Does 89Mhz AGP bus cause any harm?

[Kermit]

I've recently upgraded from PII-450 to a P-III 1000 but still use my old BX board, this board does not allow AGP divider adjustments so I have to run AGP @ 89 MHz. My video card (Leadtek GTS) does not seem to mind, except for some artifacts on some games (this is when the case is closed, so I'm assuming heat is the reason). Will this (and also PCI @ 44) harm my system in the long run?

 

[urbantechie]

Thats pretty high. Just a handful of video cards can handle it and not crap out. I suggest you run tests like looped Q3A demos and see if it craps.

 

[Biggs]

New AGP video cards are more tolerant to out-of-spec buses so you should be fine with 89Mhz. Are you sure your BX mobo doesn't have the "magical" 1/4 PCI divider? What brand and model is it? Anyway, out-of-spec PCI devices tend to be more sensitive to conflicts and problems. This especially holds true to NICs.

 

[MCS]

I wouldn't worry about the 89Mhz AGP speed with a GTS.

I would however worry about a 44Mhz PCI speed!! That is really pushing it I am surprised you are not having problems...

 

[Noriaki]

89Mhz AGP should be ok....

But I'd watch that 44Mhz PCI...but like Biggs said, some BX boards have a 1/4 PCI divider so your PCI might be at 33Mhz still.

 

[Kermit]

Wow, real quick replies, thanks . Video card works OK (I now have 100 FPS in QIII and my 3DMark Score has gone up to 7400 ), and no other problem. I have a PCI modem and an SB Live in my system, both work OK. I hope the board has a PCI 1/4 divider.
The board is a Tekram P6B4C-A4X by the way.

 

[urbantechie]

No offence but, eewwwww Tekram!

 

[Dark4ng3l]

Use sisoft sandra to know you bus speeds

 

[LXi]

Try to loop some Q3 or UT, stress the graphic cards and the AGP, if it survives, then you're fine at 89MHz.

 

[Kermit]

Yes, I've stressed the video card quite a bit, and it takes it pretty well.

UrbanTechie, I agree but when I bought this board I wasn't a member here and had no idea about hardware, and it took me a year to figure that my PII-300 had a deschutes core and could do 450 (ouch!)

Sandra says 89MHz is a bit high and I should lower it, but I did not check the PCI speed. The board only does 2xAGP by the way.

If I start seeing artifacts, would disabling AGP sidebanding help (it is on now)?

 

[MCS]

Are you overclocking the core or mem on that card?

 

[LXi]

<<If I start seeing artifacts, would disabling AGP sidebanding help (it is on now)?>>

Yes, turn ASB off if you see artifacts and strange lockups. But I believe your GTS already has ASB disabled so I wouldnt worry about it.

 

[Mule]

That PCI Bus@44 mhz might just kill your hard drive, I would say that 38-40 should be the max to prevent your hard drive from dying.

 

[LXi]

Is there a way to check if you're using 1/3 or 1/4 PCI divider? If your entire system runs stable then I assume its either at 1/4, or all of your devices can take 44MHz no problem.

 

[Mixxen]

Don't defrag unless you like corrupt files, and mp3 files with a lot of blips!!!

 

[GT1999]

I had to back down to AGP 1x when I did 89MHz AGP on my Abit BF6 P3-450 @ 600. The video card was a TNT2Ultra. Running at AGP 2x would work, but would crash after a few seconds. There wasn't a huge performance drop with 1x, however, so it didn't bother me too much.

 

[Rand]

MOSE GeForce 2 cards are pretty accepting of out of spec AGP bus speeds, and the SB Live! is usually fine at high PCI bus speeds, modems usually are okay with out of spec speeds. I'd really watch closely over your HDD though, I don't know of many hard drives that would handle much above a 41MHZ PCI bus...

 

[Kermit]

Oops, Sandra does not show PCI bus speed, but under LPC/ISA BUS, speed multiplier is shown as 1/4, USB bus speed is 48 MHz, AGP is clearly 89MHz
Hmmm, anyone can tell me where to find info on PCI bus? It's not under PCI&amp;AGP buses and not under mainboard.
Oh, and I am starting to get suspicious blue screens while starting Win2K. Dumps memory to disk, restarts and everythings fine. Looks too deterministic to be a high speed or heat problem though.
By the I've got a WD Caviar 6.4 and a Seagate Barracuda II 30 Gb disk, everything except that win2K startup glitch seems fine.