best motherboard settings for G400

[Allan1]

Just wondering what you guys are using for your motherboard settings. I have an ABIT BE6 and some settings are supposed to have a big impact on cards stability and performance. For example:

Video Bios Shadow
System Bios Shadow
Video Ram Shadow

etc, etc. Does anyone know the best settings for the G400 for max performance/overclockability or max compatibility?

[Allan1]

I'm suprised that no one has responded to this one considering all the tweaks that people are trying to do within Windows. I imagine the bios settings could potentially have a lot of impact, too.

I have 256MB of Ram and set the AGP aperture to 128. The video bios shadow is enabled as well as video bios cacheable and system bios cacheable. I have the video ram cacheable disabled.

[M Ragsdale]

I would have your AGP Ap. set to 256. Also, just try different settings to see which works best for your system. Every system will behave differently, and those settings seem to have small impacts.

Rags

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Some people call me the Space Cowboy.....

[Allan1]

From everything I've read around the net I heard that your AGP aperture size should be set to around half of your RAM. Is this incorrect?

As for the bios settings being different for every motherboard that is true but aren't there some settings that work best with specific videocards? For example, I've heard that you should not enable video shadow bios for newer boards like Voodoo3 and TNT2 but older boards with 8MB of memory or less should have it enabled. Am I misinformed?

[M Ragsdale]

Misinformed? Don't know, Why not try the settings for yourself, and see how they work for your system. Systems vary so much, BIOS settings are something that you kinda have to play with to find which ones work best for you. I don't know about disabling the shadow feature in the BIOS when running a 3dfx card, or an NVidia card, for that matter. On my system (BH6, G200, etc.) I get a small increase in performance running a couple of benchmarks when Shadow is enabled. Some people have told me it did not make any difference on their system at all.

Rags



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Some people call me the Space Cowboy.....

[MACKJ]

Hey Allan1

I have the same mobo as you along with the same amount of mem. I'll be installing my MAX tomorrow and will post my results pos or neg experiences and solutions should any trbl crop up. If I can't figure it out then I will be askin questions shortly. I have not heard of any BE6 specific troubles relating to graphics cards. Let me/us know how you make out!

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C366@550 ABIT BE6 256MB PC133 Quantum KA18.2G and CR13.3G MATROX G400 MAX Mits DP900U
C300A@450 ABIT BX6R2 256MB PC133 Quantum CR13.3G ATI RAGE FURY Mits DP900U

[The PIT2]

Allan1 the settings you have listed should normally be left disabled as they have little impact on the OS and may even slow it down if left enabled.

[Allan1]

OK, I've heard conflicting views now. I've read over on www.tweak3d.net in their motherboard/bios guide that video shadow bios and video bios cacheable should be enabled unless they give you trouble because they could give you a slight speed increase. I thought the card manufacturers recommended disabling them for compatibity reasons. Hmm. I wonder if someone could explain exactly what the settings do to the video cards interaction with the motherboard. (or point me to some place that does)

[LAMFDTK]

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