Strange problem???

[Inzan]

When I set the Graphic Aperture Size in bios to 256 MB my computer starts and everything seems to be working fine.
Until I start UT. I get like 200 errors which seems to be caused by D3D.
Quake 3 Arena works fine though.
BUT when I take out my soundcard, Diamond MX300, UT starts and runs perfectly with 256 MB GAS.
_WHAT_ has GAS and the graphic settings to do with my soundcard?
Everything works when the GAS is set to 128 MB and the soundcard is in.
OK I know it isn't that much of a deal since I can run the computer with 128 MB GAS, but this whole thing with the soundcard seems strange to me.


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P3@620mhz Step Anchorage cooling system, 128 MB PC133 SDRAM, IBM 22GXP 18 GB, Matrox G400 32MB DH, Nokia 19" 446XPRo, Asus P3B-F, Diamond Monster Sound MX300

[Thundrchez]

The problem is that Diamond Multimedia has total crap for driver support. You may want to download the latest Aureal reference drivers for your sound card.

It is a shame. Aureal has a good chip on their hands, and people like Diamond Multimedia make unsupported total pieces of crap out of it. The good news is that Aureal is starting to make their own boards now.

I can think of no logical explanation for the connection between 256 MB Graphic Aperature Size and your sound card.

[Gurm]

Ok, here's the deal:

ASUS P3B-F is one of the few motherboards on the market with a CORRECT implementation of AGP Aperture Size.

You don't want to make your AGP aperture bigger than your system memory. Doing so will cause the drivers (from Matrox) to try to reserve too much of this space.

Now, remember that the Aureal Vortex2 chip reserves main memory space for its samples. If you use up all of your system RAM (and some virtual RAM) with AGP Aperture, there will be nothing left for the Aureal.

Now, because the Aureal drivers may have never anticipated this, or maybe because you're using the suckball Diamond drivers (I don't know which), you get an error/crash/lockup/etc.

The solution? Turn your graphics aperture to 1/2 of your system memory, which is the correct setting. For you this amount is 64MB. You won't see any performance difference (or SHOULDN'T), and everything will run more smoothly.

The only reason everyone recommends to turn the Aperture up to 256MB is that so many motherboards implement the feature incorrectly and cause the Matrox drivers to shit bricks, and setting the Aperture to 256MB fixes this problem for many people.

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[Trashman]

I agree with Thundrchez, what I done was totally un-install all Diamonds drivers and software and installed Aureals drivers and software these drivers rock!!! my 2cents.

[Compton]

Gurm, do you know if the ASUS P2B-F has a correct implementation of AGP Aperture Size?