9600 AIW Woes: Whats up with SmartGart?? Artifacts

[PCPETE]

Hello, I hope everyone out there is doing better than me! I just installed a fresh install of Windows XP SP1, but for some odd reason I am *still* having trouble with a BBATI 9600XT All in Wonder.. I reinstalled the VIA 4in1 AGP drivers, DirectX 9.0c, DotNet Fix (for Cat Center), and the newest 5-10_xp-2k_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_27256.exe Catalyst Drivers ( i think 5.10).

The trouble is when I try messing around with SmartGart and turn on AGP Read/Write I am getting a messed up desktop. Currently only AGP Write is on, and some of my sidebars are discolored and artifacted. I have read about issues with FastWrites, so that is off... But I at least want to know my AGP northbridge is going. I just upgraded the bios too. Here's what I have running:

Asus K8VSE Deluxe Sckt 754 (K8T800 Chipset) + 1008 Bios
AMD 64 3200+
512mb pc2700 Spectek/Micron
ATI All In Wonder 9600XT
NEC 35xx
....blah

So what is up with my SmartGart/ ATI setup?? I have not abused this card either, and do not believe the person I bought it off of months ago did either. The GPU cooling is okay too, I checked it out and the silencer is running allright with the right amount of paste. I appreciate your help.

Should I try turning off AGP and uninstalling SmartGart? FW On/off? ? Omega Drivers?

 

[PCPETE]

http://img494.imageshack.us/my.php?image=untitled6do.gif


Fun stuff playing around with this ^

 

[PCPETE]

bump, im going to search on this forum more and read up on FWs. Just if anyone has person experiance, i would love to hear from ya'

 

[imported_nocturne]

Smargart is just a utility that detects what functions the card supports (ie. fastwrites, agp8x, pcie 16x). My advise would just be to disable it (got start-->Run-->"services.msc"-->enter. disable ati smart). Fastwrites can increase fps, but can also decrease it. Mostly, it's unstable and is known to cause artifacting. AGP read/write should be adjusted in the BIOS (if there is no option, your mobo doesn't support it).

As for Omega, I usually run them unless ATI has some really subtantial feature release (ie adaptive AA). They are stable, compatible, and even come with their own release of ATT. They even let disable/enable fastwrites right from the install, so you never even have to bother with smartgart.

If you want to check what is currently enabled for your vid card, use powerstrip. It'll tell you everything you need to know.

 

[imported_nocturne]

btw... you can't turn off agp (nor would you want to). Just make sure it's running at 8x via powerstrip.

 

[PCPETE]

Thats a huge help, for some reason PowerStrip slipped out of my mind but I remember using it to oc' the heck outta of a 7500DDR. I will let you know whats up, and will check out the AGP Read/Write. I had already been in my motherboard BIOS and enabled each.... but smartgart disabled the settings.

 

[PCPETE]

thanks again, seems like I'll have this thing going. Love that services command... I only knew msconfig/ ipcfg that sorta stuff

 

[PCPETE]

While manipulating SmartGart with a combination of disabling services, and using Pstripe.... I have relized that the most stable (and only working setting) appears to be AGP Write, with AGP FWs and Reading disabled.

Is this normal, or is instability with Read/Write mean that the card is screwed up? What I mean is I am concerned that just having AGP Write (w/ no read) isn't using the card to the fullest. Whats the dirt?

 

[imported_nocturne]

I think AGP Read/Write just basically enables using a portion of the agp bandwidth for reading or writing. Am not sure of the theory behind, but from personal experience the optimal settings seems to vary depending on bios's, mobos, and chipsets.

As far as oc'ing, I'd use ATI Tray Tools. It has a builtin artifact tester, automatic max oc testing, and auto overclocking for games. You can do a search to find it or if using Omega drivers use the custom version included (splits OpenGL and DX settings).