AGP drivers for P4M800Pro? Low video performance in games.

[fleshconsumed]

I got 4300/P4M800Pro combo at FRYs (O/C with pinmod to 2.4GHz) because I wanted a cheap upgrade. I know you'll all say the motherboard is crap, and I should get another one, but this is not an option. I specifically picked this combo because motherboard is basically free, and because it would let me reuse my old 6800ultra AGP videocard so I wouldn't have to fork out another $350-450 for motherboard/video combo. So far it's mostly good, it's stable, fast, runs cool, no problems with picking up hardware, there are drivers for everything, SATA works out of the box, overclocks to 2.4GHz at stock voltage with pinmod. I'd be completely satisfied if it wasn't for one problem. My maximum fps have certainly gone up, but my minimum fps in games have also gone down. I mainly play Enemy Territory, and for a 4 year old game I get suprisingly large dips in fps. At certain spots, when I'm in spectator mode and stare all the way across the map (for example on daybreak or Eagles) my fps can go down to 20-30FPS at 1920x1200 resolution but with most settings at low. I tried reverting back to 1280x1024, but it doesn't help much.

I've had similar problem before on Via Pro133a (or whatever) chipset and it was resolved by installing 4in1 drivers that would include AGP drivers. I've tried to run Hyperion package (which is what they call 4in1 now) but it wouldn't offer option for AGP driver. I've looked inside the package and manually located CPU-to-AGP driver package and manually installed it, but it still didn't help. I've also disabled onboard video as well as increased AGP aperture to 256MB, but I still get large drops in FPS which I haven't had before I made the switch to 4300/P4M800Pro combo.


I guess my next step would be to enable onboard video and run Hyperion package again (don't think it will help though) as well as installing latest directx (don't know why, since ET is based on Quake engine, hence OpenGL), but I don't think either will help.


Has anyone had this problem and does anybody know how to resolve it?

Thanks.

 

[chrism66]

I am having a similar glitch. I have not done the pin mod as of yet. I can only OC to 220MHz FSB when I do I lose 35Fps in CS:S stress test compared to running with a 200MHZ FSB. After reading your post it seems it may be not even worth the effort to do the pin mod.

I hope some one can answer the why there is a performance loss with the higher clock speeds.

Can not really complain for essentially a free motherboard. Probally just run at the stock 1.8GHZ until there are some moderately priced DX10 cards in the future.

Chris

 

[fleshconsumed]

Well, I haven't compared performance without pinmod, I did the pinmod and went straight to installing system/testing. I highly doubt it's the pinmod that affecting my FPS.

 

[fleshconsumed]

OK found solution. The problem was in ****** hardware implementation on via part. Disabled fastwrites and forced AGP 4x mode in riva tuner and it's much better now. I still get momentary fps drops, but the system recovers almost instantaneously now and minimum fps have definitely gone up.