Tweak3d posted a G400 optimization guide but...

[Nuno]

http://www.tweak3d.net/tweak/matrox/g400/

It has some points that I think most of us don´t agree, and actually doing the oposite has solved some people problems, as far as I remember:

Video BIOS cacheable - Set to enabled. Performance should be slightly increased.

Video BIOS shadow - Set to enabled. Usually increases video card performance. If you encounter problems, set back to default and restart your system.

So, shouldn´t the video bios cache/shadow be disabled? Isn´t it pretty useless with the cpu/video card speeds nowadays?

AGP Aperture Size - This is the system memory available to your AGP device. The more memory available to your video card, the better it performs. Then again, it takes away from system memory, so don't set it too high or you'll have a load of fun with swap buffer errors...
128+ MB ram: Set to 64 MB or 32 MB (try both, pick which is better)
96 MB ram: Set to 48 MB or 24 MB (try both, pick which is better)
64 MB ram: Set to 32 MB or 16 MB (try both, pick which is better)
48 MB ram: Set to 24 MB or 12 MB (try both, pick which is better)
32 MB ram: Set to 24 MB or 12 MB (try both, pick which is better)
16 MB ram: Set to 24 MB or 12 MB (try both, pick which is better)

Yes, that is the theory, but G400 really dislikes AGP aperture size blow 128 in some systems. In some it only works with 256 (Phoenix bioses, wasn´t it?)

More, he recomends to install drivers forcing the instalation (system properties ->device manager)... not a good way I guess. Why doing that if Matrox driver instalation is fully automated? And not to mention that IN THAT WAY IT WON´T INSTALL TURBOGL?. And he doesn´t even mention the Matrox uninstall utility, so usefull to clean up the system from previous instalations.

Not a very good work, if you ask me.



[This message has been edited by Nuno (edited 28 November 1999).]

[paulcs]

Maybe we should nominate someone to speak on behalf of us to email them a short correction before we are flooded with "tweaked" G400 tech support problems.

Some of this should be called, "How to tweak your G400 to lock up in Quake2."

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[Ant]

Give me a list and I'll mail it to them

[Kruzin]

Well, cacheable, and shodow should be disabled. GBM can give the technical reasons.

And G400 wants 128 or 256 meg AGP aperture. In certain cases (as Nuno mentioned), 256 is required. Regardless of the amount of RAM in the system. (And if someone is running a G400 with only 16meg of system RAM, they've got bigger problems )

[Dyre]

Ill handle it guys!

I know the owner of the site, he lives right down the street. I was going to tell him, cause i just got done reading the article.
: )

The guy that wrote it pulled some stuff off a guide for a tnt2, hes fixing it now.
BTW his system IS running fine, he didnt have any problems at ALL with it.

------------------
</list>
PIII 450 @ 464
generic BX6 motherboard
G400 MAX : )
Maxtor 13 gig UDMA 33
Maxtor 13 gig UDMA 66
Creative 36x CD-ROM
HP 2x2x6x CD-RW
64 megs PC100 RAM
Intel 10/100
Soundblaster 32 AWE
DiamondMAX 56k
Logitech Wireless Desktop (best $50 ive ever spent)
4 large fans.


[This message has been edited by Dyre (edited 29 November 1999).]

[DuRaNgO]

I believe the biggest thing we've seen here is:

* Be sure that your g400 does not share an irq with any other card
jim

[Dyre]

Hey guys, im sending this thread to the editor. Any more suggested changes?

------------------
&lt;/list&gt;
PIII 450 @ 464
generic BX6 motherboard
G400 MAX : )
Maxtor 13 gig UDMA 33
Maxtor 13 gig UDMA 66
Creative 36x CD-ROM
HP 2x2x6x CD-RW
64 megs PC100 RAM
Intel 10/100
Soundblaster 32 AWE
DiamondMAX 56k
Logitech Wireless Desktop (best $50 ive ever spent)
4 large fans.

[Spunk]

First off, I have to let you all know that I ran my system exactly as I said it in the Tweak Guide. Next, the cache/shadow things were an unintentional fault, which was fixed in proofing shortly after it was posted.

I added editors notes correcting the auto install which matrox provided and I overlooked, and the Phoenix BIOS issue. I'm sorry that I couldn't write the article to the best of compatibility with all systems. This, however, was just not possible.

As with any tweak guide, results vary . Thanks for the positive feedback, and sorry for my mistakes! Keep up the good work at MatroxUsers. Peace.


------------------
David "Spunk" Grampa
Lead Hardware Editor
http://www.tweak3d.net

[Dyre]

I figured you just made a small slip. Its ok! : ) at least its all fixed now, right dave? keep up the great work at www.tweak3d.net. : )

------------------
&lt;/list&gt;
PIII 450 @ 464
generic BX6 motherboard
G400 MAX : )
Maxtor 13 gig UDMA 33
Maxtor 13 gig UDMA 66
Creative 36x CD-ROM
HP 2x2x6x CD-RW
64 megs PC100 RAM
Intel 10/100
Soundblaster 32 AWE
DiamondMAX 56k
Logitech Wireless Desktop (best $50 ive ever spent)
4 large fans.

[gbm]

The real problem with contemporary BIOSes' setup options is that you never know what they mean. I believe that the new functions are bound to old names, so the user gets totally confused.

There is no sense in BIOS Shadow - Disable, since shadowing is (and must be) ALWAYS enabled for any PCI/AGP cards, otherwise they will not be able to initialize at all. So - what's the real meaning of this option? Any ideas? Well, you better keep it enabled...

BIOS caching - should be enabled, athough it doesn't influence Windows apps.

Video RAM caching - video RAM is NEVER cached in any system. I believe that in contemporary machines this option refers to Write Combining, not caching. Thus "enabled" means write combining enabled, and "Disabled" means no write combining. You better keep it enabled...

AGP aperture size is the most mysterious option. In reality it should be set to approx. half the amount of installed RAM. But several tests show tat the REAL AGP aperure size is half of the value set in this BIOS option. WHY?!!!!

My personal recommendation is to set it to the size of RAM, this way the real size SHOULD be half of this. Funny, isn't it?...

Of course in some motherbords it may benecessary to set it to some other, random value. Even more funny...

[Nuno]

Cool, they corrected it

Thanks for the technical info, gbm (someone gives gbm the Murcer title, he for sure doesn´t deserve the Murcette one )

I don´t notice any difference in performance/stability with those settings enabled or disabled. However some systems (mainly AMD platforms, as far as I can remember) simply don´t work well with the G400 if those video shadowing/cacheing settings are enabled... any coments?

Hey Kruzin did I miss something? You´re a Moderator now? Congratulations man, you deserve it!



[This message has been edited by Nuno (edited 29 November 1999).]