Announcement

**Rags** · 27 March 2001, 23:43

Hello,

I have similar hardware to yours (P3 850, 512MB, G450, Win2k).

I compared the image quality from my G200 to the G450 in flight sim just now, and there is a night and day difference. I am using Flight Sim 2000, and my fps fluctuates from 50 to 100 down to 33, but it always appears smooth. I noticed on my Radeon that the fluctuation is very similar, as is the framerate, so I suspect their fps counter is a little miffed.

Anyhow, make sure you have your card selected in the display options in flight sim, and hardware acceleration is turned on, also there are some image quality settings in there for you to play with to get both smooth gameplay and the visuals you want. I have VSync turned off, and use the MTSU off the Matrox website (it's in the support/drivers section under utilities) to force VSync off. Also, make sure you have used the monitor settings tab in display properties/settings/advanced to "Set a different display mode" (set the mode you use in the game to the refresh rate you seek) and save the settings for windows to use, this way when you run any OpenGL/Direct3D game, the refresh rate you want is retained, and makes the game look a lot better.

Rags

Good luck.

**Maggi** · 28 March 2001, 00:21

First off, welcome aboard ...

Now 2ndly you should really try to put the IRQ of your G450 to 9 or above, because otherwise the performance will be crippled and your whole system might be unstable.

Also I noticed you're still running DX7 ... update to DX8.

Cheers,
Maggi

**PaulS** · 28 March 2001, 00:33

Unless something has changed with the G450, I don't the Matrox tech support guy knows much about Windows 2000. You don't need to enable ACPI to have your card use an IRQ, in fact managing your IRQ's yourself will generally give performance than using the current sharing mechanism in W2k.

You may be looking at a BIOS problem with your motherboard - if you have an "Assign IRQ for VGA" option, make sure it is set to yes.

Paul

**Ron Goller** · 28 March 2001, 01:15

Rags, Maggi and Paul -
Thanks for the warm welcome and the advice. Some responses/questions:
1- In FS98 display option there is no entry for my card. Only "Primary Display Driver". If I select "User Defined" I get that and a second option, which is "Primary Display Driver (Direct3D)". I have selected the latter. How do I get it to recognize my card?
2- Hardware acceleration is turned on.
3- Downloaded the MTSU (MTSU418.exe) but have not installed it pending what else I find out about these other settings.
4- What monitor settings do you recommend to begin with? Set them with PowerDesk, FS98 or both?
5- My BIOS (latest version) does have "Assign IRQ for VGA" option. I have never used this. Do you just set it to "yes" or "yes" and then select the IRQ?
6- If I can select the IRQ, and Maggi say 9 or above, I have 9 free (unused) in W2K. In W98, however, 9 is used by my Motorola VoiceSURFER 56K Internal PnP Modem (on ISA slot 2) and my G450 is currently on IRQ 5 in W98 . Will setting it to 9 in the BIOS cause a problem in Win 98?
7- I am a bit reluctant about Dx8 from all the negative posts I have seen about it elsewhere, but I will give it a try if these other item don't help out. (Not trying to be difficult, I just don't want to compound the problem with other issues if I can avoid it.)

Thanks again for your kind and helpful responses. Any further input you can give will be greatly appreciated.

Best wishes,
Ron

**cjolley** · 28 March 2001, 02:26

You need to turn on the VGA IRQ option.
You do not assign a particular IRQ.
On Abit BX mother boards the IRQs are assigned by slot number.
Your VGA will get the IRQ for slot #1.
The setting Plug & Play OS Installed also has an effect on your IRQs.
This may cause Win98's IRQs to conflict, but that would be a separate problem that is not too dificult to solve.
I have had unholy hell with those Motorola modems before. That would be the first place to look for conflicts.

chuck

[This message has been edited by cjolley (edited 28 March 2001).]

**PaulS** · 28 March 2001, 02:28

Hi Ron,

Yep, set the option to yes and then start w2k. Provided there are suitable IRQ's free, w2k will mostly likely put the video card on IRQ 9 or 11, and performance should improve significantly. If there are other devices on these interrupts, then I would shift them elsewhere.

Kind Regards,

Paul

**SteveC** · 28 March 2001, 02:29

Hi Ron,

The most important problem is the IRQs. Do you use both COM ports? If not, disable say, COM2, so that IRQ3 becomes available, and then you should be able to get your modem onto there.

There's no need to select IRQs in the BIOS, just turn on the 'assign IRQ to VGA' option, and see what happens. It might also be a good idea to 'Reset Configuration Data' (might be labelled differently).

------------------
Cheers,
Steve

"Life is what we make of it, yet most of us just fake"

**FrankDC** · 28 March 2001, 03:46

Ron, the problem you're having is due to your card not having an IRQ. Assigning an interrupt was optional for older, non-busmastering Matrox cards (Millenium I, Mystique etc) but it's necessary for any busmastering video card, including the G450. I guarantee that's where your performance problem is coming from.

As far as ACPI goes, changing your system may not be necessary. I noticed you have three IRQs assigned for IDE devices. Are you using all three channels? If not, disable either the primary or secondary IDE channel in your system bios and use its IRQ (14 or 15) for something else. You can either put the G450 on that IRQ, or, preferably, get your ATA100 disk controller on it and use IRQ10 for the G450. There are a few other possibilities if you are using all three channels, such as moving your soundcard to IRQ7 (Win2K does not require an IRQ for parallel ports).

Frank

**Ron Goller** · 28 March 2001, 12:11

First, let me say thank you to all of the kind contributors who have offered assistance. I have read various newsgroups and user groups and clearly this is one of the friendliness and most accommodating I have yet to see. My sincere thanks to all those who have given their time and expertise to assist me.

Now for the results. I went into BIOS and selected the "assign IRQ to VGA" option. I booted into W2K and that the following results: IRQ 5 formerly was Motorola ISA modem, now has Matrox G450 assigned to it; IRQ 7 formerly was empty, now has Motorola ISA modem assigned to it. I then booted into W98 and there were no changes in IRQ assignments. Thus, now in both W2K and W98, the Matrox G450 is assigned to IRQ 5 . All is well in Camelot!

I ran a quick test of FS98 in W2K. I got fps rates of 50, fluctuating to as low as 11, but running generally in the mid to high 30s. This is a substantial change for the better. Scenery, although not great, is substantially improved. I assume now that some tweaking in the FS98 program itself might serve to enhance the performance level even more.

It appears, gentlemen, that you kind assistance has remedied my problem. Once again, my most sincere thanks for all who offered their assistance and advice.

Best wishes,
Ron

**Pace** · 28 March 2001, 16:01

Yes, we're a good old bunch

Why not stick around, maybe even run Seti or Genome for us

Paul.

**Maggi** · 29 March 2001, 02:24

Thanx for the flowers, Ron !

But you should really try to get it to an IRQ of 9 or above ...

Goto your MoBo's BIOS, PCI configuration and assign your PCI slots to IRQ 9, 10 and 11.
Maybe you should also assign IRQ 5 to be used by ISA legacy.

That's how I managed to get rid of IRQ sharing and put all my cards that need it to IRQ 9, 10 & 11.

Cheers,
Maggi

**Hong Kong** · 29 March 2001, 03:31

Nope. Actually G450 improve really a lot compare with G200.

Announcement

G200 to G450 upgrade - VERY disappointing

G200 to G450 upgrade - VERY disappointing

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