1X AGP to 2x AGP

scriptasylum

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Joined
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I am using an older SlotA motherboard (Gigabyte GA-7ix) with a 700MHz Athlon and installed winXP with a Geforce2 gts vid card with 40.72 drivers.

I installed the AGP chipset driver from the manufacturers site but when i view the advanced nvidia graphics properties, it says Im running at 1X AGP. I KNOW the board supports 2x AGP and so does the video card. There isn't a place in BIOS (using the newest BIOS version) to change it.

How can I enable 2x AGP? Like I said: the BIOS has no place to set 1X or 2X. I am seeing some slowdowns in some older games that should not be there. I had the same games running with a different (but same generation/chipset) gateway motherboard with the GF2 gts and they ran better.

EDIT:
I just downloaded the AGP miniport drivers direct from AMD and give those a shot when I get home tonight. Maybe those are better than the ones at Gigabyte??

Quick extra question: Do you have to re-install video drivers if you change the AGP driver?
 
Awww, come on, no one knows anything about this? :p

BTW: the AMD AGP driver didn't help. And I re-installed the video drivers after updating the AGP chipset driver.

I'm sure the kids will be happy with it the way it is, but I'm not :) Even at reduced potential, it is still head and shoulders above the Compaq Celery 566 with integrated video (810e chipset) they had before! I get just shy of 3500 3dmarks which isn't great, but it will suffice for games like Midtown madness (1 & 2), Jheretic, Tomb Raider and the such.
 
I have the same prob!

I was using 3d-benchmark to test my system. And I found out that I use AGP 1x instead of AGP 2x (my mobo does support that) ...

well that means I can increase my systems perfomance big time!

So i got this program nvmax to change the rate to 2x.. but next time I boot up the pc, the system will hang after a few minutes...

I tried different options but nothing works.. what am I forgetting??

Here are some system specs:

System Info Version: 2.2
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP
Processor: AMD Athlon™ @ 706 MHz
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440
Total Physical Memory: 256 MB
Free Physical Memory: 98.70 MB
Motherboard Manufacturer: MSI
Motherboard Model: MS-6195

Description: Primair beeldschermstuurprogramma
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Name: NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440
Total Local Video Memory: 64 MB
Total Local Texture Memory: 64 MB
Total AGP Memory: 30 MB
Display Driver: nv4_disp.dll
Display Driver Version: 6.13.10.3082
Driver WHQL Certified: No
Max Texture Width : 2048
Max Texture Height: 2048
Max User Clipping Planes: 0
Max Active Hardware Lights: 8
Max Texture Blending Stages: 8
Textures In Single Pass: 2
Vertex Shader Version: 1.1
Pixel Shader Version: N/A
Max Vertex Blend Matrices: 0
Max Texture Coordinates: 8
Vendor ID: 0x10de
Device ID: 0x0171
Sub-System ID: 0x00000000
Revision: 0xa3

Revision: 1.0
Rate: 1x, 2x (1x enabled)
Aperture Size: 32 MB
Sideband Addressing: supported (disabled)
Fast Write: not supported
 
Is there some confusion here between AGP data rate x4 (say) and the AGP hardware standards of say AGP2. The voltages and transfer rates are different. You could "Burn" a graphics card selecting the worng version of AGP in the bios with a cheap graphics card (new version) as the old voltages are higher if I remember correctly.
 
No, I don't there is any confusion. I (and I think Efthem too) means that the system will not allow AGP 2x. Usually chipset drivers and/or a setting in BIOS is the culprit, but for some reason it is stuck on 1X.

The board documentation and the video card documentation both state that AGP2X is supported. However, in my situation, the BIOS does not even have a setting where you can switch from 1X to 2X since it is an OEM board.

I'll check out that nvmax proggie and see if that helps.
 
I had this very same problem with an Asus CUSL2-C board and a Matrox G400. It ran at 2x and refused to run at 4x. Asus told me over the phone that it was the card's fault and Matrox told me via email that it wasn't the card, but it was the board. In the end, I got rid of the crappy 815e board and got an Asus A7V333 and a Radeon 8500. All is well in happy land. :) I guess some combos are just not nice to each other.
 
there is a program that fixes that but it escapes my feble mind at the momment, ill get back to you when I remember.
 
OK, I think I've found the answer, although it's not what I wanted to hear...

Apparently, there were "issues" with the original AMD AGP chipset (AMD75x) and the Geforce cards when the AGP is at 2X mode. To compensate for the problem, AMD decided to make their drivers force 1X only.

I have found all sorts of tools that will force the AGP to 2X, but they either cost money, don't work with recent detonator drivers (anothing after 29.xx), or do not work in WindowsXP. Even then, the "issues" may cause problems anyway.

One program, Powerstrip, did adjust the AGP bus to 2X, but it costs $$$ and the mobo/CPU costed less than the program. Plus it doesn't work unless the user has admin access. This PC is for the kids and anyone can assume they will not have admin access so there goes that idea.

Oh well. It's not like their PC is a speed machine. I guess they will have to live with what they have.
 
hey...

that did sorted out some things.

thanks for explanation guys!

guess I will have to live with it also :(
 
OK, I can live with AGP 1X, but here's another question: Which CPU/GOU combo should I use?

My wife's PC is using a GA-7DX motherboard/1.33 T-bird currently using a Geforce 256 32MB video card (very old). She doesn't play many games, but uses more applications that could use the CPU power like Photoshop for example.

The kids are using the gateway OEM mobo/700MHz SlotA Athlon and a Geforce2 GTS 32MB video card. The kids don't use any hardcore applications, but like to play games (go figure :))

My logic in coming up with this combo was that since the kids play video games, they would see better results with a lesser CPU, but help compensate with a decent GPU. Since the wife doesn't play games, I figured the GF256 would be plenty (BTW: NFS-HP2 works surprisingly well on her setup with the weak video).

Since the Gateway OEM board is "stuck" on AGP 1x using the better video card, is the GF2 GTS being wasted? Or would I get the same performance with the GF256 since it runs at AGP1X anyway? If the kids PC will not notice any difference using the even older video card, I could put the GF256 in there and give the better video card to the wife's PC, where it will use more of its potential.

I really don't want to just "try it" since the PCs are up and running now with no problems (except the kids PC being stuck on AGP1x).
 
AGP 4x

Hi guys
My mobo supports a 4x AGP buswidth but it only runs at 2x now. Even when i set the bios to 4x it goes to 2x still. Im using MSI 6309 p3 866 with a gf4 ti 4400 128mb card. Is AGP aperture = 128 then or? How can i make it 4x?
 
scriptasylum: i think u would get the better performance as things are now. i think getting the graphics card to a slower model would definitely slow down the kids computer.

perhaps you need to flash the motherboard bios or something? it sounds like a bit of an incompatibility for it to only be running a gf2gts at 1x agp when the motherboard can do 2x. I run a 2mx at home and it runs at 2x agp on a p3 750 with QDI BrillianX 1S/2000 motherboard (Intel 440BX chipset). I would definitely look into the BIOS thing... although it may be hard to download the correct BIOS for that motherboard model... plus, it might be a good idea to get a 2nd opinion before updating the BIOS as it can become a pretty edgy task if things were to go wrong :( i lost a COM port through flashing the BIOS a while back... I now only have COM1 :(


fyc888: i would personally set the AGP aperture rate to the maximum possible - I read a lot about setting it to half ur ram or something like that. I set mine to 256 when I was only running 128Mb RAM and it worked perfectly. I now run 512Mb RAM and still have it on 256 aperture (as thats the maximum on my motherboard).
 
thx

Thanks a mill for ur reply. Just set it to 256 too as its the maximum but it still runs at 2x even when i set it to 4x. So weird. :/
 
Originally posted by TechSupport
perhaps you need to flash the motherboard bios or something? it sounds like a bit of an incompatibility for it to only be running a gf2gts at 1x agp when the motherboard can do 2x. I run a 2mx at home and it runs at 2x agp on a p3 750 with QDI BrillianX 1S/2000 motherboard (Intel 440BX chipset). I would definitely look into the BIOS thing... although it may be hard to download the correct BIOS for that motherboard model... plus, it might be a good idea to get a 2nd opinion before updating the BIOS as it can become a pretty edgy task if things were to go wrong :( i lost a COM port through flashing the BIOS a while back... I now only have COM1 :(

I was able to find an update on the Gateway site and I did flash the BIOS. But, no difference. I don't know if you read an earlier reply I posted, but it basically says there is a known AMD 75x chipset and AGP 2X issue. The drivers are written to actually reduce the AGP to 1X to solve the problem. I found this answer only after crawling through countless forums. Read the quote I posted a while ago below:

Originally posted by Scriptasylum
OK, I think I've found the answer, although it's not what I wanted to hear...

Apparently, there were "issues" with the original AMD AGP chipset (AMD75x) and the Geforce cards when the AGP is at 2X mode. To compensate for the problem, AMD decided to make their drivers force 1X only.

I have found all sorts of tools that will force the AGP to 2X, but they either cost money, don't work with recent detonator drivers (anothing after 29.xx), or do not work in WindowsXP. Even then, the "issues" may cause problems anyway.

One program, Powerstrip, did adjust the AGP bus to 2X, but it costs $$$ and the mobo/CPU costed less than the program. Plus it doesn't work unless the user has admin access. This PC is for the kids and anyone can assume they will not have admin access so there goes that idea.

Oh well. It's not like their PC is a speed machine. I guess they will have to live with what they have.

Thanks everyone. I appreciate all the input.
 

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