallel ports. But for some strange reason, the G400 still gets assigned 7 (usually the parallel port's). I can probably muck with the BIOS PCI IRQ settings, and force the slot next to the AGP to IRQ 9 (and hence the AGP slot, since they share an IRQ), but I don't understand why the Max isn't getting that free IRQ in the first place.

                              Anyhow, Abit must have some minor bugs in the BIOS of some of their motherboards- the BE6 isn't the only Abit board I've had that refuses to free IRQs for some disabled ports. My BH6 rev.1 also did this, but only with certain BIOS revisions.

                              ------------------
                              Ace
                              "..so much for subtlety.."

                              System specs:
                              Gainward Ti4600
                              AMD Athlon XP2100+ (o.c. to 1845MHz)

                              Comment

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