Checking if AGP X4 is enabled

[SSGClark]

I finally got a motherboard ( ASUS A7V ) that lets me go to 4X AGP rather than 1X like my older Asus board. I am wondering if there is a way to verify in Windows if 4X AGP is enabled? (yes I am using the latest VIA drivers (4.24).
Thanks in advance =)

 

[Karl Blessing]

in the bios you can enable AGP 4X, but it depends on your video card, If I wanted to check, I use PowerStrip (can be found at tweakfiles.com) in it's dianostic section it'll tell you what mode(s) are enabled.

 

[SSGClark]

Thanks Karl, I used to use that program when I had a 3dfx V3 3000 AGP installed on my older board, I never even looked before to see the AGP speed due to my old board/card not being 4x AGP. Now I jsut gotta see if I saved the download so that I may install it again =) if not.. time to fire up the absused 56K again for another download. (I should have cable within 6 weeks

Mike

 

[SSGClark]

Thanks Karl, I used to use that program when I had a 3dfx V3 3000 AGP installed on my older board, I never even looked before to see the AGP speed due to my old board/card not being 4x AGP. I have a Hercules 3D Prophet DDR now. I just gotta see if I saved the download so that I may install it again =) if not.. time to fire up the absused 56K again for another download. (I should have cable within 6 weeks

Mike

 

[SSGClark]

Sorry about the first reply.. I tried to stop it so that I could add about the newer card I have.

Mike

 

[SSGClark]

I installed it and checked and the 4X is greyed out =( I know for a fact that this motherboard supports 4X AGP as well as my 3D Prophet.. could it be AGP drivers?? I did install the VIA 4.24 drivers. Could there be another driver somewhere?? I am using the latest Nvidia drivers ( 6.18 )

Mike

 

[Karl Blessing]

hmm thats odd. did you install the Via AGP Drivers as well?

 

[SSGClark]

Yes I did.. they come along with the VIA 4 in 1 download. Maybe I should go back to the VIA page and just download the AGP drivers and install them seperately instead of relyiong on the auto install of the 4 in 1.

Thanks for replying =)

 

[SSGClark]

Welp, I downloaded just the AGP driver for VIA (version 4.03) and checked in powerstrip again and it still says my video card is only 1X and 2X capable. I went back to the Gulimot/Hercules websites and verified that my card is 4X capable. I wonder if the new detonator 6.18 Nvidia drivers are holding back the potential of 4X AGP??

"Things that make you go hmmmm"

 

[Karl Blessing]

I just had to check for myself, and you are absolutly right., it does force to 2X with the 6.18

 

[Karl Blessing]

I put a post up on a Nvidiot fan site about the situation, it wouild seem that Nvidia having bugz in the 6.18 with VIA Chipsets, so they force the card down slower, they did the same thing when they were having problems with Irongate(AMD Chipset) boards by making the drivers force down to AGP1X.

in any case they're should be a registry change that should force it to 4X, I'll let you know when I find it.

 

[SSGClark]

I will research as well. Can't believe I was actually right about something haha. I don't know alot of the Nvidia history due to mainly using 3dfx (Voodoo 1-3) the past few years. Where is that "Nvidiot" (lol) website located?
And again... mucho gracias for the help...you are the man!! Maybe next month you will win that tek help prize and get a few big macs on the house =)

 

[Karl Blessing]

hehe, well I usally goto nvnews.net for Nvidia Related and Other news, as thier logo says "Over a thousand NVidiots Served" I personally dont like 3dfx cards, V1 and 2 were good, but since the V3 they just gotten real shabby and cant drop a bad habit, but I dont seem to like NVidia's style with these new drivers, it's a real big move for them, but to keep people from complaining, they underclocked the AGP speed to standard AGP2X, most people wouldnt notice the difference (I didnt for a little while) since they would be so much more concentrated on the increased Framerates they were getting. But it woudlnt be the first time they forced an AGP setting in the drivers, when the AMD-751 Chipset was used on the original athlon boards, many users were complaining about incompatibilities with Geforces and TNT2 on Athlon boards (the AMD chipset doesnt have AGP4X so no complaint was there) but in any case their very next driver revision forced the card down to AGP 1X, the good thing though is that you could use a registry key(or insert it manualy) to force it to AGP2X but you were bound to have some compatibility problems, I only wish to find the one for enabling 4X, unfortunatly when I checked the registry key for "Nvidia Corporation" it was mostly empty.

 

[SSGClark]

I feel the same for the Voodoos.... I got the V3 3000 AGP in high hopes of some good performance but wasn't at all impressed. This Geforce card I have now gets twice the framerate as the V3. I am pulling 218 FPS in Quake2 and am loving it =)
I am hoping that 4X AGP will give me the boost I need for D3D games as I find that even with this new 800mhz T-Bird chip and the 3D Prohet vid card, my games run slower than I would like them too (usually 59 - 70 FPS in unreal tourney and Quake3)
In D3D based games I feel/see a lil hesitation every once in a while that bugs the heck out of me. I may even try going to 1X to see if that is the reason or maybe I'll overclock my vid card or something. Do you experience any type of sudden split second pauses on yours??

 

[Karl Blessing]

of course you're comparing a newer generation Geforce, to an older Gen Voodoo3, try comparing the TNT2, to it, it still outperforms in my opinion, but you'd be comparing same age technology.

 

[SSGClark]

Well a little newer I suppose. I didn't have my V3 but for 6 months b4 I got the 3D Prophet.. but I guess I was late getting the V3 plus 6 months in the video card realm is a long time nowadays hehe.

 

[SSGClark]

I called Guillemot, the co-makers (w/ Hercules) of my geforced based 3D Prophet and they said that Nvidia and VIA have an agreement to force Geforce cards to 2X until a fix is found. Apparently alot of Geforce owners that have AGP 4X capable motherboards select 4X as they first buy the Geforce card and then the card does not work and they send it in for repairs etc. So I guess they are just ensuring that the cards will work for customers on all 4X capable boards to keep customers cards working or something.

 

[Karl Blessing]

this only seems to be in effect for the 6.18(Denator 3) drivers Only. if you for some chance have an older driver ( say one of the 5.3) you could use that if you really want to. in the meantime I'm figuring out any registry hacks to force it back to AGP 4X.

 

[SSGClark]

I have versions 3.53 all the way up to the present on ZIP disks =) I keep archives to drivers for all my hardware in the event I have to use older ones due to formating or hardware changes etc.
I hope you can find something.. I am not much help in the avenue of finding registry editing and all, tho I have found a few reg edits for older geforce related issues but none for what we are looking at doing. I found one that forces the AGP to 1X from 2X but that was when Athlon boards and geforce were like using a football bat.

 

[Karl Blessing]

that 1X to 2X is the fix for the AMD Irongate chipset, which max AGP capabilit was 2X, but the nvidia drivers forced it to 1X due to some incompatiblities at the time.

Oh btw in that Nvidiot forum, there was this response, it might be helpful, I'm asking him where to get the program he mentioned (I'm going to guess it can be found at tweakfiles.com)

Unfortunatly at the moment I cant seem to get on the message board, if you want to try yourself, goto nvnews.net then click on forums up at the top, then it should be the topic I posted, midways to the top, about AGP 4X being forcefully turned off with 6.18, near the bottom the guy mentions how he fixed it.