Bios settings on Pro2-A.....give them a look

[BuckMaster]

Bios 1.8
Auto = 428/525

 

[heng1028]

mine is set to auto

 

[MSB23x]

Auto = 421/534 - 128m pc133 cas2 Corsair.

What I am having trouble with is my videocard. I'm topping off at 2940 scores on 3dMark 2000. This is a K7T Pro2 (not A) w/ a Tbird 900mhz (stock not o/c'd) and a Diamond TNT2 Ultra. I know it isn't the best of cards, but 2940 is very-subpar. This is @ 1024x768x16. If anyone has ANY suggestions, I'm willing to try it. I'm using the Detonator 3 drivers and this is Win2k Pro.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[JimMc]

Auto, 435/533 Apacer/Siemens PC133

 

[holdencommodore]

rb56:
When you close the applications in the taskbar, this is freeing up conventional memory (unless it becomes TSR), so it will improve the score (I always close all taskbar operations before benchmark eg. Sandra, 3dMark 2000...). When you do a reboot, you are releasing any memory that Windows 98 neglected to release from various programs (it has poor memory management). So this will also improve your score after reboot.

MSB23x:
This may be silly of me to ask, but have you got the latest VIA AGP driver?


My memory score is probably poor because I use 128 MB NCP CAS3 memory

 

[heng1028]

i am using one NCP and Micron
and i got not a bad scores from them

 

[bluesky]

So which bios version is best so far?
v1.8 is coming in cd with the board?

 

[rb56]

bluesky,
I don't know if as much about the bios ver. or the memory your using that makes the difference in the scores. They are all very close. I've only been running ver 1.8 myself to this point so I can't say one way or the other. I am flashing to 1.9 today, I was going to wait until the next update comes on the MSI US site but I might as well check out this one(1.9)too.

I think I rec'd ver. 1.6 with mine, I flashed using live bios to get to 1.8.

 

[rb56]

Well I flashed from the 1.8 bios to the 1.9 bios. Really can't see much of a difference.

Memory went from:
428/534 in ver 1.8
430/541 in ver 1.9 (not OC'ed, that's next)

rb56

 

[bluesky]

Thanks rb.
I just upgraded to v1.9. Man, this Live bios is great!
Well, the momory clock is showing 133mhz now, was 100mhz, and I couldn't change.
Is it gonna make any difference?

 

[rb56]

Do you have the Dram timing by SPB set to Auto? That should give you the best memory scores.

 

[bluesky]

rb, I did the same with the picture on your site.
You mean Yes and followed by 2x Auto, don't you?

 

[rb56]

Yes, that should give you the best memory performance.
Happy New Year

 

[bluesky]

Well, same to you rb.
I'm upgrading my memory to 768mb.
After the upgrade, I let you know the score.

 

[Neoplasia]

RB56, I believe it's Yes, 2, 133 but I can't remember (waiting for my monitor, had a defect). I tried both Auto and Yes and I don't think either gave me very good scores. Barely squeaking by a Duron 600, first number is a tad lower I think.

 

[bluesky]

neo.
Shouldn't it be NO, 2 and 133 on this setting?

 

[Charles]

With the special overclocker BIOS, we should be able to set the 4 way memory interleave right? Where? I didn't see any?

I also notice that in BIOS version 1.9 you can't change the K7 CLK_CTL options.

 

[rb56]

Neoplasia
I get the best memory scores by setting to yes on Dram Timing, this sets the other two to auto and they can't be changed at least in ver. 1.9.

Charles
I haven't tried the OCer's ver. yet. It's my understanding that 4 way memory interleave is available but I don't know how it's set.

Maybe they've set the K7 CLK_CTL option to optimial.

 

[Neoplasia]

<< Shouldn't it be NO, 2 and 133 on this setting? >>



Could be. I have no way of checking until my monitor arrives. Yes-no, up-down, in-out. What I remember is it's either set to not-Auto, CAS2 and 133MHz or Auto (forget what I last had it set at before I removed the monitor). Neither setting showed any significant benefit especially compared to the Duron 600.

 

[rb56]

I was going to post new pictures on my site of the ver 1.9 bios but the only difference in the two is the ver. 1.9 doesn't have the K7 CLK_CTL option.

They also have ver 2.0 on the live bios site now. Tried to update but it's not currently working.

Also, if anyone else would like to post there memory type and bios ver., I am trying to see if there is any difference with regard to memory performance in the different bios ver.'s.
If I get enough feedback I'll post the results on My site.

Thanks,
rb56