Haig , g400max STILL SLOW !

[ALBPM]

Matt,I have build 200 of you know what.

Paul

[Haig]

Hi Tombman,

Sorry bud, Tech Supp gives out no driver release dates other than saying it will be out soon.

Haig

[ALBPM]

Ok tombman, I have some scores for you but they are with the plain G400 and not the Max that you have.

Default 450MHz =1761 3DMarks, 6866 CPUMarks
512MHz(112 1/3)=1790 3DMarks, 7680 CPUMarks
527MHz(117 1/4)=1861 3DMarks, 8198 CPUMarks
558MHz(124 1/4)=1916 3DMarks, 8560 CPUMarks

As you can see my score at 527(117 1/4) is a bit higher. Yours should be higher than this considering you have a Max and more memory than I have in my system.

Now I have a hell of a time getting my system to run smoothly at 527. I get fewer errors and better stability at 504MHz(112 1/3) or at 558MHz(124 1/4) than at 527MHz(117 1/4). Also I have my AGP divider set at 2/3 for all these FSB settings.

If you want we can help you to optimize your system. I posted the URL for my .txt file for the User Defined settings:
home.att.net/~albpm/BX6rev2Bios.txt
Save this file and fill it out then email it back to me and we'll go from there.

Paul

[tombman]

Thank you for the scores , albpm .
Unfortunately it did not help me very much because , as you said , mine is a g400MAX .

Do you know a utility that can SAFELY over- or underclock a g400(max) ??

I can use powerstrip (my bios is save on a floppy disk) , but i heard so many complaints about it that i would prefer a different program !
I will post underclocked g400max scores if i can find a program so that we can really compare the two systems .
I have the feeling that NO MATTER HOW HIGH a G400 CHIP IS CLOCKED , the results are always the same ;-((

Haig , is there a statistic what "soon" means ?? ;-)
Is it meant "in weeks" or "in months" ??
BTW , do you know a program (i know you don´t support it) that can savely over - or underclock a g400 chip ?




[This message has been edited by tombman (edited 08-04-99).]

[ALBPM]

Hi tombman, please don't use PowerStrip!!!It may damage the Bios on your Max. Can you run you system at 558MHz??? Mine is more stable there than at 527MHz.

Don't worry about underclocking, just benchmark your card as is. There must be something else holding your system back. Possibly remnants of the TNT drivers or something we can change in your system Bios.
By the way, what kind of memory do you have in there now???

Paul

[M Ragsdale]

Hi tombman,
I have done some testing of my own this afternoon and "borrowing" a P3550, I tested a TNT2 using the 1.80 reference drivers, I benchmarked it at 1600X1200 32bit, trilinear, and the best I can get is around 1700. This is on a BH6 with 256 MB RAM. And I still think my G200 looks better in both 3D and 2D. I simply cannot get any higher no matter what I did, short of using 16 bit.
Paul Smokes my scores every which way. And at this resolution, your video card speed will have greater impact on your scores than CPU speed would.

Matt

[Genom]

Tombman: If changing your FSB had no effect on speeds then there is something worng with your rig. If I change the FSB on my system I can see anything from a 10% to 40% speed difference and I am clocking my CPU higher than you are.

I dont have any suggestions as I dont have a clue what it might be. I fixed msot of my problems by using the matrox utility to remove the old drivers and reinstall (except for half-life performance issues still)

[tombman]

Haig , i read this thread :

http://forums.gagames.com/forums/Forum109/HTML/002526.html

and the errors that has been reported there are VERY similiar to mine !
(display freezes randomly etc.)

I really get the feeling that the g400(max) cards are not stable at all !! (at least on abit mobos !!)

[tombman]

Genom , i meant it did not change the behaviour of the g400max being slower than on other rigs!
(of course , changing the FSB will result in higher performance)

[Haig]

Hi Tombman,

Scytale quotes the following:

"AGP1X+BM seems to work rock solid under all circumstances, but AGP2X+BM keeps stalling the display within minutes, or the system starts displaying 100% pure garbage."

You are having low score problems.

What happens with your setup when in 1x mode?

Also try this:

Use only one stick of memory and clock down to 100fsb.

Does this help?

Haig

[The PIT]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that abit motherboards arn't to good with a full compliment of ram chips.
Try Haigs advice

[G3DN]

Matt,

I'm assuming your using a TNT2 ultra and not a plain TNT2. Also the reason Tombman's scores are higher then ours is because he has his TNT 2 overclocked to 170/210. Here is what I get with a Creative TNT2 Ultra running at the default speed of 150/183 and at 185/220. My system stats are: Celeron 366 @550 100MHz Bus, 128MB's PC100 RAM, SBLive...

3dMark99 Max *150/183*
----------------------
640x480x16- 4408
800x600x16- 4376
1024x786x16- 4363
1280x1024x16- 4184
1600x1200x16- 2825
640x480x32- 4348
800x600x32- 4355
1024x786x32- 4006
1280x1024x32-2415
1600x1200x32-1729

3dMark99 Max *185/220*
----------------------
640x480x16- 4417
800x600x16- 4432
1024x786x16- 4421
1280x1024x16- 4387
1600x1200x16- 3448
640x480x32- 4349
800x600x32- 4394
1024x786x32- 4401
1280x1024x32- 2985
1600x1200x32- 2060

3dMark99 Max *185/220* (CPU running at 567MHz 103MHz bus)
----------------------
800x600x32- 4406
1600x1200x32- 2076

As you can see the reason I get a score over 2000 is because I am running the TNT 2 way over the default speed just as Tombman is. I'd love to give you some numbers for a G400 Max but I don't have mine yet. =(
I personally think the Max will be plenty fast enough and will give you playable framerates with most games for the next year. Probably the only upcoming 3d chip that would make me buy another new card before a year is up would be the Glaze 3D...that is if it ever makes it to the market...I've been talking with them every so often and they seem very confident.
I fell in love with Environment Bump mapping when I saw the G400 at E3 and I knew the next card I would own would be able to do it. Since the Glaze 3D does Environment Bump mapping exactly the same way as the G400, it would be the only one I'd personally consider getting. I also can't wait to see what else Matrox has up their sleeve for next year!

Dave

[SlurpDog]

Well, I ran a test for you. On my 375Mhz Celeron with a regular G400 (overclocked to just over Max speeds, 151/202), I get 1852 3DMarks in 1600x1200x32 with 32-bit Z-buffer. I'll be getting a PIII-450 in a day or two, and I'll run a few more tests for you then if you'd like.

[Xor Arch]

Hi Tombman

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Xor'Arch

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[M Ragsdale]

Hi G3DN,
You assumed right, in fact it was a V770 ultra, no overclocking done. I am sure that I would get close to 2000 if I would have bumped the speed up. I didn't think of looking at his post to see what speed he was clocking his TNT2ultra at. I just assumed default speed, since he was wanting a score for the G400Max not overclocked. I am sure that if Paul were to overclock his card, he would get somewhat higher scores. Anyhow, my system as setup would be a tilted comparison, when comparing my setup to Paul's. Mine should have the advantage, being that I was using a TNT2ultra, and Paul was using a normal, everyday G400. I am impressed that his scores were able to out do anything I could obtain. I am just having a hard time seeing how tombman got those kind of numbers out of his TNT2ultra. Maybe he could "enlighten" me.

Matt