How can I enable Fast write?

[Sharky3]

Hi! New to the forum. I have the following question:

My PC has these specs
MSI KT3 Ultra ARU mobo
256MB od PC2100 DDR RAM
AMD Athlox XP 1600+ (stock)
ATI Radeon 8500 64MB
All the latest drivers for all the hardware.

Looking up in 3Dmark's system info under the motherboard tab It reads "Fast write: supported (disabled). Now I've already turned it on under the BIOS but I still can get it to work. I've done the same under the Smartgart tab in the ATI control panel but it still doesn't enable it. What else can I do?

BTW, the settings under AGP timing control in the BIOS are as follows:

AGP mode - 4x
AGP comp driving - Auto
AGP fast write - enabled
Aperture size - 128MB
AGP master 1 W/S Write - Enabled
AGP master 1 W/S Read - Enabled
AGP read synchronization - Disabled (I've also tried Enabled but it didn't work)

Someone told me that I had to modify the vide card's BIOS but I've used RadBios Edit and there isn't any option to modify that parameter. I've also tried several tweakers but they didn't work either.

 

[Maggotry]

Someone told me that I had to modify the vide card's BIOS

Not true at all. My wife's pc (Xena in sig) has a KT3 Ultra2 mobo (similar to yours) and a Radeon 8500 (same as yours). I wouldn't use 3DMark to tell you if fastwrites are enabled or not. If the mobo BIOS says it's enabled, and the Cat 3.1 Smartgart says it's enabled, then I'd believe it's enabled! I believe it's enabled on my wife's pc too because the BIOS and Cat's say it is.

If you still feel that your BIOS and Cat's are not telling you the truth, and that 3DMark is the best way to determine if fastwrites are enabled, then run a series of tests. Run 3DMark with the BIOS and Cat's reporting fastwrites ON. Then run it again after you manually disable fastwrites in the BIOS and Cat's. Compare the results. Better yet, screw 3DMark all together and run the tests using UT2's benchmark tool, assuming you have the game.

 

[Sharky3]

However, Smartgart also tells me that it's disabled. In fact. I tell it to enableit, the computer restarts and it still says that it's disabled.

 

[Goi]

I think its generally advisable to leave AGP Fast Writes disabled, as it can lead to instability problems.

 

[stevewm]

FastWrites, which is a little used AGP feature provides very very little to no performance benefit. It can also lead to stability problems if not used correctly. Because of this some mobo manufactuers actually disable it by default. And I've seen many boards where it was disabled by default and the option in the BIOS to enable it was removed.

 

[AtomicDude512]

Sharky3: I have the same motherboard. In the BIOS under chipset options click AGP and enable Fast Writes.

Goi: That seems really stupid, I dont have any problems with Fast Write on my system.

 

[Goi]

You're lucky then AtomicDude. Many others have had it. Anyway, stevewm has pointed out, AGP FastWrites offer no benefits, so why bother...

 

[Sharky3]

No, no luck enabling it. However, I was hoping to have a considerable increase in performance but since you guys say that the performance gain is small and the stability could be hit then I'll just leave it that way.

Thanks!