Unluck with G400 vanilla??

[RSP]

Hello, this is my first time joining this forum. OK check this out..
RSP uses: G400 16MB SH, bulk version, assembled in China, no fan. Just the card, static bag and Installation CD. Purchased early September '99. Currently running at 148/186/148, uses MGATweak 1.20

Everything is OK. I got no trouble with TechDemo, Expendable, most games, etc.
It just my G400 generates some kind of "black horisontal stripes" that occured if I tried to increase SEC SGRAM's clock speed. >>>But it might not occurs on other g400 cards.<<<

How to show those black stripes:
Install nVidia SphereMark demo and run it. Press "1" then you should see a colored ball. Change your windows walpaper to none, or any bright (white) wallpapers. Anyone see the black stripes?? Try to stare at your monitor carefully.

Those black stripes were bugging me. If you were lucky then you should not have this problem. Any solution??
Thanks for reading..

My machine (built January 99):
PII 350 at 361 Mhz (102 FSB)
Iwill BD100 mobo, latest BIOS
64MB Visipro SDRAM PC100
4.3 GB Seagate MedalistPro FastATA-2
Creative SBLive OEM
Philips PCA33IM fax/modem
Creative 36X CDROM
SPC 17" Monitor at 1024x768 HiColor
Windows 98 (not SE) SR-1
PowerDesk 5.41.008
TurboGL 1.0002

[leporis]

Welcome RSP

if you increase some timings on the sgram(specially the top 5 ones) optimization tab you should fix the lines although at least theoretically it will reduce performance.
but you can always reduce a little the mclock speed.

my g400 for instance handles 178/225/178 W/O probs.

[RSP]

Thanks for replying..
BTW, my G400 equipped with SEC SGRAM 6 nS and
it won't survive being OC-ed greater than 150/200/150 (poor me).
My SGRAM Optimization are: 3,1,3,9,3,1,fast,1,1,1,1.4,1.4,2497. What's yours??
I can't go any further since increasing any of the top 5 tabs would ruin my screen.
I'm currently using 148/186/148 because it has quiet good performance with less black stripes. With 3DMark2000 it resulted:
Fill Rate (Single Tex) : 260 Mpix/sec
Polygon Count (1 light): 1140 Ktri/sec.
P.S.
How could you do your OC-ing so high, WOW..!
Any other tips available? Thanks..

[leporis]

here go my memory timings RSP!!!


to go up to 225mhz mclock the timings are at this maximums:
3,1,3,8,4,1,fast,1,1,1,0.6,0.6,1921

but at 213mhz the can be:
3,1,2,7,3,1,fast,1,1,1,0.6,0.6,1921

it´s up to you to see on your board which is faster since better timings also push performance up

[leporis]

by the way, can´t you overclock your cpu any further like 392(112fsb) or 436(124fsb)

my p2 350 goes all the way up to 466 but unfortunately my pc100 ram won´t pass 125mhz safely

[RSP]

Thanks a lot leporis.
I hope these setting would work with mine.

I already tried (hardly) to remove those black stripes, but all I can do is reduce them by lowering my G400 clocks (sigh..).
I wonder if there is anyone that also had my problem, or it might happened to them but they just don't know it??

I accept all kind of suggestions and solutions. I can do some hardware repair job like replacing components if it's necessary.

About OC-ing my P2-350..
Well, I ever used 392 (112 fsb) setting but my it won't increase my machine overall gaming performance because of my lack of memory (64 MB is all I have).

Btw, I have an idea about an Add-on/ upgrade card for G400 that could increase its polygon and fill rate performance (which is quiet low I think). It's kind of joining a G400 with GeForce. I'm sure it will be a super 3D Accelerator ever.
What's your opinion about this..

Thanks...