AGP Fast Writes & Side Band Addressing

[Submit]

1. How important are these two features when it comes to performance? I ask because the XP drivers for my GeForce 256 DDR disable Side Band Addressing and the newest bios for my mobo disables Fast Writes. Should I stick with older drivers and bios to have these features enabled?

2. Does the Geforce 3 support/benefit from these features?

Thanks

 

[TunaBoo]

gf supports sideband. It helps some too.


Problem: No current chipset works with it. Its only like a 2% preformance gain or so, so no one is gonna fix.

 

[Jesta]

Stay away from SBA like the plague. I fought with a machine for a little over a week before finding out from my fellow anandtechers that it would be a problem with W2K. Sure enough, I had to flash the bios on my GF 256 DDR to disable the SBA and it's worked like a champ ever since.

 

[Brian48]

None of the GeForces officially support SBA. Never has. It is NOT an official feature. Only Creative and Asus has allowed this feature to be enabled in the video card's BIOS as a marketing gimmick towards PC hobbyist. Virtually all other GF manufacturers have followed nVidia's recommendation to disable it due to instability problems with some systems. Fastwrites, although technically supported, is overated and very often slows your system down depending on whether your card or your CPU is the bottleneck. In any case, should you get a GF/GF2 to run stable with both of these features turned on, your gain is very minimal (if any). The GeForce 3 has gone a step further and supports neither Fastwrites or SBA.

Bottomline, don't bother.

 

[TunaBoo]

<< None of the GeForces officially support SBA. Never has. It is NOT an official feature. Only Creative and Asus has allowed this feature to be enabled in the video card's BIOS as a marketing gimmick towards PC hobbyist. Virtually all other GF manufacturers have followed nVidia's recommendation to disable it due to instability problems with some systems. Fastwrites, although technically supported, is overated and very often slows your system down depending on whether your card or your CPU is the bottleneck. In any case, should you get a GF/GF2 to run stable with both of these features turned on, your gain is very minimal (if any). The GeForce 3 has gone a step further and supports neither Fastwrites or SBA.

Bottomline, don't bother. >>



The cards themselves support it. They were removed from drivers due to chipset bugs/incompabilities.

 

[Submit]

Thanks for the info.

 

[Brian48]

<< The cards themselves support it. They were removed from drivers due to chipset bugs/incompabilities. >>



Like I said, it is not an official feature. It is also not in the driver level where it has been removed. This feature controlled in video card's BIOS, not at the driver software layer.

 

[TunaBoo]

<<

<< The cards themselves support it. They were removed from drivers due to chipset bugs/incompabilities. >>



Like I said, it is not an official feature. It is also not in the driver level where it has been removed. This feature controlled in video card's BIOS, not at the driver software layer. >>



And what are you telling me I didnt know....?

 

[Brian48]

I'm telling you it's not the drivers. It's a BIOS control. You can apply what ever driver hack you want, but it's not going to work until it's set in the video card's BIOS. If that's what you meant, then fine. In my line of work, there's distinction between what you said and what is actually implemented.

 

[TunaBoo]

<< I'm telling you it's not the drivers. It's a BIOS control. You can apply what ever driver hack you want, but it's not going to work until it's set in the video card's BIOS. If that's what you meant, then fine. In my line of work, there's distinction between what you said and what is actually implemented. >>



What is your line of work, button pusher?

 

[ukDave]

<<

<< I'm telling you it's not the drivers. It's a BIOS control. You can apply what ever driver hack you want, but it's not going to work until it's set in the video card's BIOS. If that's what you meant, then fine. In my line of work, there's distinction between what you said and what is actually implemented. >>



What is your line of work, button pusher? >>




lol. common guys, calm it down!

 

[TunaBoo]

<<

<<

<< I'm telling you it's not the drivers. It's a BIOS control. You can apply what ever driver hack you want, but it's not going to work until it's set in the video card's BIOS. If that's what you meant, then fine. In my line of work, there's distinction between what you said and what is actually implemented. >>



What is your line of work, button pusher? >>




lol. common guys, calm it down! >>



Im just messin around The midwest is dull, gotta have some fun

 

[Brian48]

No time for fun where I'm at. Friggin' hours are killin' me.

Yes, I am a button pusher. However, in addition to that, I'm also in database (primarily Oracle and Visual Fox Pro) and software development. This includes building/configuring servers and writing drivers for our own applications.

 

[ukDave]

<< No time for fun where I'm at. Friggin' hours are killin' me.

Yes, I am a button pusher. However, in addition to that, I'm also in database (primarily Oracle and Visual Fox Pro) and software development. This includes building/configuring servers and writing drivers for our own applications. >>



well done.

 

[TunaBoo]

Your avitar looks a little pissed. Maybe you need a vacation in Jamacia

 

[Brian48]

<< Your avitar looks a little pissed. Maybe you need a vacation in Jamacia >>



I'd be friggin' happy if I can get past one damn weekend without getting paged.