IRQ Recommendations..

[Aidan J. Padden]

Hi,

I've got a quick question for you all if you don't mind.

My G400 MAX turned up on Friday and I've got a few queries regarding the IRQs.

My system is as follows:

Athlon 700
Asus K7M mobo
256 Mb RAM
Diamond MX300 Sound Card (PCI)
Adaptec AHA-2940 Ultra (PCI)
Hollywood Plus DVD Decoder (PCI)
D-Link 530CT Network Adapter (PCI)
Matrox G400 MAX (PCI)
Yamaha SWXG60 Tone Generator (ISA)

All the PCI Cards are using an IRQ. I've got the USB disabled, as well as COM2, which frees a couple of IRQs.

As the system is currently configured, I've got the MX300 and the G400 sharing IRQs.

I realise this is a bad idea, but what would you recommend to move into the place of the MX300? I'd say either the network card or the Hollywood Plus card, as I only use the network in NT, where the VGA performance isn't as much of an issue, as that is only used for development work.

Has anyone got any ideas or will giving the G400 it's own IRQ actually make any difference?

I'm currently getting 3D Mark 99 scores of between 6600-6700 at the default settings, which drops drastically down to 1800-1900 when running in 1600x1200x32 which I would have thought should have been higher.

The G400 is not currently overclocked. God forbid what scores it will pump out when it is

I will mainly be requiring the performance in 98se, as I don't really use 2000 for anyhting other than internet browsing yet as it is incompatible with some of the software I develop with.

Also, on a side note, I've got a Pioneer 6x DVD which seems to stall the system when using UDMA2 mode. When this is disabled everything is fine. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,


Aidan.

[Tessen]

You have a G400 Max PCI? I was under the impression they were AGP only.

I don't know much about the Athlon-compatible BIOS, but I would certainly try to get the Max on an IRQ by itself (I had to empty slot 1 on my own board, as it shares with the AGP slot, and manually set the IRQ's).

It seems to me you could do away with your DVD decoder card, as the Max plays DVD's nicely through the packaged software player, even on my system (P3-450. 128 Mb RAM). Unless you have component output on the Hollywood card, it might be redundant.

As to your DVD player, I can't say. I've got a Pioneer 10X set for slave on the secondary IDE channel, connected to an ATA/66 I/O card, and it runs fine.

....Tessen....

[Aidan J. Padden]

Doh!

God it must have been a rough weekend for me to make a cock-up of that one! Course it's an AGP card!

I can't take the DVD Decoder out of there because I only use it to make 'backup' copies of films - you can't do this with the Matrox - or has someone released a patch to remove the Macrovision yet? I suppose it's only Cinemaster but just how much has it been altered??

Plus I use the SPDIF out on the H+ to connect direct to my Yammy DSP-A1 amp, using this I can get DTS out of there. I am unaware of any software decoders that can output the DTS signal as of yet. Plus if they could the MX300 does not have a digital output so I lose my quality sound. Analogs just not up to scratch when it comes to DVD soundtracks!

Oh WTF I'll have a go at copying a protected title to see if the Macrovisions there or not. I'll have a quick browse to see if there are any hacks for it yet.

Is it actually going to make much difference giving the card an IRQ of it's own?

And unfortunately, the BIOS does not yet allow you to assign IRQs manually - but I'm keeping an eye out for new versions. I think they just released v1.007 but it doesn't seem to work.

The motherboard is an 'Unofficial' board from Asus, it has only been released to the OEM channel so it is a bit of a bugger to get drivers / updates for.

Is it actually going to make any difference giving the G400 it's own IRQ? Or shall I just leave it alone?

Thanks again,


Aidan..

[Aidan J. Padden]

Oh well she's all done now..

I got away with the following settings if you're interested..

0 System timer
1 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard
2 Programmable interrupt controller
3 REALmagic Hollywood Plus
3 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
4 Communications Port (COM1)
5 Vortex AU8830 Sound Blaster Pro Emulation
6 Standard Floppy Disk Controller
7 Printer Port (LPT1)
8 System CMOS/real time clock
9 Vortex AU8830 PCI Audio
9 Vortex AU8830 Multifunction PCI Platform
9 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
10 Adaptec AHA-2940AU PCI SCSI Controller
10 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
11 Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead - English
11 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
12 PS/2 Compatible Mouse Port
13 Numeric data processor
14 Primary IDE controller (dual fifo)
14 VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller
15 Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo)
15 VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller

Everythings looking good.. For some reason the sound card has stopped putting out so much white noise.. Weird..

Thanks again..


Aidan