TurboGL on SS7 possible

[MarkD]

In two other threads it was suggested that it is possible to get TurboGL working on SS7 mobo's (but this was not obvious from the thread's subject): http://forums.murc.ws/ubb/Forum5/HTML/008168.html http://forums.murc.ws/ubb/Forum3/HTML/001596.html
The thrick is just to 'delete' the VIAGART.VXD from your windows system directory. I have also tested this solution (just by renaming the file, or moving it to another directory) and it worked. I have a nice framerate increase in Q2 (on my poor K6-2)!
Two downsides: upon booting W98 I get the message that a reference in my registry is invalid (quite normal), but more seriously my system hangs upon powering down, which means there still is an issue somewhere.
The first issue can be solved by instead of deleting the file from the system directory, removing the reference from the registry itself (make sure you export that line before deleting it, so that it can easily be restored later on).
Anyway, it would be nice to here if other SS7 users could give some input here. Perhaps 'we' can find a final work-around, without parasitic issues. It is clear that the conflict is between the TurboGL and the VIA-driver.


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AMD-K6-2-300, EPOX-58MVP3C-M,
Marvel G400, 64MB+64MB(PC100+PC133), Maxtor DM40PLUS 30GB,
W98 (no SE), currently no overclocking (FSB=100)

[MegaManX4]

Can it be that this "solution" disables AGP Transfers?

Mega

[Joel]

What I did to solve the error message on boot up problem was to actually uninstall the VIA AGP driver. As to whether if it is running AGP transfers or not, Power Strip says it is.

Joel

[Taz]

Mark, the problem is as you say with the VIA drivers as this has not been an issue with ALi based SS7 boards and presumably SiS as well. Judging by the other posts I have read this problem is not just with their SS7 boards but also Slot1 ones as well.

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You can't always get what you want, but if you try some times you just might find you get what you need.

{The Rolling Stones}

[Alfie]

I've been posting that link wherever the problem has arisen(Epox boards-turbogl and quake III)I'm glad someone has picked up on it.
System:Epox mvp3g2,K6-3 400mhz@450,g400 16megs.
Tried the trick of deleting viagart.vxd(kept it safe in recycle bin) pcilist showed agp enabled 2x transfer.Installed turbogl in QuakeII,checked video in game,showed default opengl.
It worked!
This is not a cure,but a possible workaround.
Hats off to shogun,who came up with the idea in the first place.
I agree with more people trying it and seeing.I've yet to hear if QuakeIII actually works on Epox boards(SS7) when this trick is implemented.
I can attest to turbogl working.

[Joel]

Quake III does work and with the TGL also. Well at least my demo does.

Joel

[This message has been edited by Joel (edited 28 March 2000).]

[kjliew]

Please mention which version of Powerdesk and TurboGL you're using. This is a very important clue, I see none of you mention this.

Both version of TurboGL 1.0 and 1.3 have always worked on my MVP3 SS7 system as long as you stick with PD5.30. I also have VIAGART 4.00 installed in turbo mode. Games tested are Half-life and Quake2. Unreal tested with TurboGL 1.0 once, but slower than D3D mode.

[Alfie]

COOL,Joel.
Now that there may be an actual workaround,perhaps others will follow.

kjliew,
I'm using powerdesk 5.52 and the version of tgl that came with it.As 5.52 worked fine(excluding tgl)I've not used tgl as I play Quake II at 1024x768 and saw no major improvement,however can state it did work for a full session,and now hearing Quake III also works gives us hope!

[kjliew]

Alfie,
You confused me. Are you using ICD or TurboGL to play Quake2? It sounds to me that you're using ICD rather than TurboGL. PD5.52 doesn't come with TurboGL. Matrox released TurboGL 1.3 which supports PD5.52 at a later time. The ICD always works for me regardless of PD version, although I heard that Quake3 doesn't work and I don't have the game to test this out.

There are a lot of threads in the forum that the ICD in PD5.5x is comparable to TurboGL in term of performance, which makes TurboGL unneccessary. Well, it didn't happen to me. I agree that ICD in PD5.52 is a major improvement, but for K6-2/MVP3 TurboGL is much faster than the ICD. I mostly play games at 800x600 or lower.

So let's make the question clear....
TurboGL is TurboGL, ICD is ICD. And,

Does the recommended fix-up (delete VIAGART.VxD) makes TurboGL work with PD higher than version 5.30?

[MarkD]

Heheh, happy to see this thread is alive...

kljiew:
I'm using PD 5.41 and I think (I'm not at home now) that this is in combination with the TGL 1.0 (In fact I'm almost sure, since the TGL 1.3 requires PD 5.5x).

I have not checked whether or not this disables AGP-transfers, but my Q2 runs definitely faster with the TGL compared to the ICD, and that is what counts for me (as far as gaming is concerned of course). I'm playing at 1280x960 at 34fps (Q2, timedemo1), which is quite respectable for my K6-2-300.

I'm using PD 5.41 since this is the latest version supported for the MarvelG400. Anyway, I guess I will try the TGL 1.30 in combination with PD 5.41, althoug it is not supported.

[kjliew]

MarkD,
Thanks for your findings. I will try it out when I return home to day. All K6-2/3 users will be rejoiced if that really work out.

Are you using VGARTD.VxD in replacement of VIAGART.VxD?

[MarkD]

First of all let me make clear that this was not my idea. I just posted this topic and the links to other threads, cause I thought that other people might have missed them. I received the word first from Alfie.

By the way, on the matrox forums there is also a nice report (independent of this discussion) on the same problem:
http://forums.murc.ws/ubb/Forum5/HTML/008282.html

kjliew:
I don't know if W98 defaults to VGARTD.VxD upon removing (or uninstalling) the VIAGART.VXD, I'm not the specialist here
Maybe it's too early for rejoicing, in my case my system still hangs upon shutting it down, but who cares, I was shutting it down anyway, right Seriously, I don't want to have my system in this situation, so I think I will switch my system from the situation with and without VIAGART.VXD everytime I decide to play...

In general this could be done by a registry patch before and after playing (and rebooting), but I don't know how to have a patch remove a key in the registry. Anybody an idea?

[This message has been edited by MarkD (edited 28 March 2000).]

[Joel]

I'm running PD version 5.52 with the 1.3 TGL on a Win'98 system and without the VIAGART.VXD installed everything runs good. This is what I did to test. I renamed the VIAGART.VXD file so that the system would default to the Microsoft VGARTD.VXD. Upon rebooting I did receive an error meesage stating that the viagart.vxd file could not be found, but upon hitting any key the system continued to start up. So far I have not had any instabilities and all D3D games, tested so far, seem to actually run faster. Running the Incoming benchmark at 1024x768x32bit showed an increase from 69fps to 75fps. Quake2 still runs good with the regular ICD getting about 38fps at 800x600x32bit, but the real clincher is that now it will run with the TGL also, getting about 49fps. Not only that but Quake3 also runs. At 1024x768x32bit with all settings high it got around 27fps in demo1 with the TGL. Agp is still 2x. I'll do some more testing later but at this point things look good. I got rid of the boot up error message by run the VIA AGP VXD uninstall. Also I can now set my AGP aperture in BIOS to 256MB without it going to 1x AGP like it use to.

Joel



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System Specs

[MarkD]

Does anybody has an idea what the function of this f**cking VIAGART.VXD is, except screwing up our system ????

Thanks VIA, for this new cool driver feature !

[silfreed]

Does deleting/disabling the viagart.vxd file help VIA/G200 users? How about getting 5.52 to work? If no one else has tried, I just might do that tonight.

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K6-2 500, Epox mvp3g2, Mill G200, 128m, Vortex2, Maxtor 13.6g