AGP Aperture 128MB or 256MB for 256MB Vid Card??

[metroplex]

I have a GeForce FX 5600 with 256MB Video ram, on a system that uses 512MB RAM.

What is the recommended "performance" setting for the AGP Aperture? 128MB? or 256MB?

Thanks

 

[CalvinHobbes]

http://www.ocfaq.com/article.p...verclocking/vidcard/43

 

[WA261]

256

 

[SneakyStuff]

128MB, 256 won't do very much for ya.

 

[THUGSROOK]

64mb

 

[ElementK1]

I second 128. A 256 mb card won't need 256 aperature memory for a while.

 

[chinkgai]

Originally posted by: THUGSROOK
64mb

i hope ur not serious

 

[THUGSROOK]

Originally posted by: chinkgai

Originally posted by: THUGSROOK
64mb

i hope ur not serious

yes i am completely serious.
dont you guys know what the AGP aperture does?

its overflow space for textures that wont fit in the cards memory. with more memory on the card ~ less AGP aperture is needed.

also ~ the agp aperture takes up space in your systems memory, meaning less system memory for the game/app.

feel free to run your own tests

 

[chinkgai]

i've tested my 9800 pro with 128 agp aperture vs 256 and i noticed a significant gain with 256mb aperture in 3dmark benchmarking

i can not remember the exact numbers at the moment and i've since then upgraded to an x800 xt and havent had time to test 128 and i wouldnt want to anyways, so i've set it at 256

for anyone who doesnt know what agp aperture is, read that link that someone posted in a couple posts up

i think 64mb may be appropriate for older non 3d intensive games, but if you wish to play modern games, i think 64 mb may cause a big performance hit

 

[THUGSROOK]

while that may be true for ATI, its not for nVidia

 

[govtcheez75]

hmmm....I have a 6800GT, and I thought that I got better 3DMark scores with the AGP aperture set to 256mb than I did when I had it set to 128. I would check right now, but I sold my PSU, and am waiting for my new 520W Powerstream to arrive.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: THUGSROOK

Originally posted by: chinkgai

Originally posted by: THUGSROOK
64mb

i hope ur not serious

yes i am completely serious.
dont you guys know what the AGP aperture does?

its overflow space for textures that wont fit in the cards memory. with more memory on the card ~ less AGP aperture is needed.

also ~ the agp aperture takes up space in your systems memory, meaning less system memory for the game/app.

feel free to run your own tests

It only takes it when it needs it. It is still free RAM when you have Video Memory. It is when you run out that that takes effect, personally i would rather use slower memory than have the game like freeze while things are processed by processor and loaaded/deleted from the VRAM. I would set it to 128mb for normal use. Games such as HL2, DIII, and Far Cry i would set to 256mb regardless.

-Kevin

 

[302efi]

Originally posted by: CalvinHobbes
http://www.ocfaq.com/article.p...verclocking/vidcard/43

Good Link!!!!!

 

[PrayForDeath]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
It only takes it when it needs it. It is still free RAM when you have Video Memory. It is when you run out that that takes effect, personally i would rather use slower memory than have the game like freeze while things are processed by processor and loaaded/deleted from the VRAM. I would set it to 128mb for normal use. Games such as HL2, DIII, and Far Cry i would set to 256mb regardless.
-Kevin

Not really, it takes half the amount it is set to during normal use, and starts using over that when it needs to, for example if you set it to 256MB, it will use 128Mb at first regardless of the game you're running, then if the games needs more it starts using more until it hits the limit which is 256Mb in this case.

edit: Well looks like you're right, the article was a little confusing to me.

 

[AristoV300]

Originally posted by: 302efi

Originally posted by: CalvinHobbes
http://www.ocfaq.com/article.p...verclocking/vidcard/43

Good Link!!!!!

Yes very good link. I was always curious about that.

 

[BFG10K]

Leave it at 128 MB unless you have problems.

 

[Jeff7]

Don't modern videocards have bandwidths of like 20GB/sec or something like that? Travelling over the system bus to get to system RAM would result in a serious performance hit, wouldn't it? If so, I'd imagine that you wouldn't want to use sytem RAM anyway.

 

[fuzzynavel]

I would be tempted just to stick the aperture at 256MB.....

Do a small test....run at 128MB aperture and then run again with 256MB aperture.....if you see significant increases in speed at the 256MB setting then the memory on your video card is all getting used up and is slowing your system at the 128MB level.

Does having your aperture set at the maximum actually affect performace elsewhere in the system? Does an area of RAM get allocated for video only and is then unavailable for normal RAM use???

 

[Fern]

HERE'S another article.

I quote:

Please note that the AGP aperture is merely address space, not actual physical memory in use. Although it is very common to hear people recommending that the AGP aperture size should be half the size of system memory, that is wrong!

The requirement for AGP memory space shrinks as the graphics card's local memory increases in size. This is because the graphics card will have more local memory to dedicate to texture storage. So, if you upgrade to a graphics card with more memory, you shouldn't be "deceived" into thinking that you will need even more AGP memory! On the contrary, a smaller AGP memory space will be required.

It is recommended that you keep the AGP aperture around 64MB to 128MB in size, even if your graphics card has a lot of onboard memory. This allows flexibility in the event that you actually need extra memory for texture storage. It will also keep the GART (Graphics Address Relocation Table) within a reasonable size

Fern

 

[chinkgai]

if u do a google search, a buncha articles will come up as well

most of them say it depends on your system and testing should be done before following any rule of thumb

 

[Appledrop]

i stutter in cs:s a bit when loading new areas of map with 128mb, so i set to 256mb and its fine!