G400MAX and "AGP Driving value" on Abit KA7

[Venturer]

What s the best AGP driving value for achieving stability at 4x with KA7 and
G400MAX (AGP 4x capable)? I found that "A6" is good but it isn t totally
stable: Games hung after 1hr of playing. No way to work with AGP 4x and
option "AUTO" enabled: System freezes after few seconds.
I noticed also that all hex values with "6" (86; 96; A6; B6;C6;D6....F6) are pretty stable.

[Electric Amish]

I never had any problems with the default setting on mine.

amish

[Venturer]

Bit is your system running with AGP 4x enabled? I think your card is working at 2x! Check it with Matrox utility!

[dZeus]

just to remind you, the G400 won't run a single damn fps faster with 4x AGP enabled over 2x (in fact the difference between 2x and 1x on the G400 is very questionable).

[Venturer]

I know! But here we have AGP4x feature; we paid for it so......DAMN we want it!

[Wombat]

You'll find no sympathy here. If your motherboard can't handle AGP 4x correctly, who cares? Also, you have an Abit motherboard. You never know how well one of those will work.

$10 says it's Abit's fault, not Matrox's. But it's a moot point. Run AGP 2x.

[Venturer]

First: I never said it was a fault of Matrox or Abit. Simply G400MAX doesn't work correctly on KA7 at 4x transfer mode. They are 2 products designed to meet AGP 4x specs, so someone made a big mistake. It doesn't matter who! And it isn't a point of view.

I'm not searching sympathy here, but only a technical advice.
I thought that was an unofficial technical support forum for users of Matrox's video cards that are in troubles, and not a place where fools can insult others. I was wrong.
Probably i know better than you how a motherboard eletronically works...
So please shut up and return in your super ego.

[dZeus]

hey, hey calm down, will ya?



Wombat is just saying that Matrox should have kept their cards 2x because of people (like you) that would complain about not being able to use 4x while it wouldn't really make any difference. But marketing obviously was more important than people complaining that 4x wouldn't work ...

[Wombat]

First: I never said it was a fault of Matrox or Abit.

Well, I did. You are probably not going to get 4x stable, and this is because of Abit's engineering and less-than-stellar quality control.

I'm not searching sympathy here, but only a technical advice.

And the technical advice was to give up. I highly respect dZeus's opinion, he puts a lot of effort into understanding what can be done. If <I>he</I> thinks you're going to put in a lot of effort for no gain, listen to him. Don't whine about "we paid for it so......DAMN we want it!" It just sounds like you're ungrateful for sound advice.

and not a place where fools can insult others. I was wrong. Probably i know better than you how a motherboard eletronically works...

This isn't a place where fools can insult others. It's also not a place where they can try to pull rank (BTW, you're almost certainly wrong about your level of knowledge). If you'd care to test the issue, fine, but I can't tell if you're here for advice or just trying to make enemies quickly.

So please shut up and return in your super ego.

"Shut up" falls nowhere near the common courtesy that we try to maintain here on MURC, so you might want to do a little self-adjustment. That kind of posting may be normal on other forums, but won't work here. Don't you even <I>try</I> to pull of a condescending attitude here. You'll be a little fish in a big pond. If you persist, I'll sick Gurm on you, and he'll show you how it's really done

Have a nice day.

[Sasq]

Might is suggest the newly re-posted Survival guide

Dan

[Tempest]

Sorry Venturer, but as I posted into the Matrox Support Forums, it can't be done (at least on my board). And yes, I've tried ALL the values
I wouldn't find it too hard to believe since the KA7 has a known history of problems with the AGP bus. That's why it's difficult if not impossible to get, for example, a Radeon to work with the KA7.

[Venturer]

Enemies and wars often born from nothing.....or from wrong words.
Wombat i'm sorry, if i was been rude with you. Seems here we have missed the interpretation of our words.

Don't whine about "we paid for it so......DAMN we want it!" It just sounds like you're ungrateful for sound advice.

That was intended simply as a joke (see the smiles). I didn't want to be ungrateful.


Also your reply

You'll find no sympathy here. If your motherboard can't handle AGP 4x correctly, who cares?

doesn't sound very kind or polite near the MURC's common curtesy, but i understand you had to compensate.
Respect is everything (even in this forums' survival guide ) !!
So, sorry again.

You'll be a little fish in a big pond.

You are right because we all are little fishes in a big pond: We are men, not Gods! The illusion is to be a God (or a fish bigger than pond )! The illusion is to have the power of something!


As for my issue perhaps i found a solution: Tempest can you try again the value 76 and tell us how it works? With 76 it isn't crashed yet after 284minutes of 3d benchmarking (3d mark 2001).

[Tempest]

Tempest can you try again the value 76 and tell us how it works?

Okay, I tried it...

Setup:
-Athlon 850 (not overclocked) + Abit KA7-100, latest RAID-modded TY BIOS
-Matrox G400 MAX, AGP 4x capable, IRQ 9 dedicated to this card only
-Windows 2000 SP2
-All the other stuff mentioned in the Soap Box "How Phat Is Your Rig ?" thread as System 1

Preparing:
Selected the value 76h from BIOS, booted into Windows, then selected "Default" AGP with the Matrox Tech Support Tweak Utility. Rebooted, selected AGP 4x, then rebooted again. Confirmed with the MTSTU that system was in fact running AGP 4x.

Tests:
3DMark 2001, default benchmark: System ran the first few default benchmark tests, then froze on Dragothic high detail. Tried another time, this time system froze on Lobby high-res. 3DMark 2001 ran fine with AGP 2x.
Rally Trophy, 1024x768x32bit: System ran the front-end, but froze almost immediately (2 sec) when getting into the simulation (3D) part. Tried again, this time with 640x480x16 resolution. The simulation part ran for less than 10 seconds, then froze. Rally Trophy ran fine with AGP 2x.

So thanks for the suggestion, but it appears that 76hex doesn't work for me... Although this could be because of some differences in the BIOS settings, of course. But if it works on your system, then you run AGP 4x

[Venturer]

Thx for the feedback, Tempest!
So that led me to the conclusion every KA7 has different elettric sensibility for AGP bus. Or it may be due to the board's revision (mine is 1.02). However with 76 it isn't totally stable yet. Indeed now it freezes after 5 hr of benchmarking! As for BIOS settings you need only to optimize "Advanced chipset configuration" menu. For gain more stability i suggest to disable "Fast R/W turnaround" option and to set the timings of the RAM to "fast" or "normal".