Do I NEED AGP2x on my G400?! - Please Help!

[AndyB]

Hi Folks,

You seem a helpful lot, so I'm hoping you can clear up a few things re
my new G400 32 Mb DH card!

I've recently built my new system including the above card, and have
just downloaded and installed the latest drivers from Matrox (5.30),
the card also has the latest Bios 1.5 - 22.

I've just run the diagnostic program called PCIList, and it tells me
that although my card supports AGP2x, it is currently set to only
AGP1x........so basically I'd like to ask you folks:

1) Do I NEED AGP2x? (I use my PC almost exclusively for image editing
with Photoshop 5.5, and surfing the web /newsgroups, but play very few
games...due to the fact that I'm errr....crap at them!!)

2) If you STILL think it's worth me getting AGP2x, how do I go about
it? (I'm nervous about buggering about in the registry by the way!)

3) If it cocks something up, how easy is it to get back to AGP 1x?!!

If you are still awake, I have another question!!

I've read in a few places, that you should disable a couple of options
in the bios when you have the G400, namely:

Video Bios Shadowing
&
Video RAM Cache

What worries me slightly ( 'cause I'm like that!), is that the manual
for my ABIT BE6-II says that disabling Video Bios Shadow
will....."greatly decrease the display performance of the system"
So WHO do I believe!!!!

Hope you guys & gals can help me out with the above,

Many thanks in anticipation,

Andy B, Bolton, U.K.

[Kruzin]

2x is not worth loosing any sleep over. There are registry hacks you can try, available on the MURC download pages...they work for some, cause crashes for others.

You will not see any difference in performance with todays apps/games running 1x vs. 2x...

[Antlergoat]

You don't need it but its a little faster. I downloaded a utility that added a "tweak" tab in my "Advanced" display settings in the control panel(PowerDesk) On this tab was a check mark that enabled one to "check" or "un-check" AGP 2x. Hope this helps

This is an exaustive site with some hard coe utilities on it. Has some good info too.
<a href="http://grafi.ii.pw.edu.pl/gbm/matrox/download.html">Matrox Files</a>

[AndyB]

Many thanks for the tips guys...much appreciated.

Andy B, Bolton, U.K.