asrock 939 dual sata- possible agp issue fix

[The_TailGunner]

asrock 939 dual sata- possible "slow agp" fix

lo all,

possible fix for those having agp performance issues with the asrock dulsata board...

download the ULi AGP driver v2.30 (second one in the list for win2k/xp, first one for win xp64)

from the add/remove programs list in control panel, uninstall nvidia drivers, ULi agp driver and ULi agp-pci bridge driver

in the bios (preferably p1.60), turn off fastwrites, set agp aperture to 128, turn on the fifo thingy (see the main thread for location- only in bios p1.60 though)

reboot, and cancel any "found new hardware" boxes.

run drivercleaner

install the uli agp driver and reboot

cancel any "found new hardware boxes"

install graphics drivers and reboot. i used the 66.93 drivers (link in the graphics card forum sticky)

if you look in add/remove programs, you will no longer see the ULi pci-agp bridge

dunno if it will help you peeps, but i got a 2000 point score increase in 3dmark05 once it was done.

the only difference i can see in my 3dmark project is that previously my gfx cards core speed was detected as 11MHz for some reason. now it detects correctly.

either way, it seems to have worked for me...

TG

 

[The_TailGunner]

as you say, 2000 marks in 3dmark05 is a significant increase...

perhaps the pci-agp bridge driver causes issues- certainly i havnt had any issues since removing it, and any software that is installed and running but doesnt appear to be doing anything useful is, in my experience, likely to be causing trouble.

that said, i have no idea why the speed of my gpu was being detected as 11MHz...anyone know why this might be?

even stranger is the fact that real world performance appears to have remained the same- with the NET_GRAPH 1 enabled in the console on CS:S i am getting between 80 and 150fps, which is exactly the same as i was getting previously...

also, my 3dmark2001 SE score has remained much the same too...

could there be an issue with 3dmark 2005/2006?

considering that real world performance has remained pretty much the same, only those 2 benchies have changed and the cards gpu speed was incorrectly detected by the software....hmm...

 

[The_TailGunner]

originally a score of 2399 on 3dmark 05, has gone up to 4566- an increase of 2167. the new score is similar to the score i has on my old rig (same gfx card), so it sounds about right.

ive noticed a few other comments on the 3dmark06 scores thread in the graphics cards forum where people who have low-ish scores have also reported that the speed of their gpu is mis-reported (11 or 12 MHz).

what also puzzles me is that i KNOW i installed everything correctly- fresh install, then the combined driver package from the uli website, then the gfx drivers (latest whql drivers off the nvidia website)...

*shrugs* what really gets me is that real life performance appears to be totally unaffected either way- its ONLY the benchmark that has been affected...

TG