In BIOS, What is "AGP Aperture"?

[djsrc]

Hi:

As you may know, I have switched vid cards from a Radeon 9800 Pro 128 mb, to a GeForce 7600 GT 256 mb.

When I hit "F2" on bootup, and went to "Memory Configuration", and then hit "Enter" on "AGP Aperture"; it showed 128 mb.

I assume that is because I had the Radeon card in the AGP slot, initially.

Upon hitting the spacebar repeatedly, I saw that my options were: 32 mb, 64 mb, 128 mb, and 256 mb.

Because I now have a 256 mb GeForce card in the AGP slot, I changed the setting to: 256 mb.

I assume that was the correct thing to do. If not, please let me know.

My question is: If I had bought the GeForce 7600 GS with 512 mb of card memory, would I have had the option of setting the AGP Aperture to 512 mb, or is my BIOS limited to just 32-256 mb, essentially rendering useless the additional 256 mb that comes with the GeForce 7600 GS card?

As well, I have read somewhere, that because the GeForce 7600 GS 512 mb is only 128 bit, instead of 256 bit, such as in the GeForce 7800 GS, does it really render almost useless the additional 256 mb of card memory?

Would a BIOS update or change in my BIOS version from Dell enable me to have a card with 512 mb of video memory, or am I limited to a max of 256 mb vid card with this sytem (AGP slot, MB, etc.)?

(Not that I am looking to change my new GeForce 7600 GT, because I am currently very happy with it. I am just curious about that enough to ask.)

Thanks,

DJSRC

 

[Sleepsalot]

I found this with google. It seems to answer the question.

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/30/16813-bios-settings-agp-aperture-size-how.html

Wayne

Life is a big Roleplaying adventure.

 

[cdogg]

64MB for the AGP Aperture has always been the default in most systems I've seen. It doesn't "have" to be set at any particular size. In fact, it's best to leave it at the default setting. So if you found it at 128MB, I'd leave it at 128MB.

The setting tells the system how many addresses in main memory to reserve for the video card. The higher you set it, the more you're essentially taking away from the rest of your system. And typically, the more memory the video card has, the less it needs the AGP Aperture. So in your case, you're not helping it at all by raising it to 256MB.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Einstein
[tab][navy]For posting policies, click [/navy]here.

 

[djsrc]

What???

Sheesh!!!

I am so glad that I took the time to ask about that.

Just shows to go you, that One should NEVER take anything for granted, when it comes to Computer Tech...

Anyway, now that I have set it to 256 mb in the BIOS, and with my new GF 7600 GT, I ran the Mexican battle in M2TW, and when the camera pans across the metropolis of Tenochtitlan at the beginning, only a tree here and there doesn't render instantaneously. Before with my old Radeon 9800 Pro, and with the AGP Ap set at 128 mb, the city would render very, very slowly. It was really annoying.

What I will do is reset the AGP Ap back to 128 mb, and then even 64 mb, and see how the city renders each time.

I will let you know.

And once again, Thanks for your advice.

(That link was especially helpful.)

 

[djsrc]

Sooo...

When I reduce the AGP Aperture in my BIOS to 128 mb, and then subsequently to 64 mb, the rendering, I guess it's called, in the Mex Demo battle of M2TW, doesn't seem to improve to any significant degree, at least that I can see with my almost human, or somewhat sub-human, or maybe even super-human eye.

hehe

HOWEVER, anything else I do on my comp just begins to rock like all heck, especially with my additional, yet still humble, 512 mb of DDR PC 3200 RAM, for a total of 1 gig.

Just an observation.

So, maybe there is really something to that dedication of system RAM allocation, after all.

All the best,

DJ

 

[cdogg]

DJ,
Yeah, that's an old setting that goes back to the early days of AGP. It's not really that important to the video card's overall performance anymore, which is why you didn't notice much difference playing with that setting.

But like you noticed, it can help other system resources by keeping it at the default setting.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Einstein
[tab][navy]For posting policies, click [/navy]here.

 

[djsrc]

Thanks.

I found this in the Dell Support Forum.

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/43

Technically, it's a little bit more than a little bit more than I understand.

I'm sure it is not over the heads of many of you folks.

What is GART?

Oh, silly me.

That's the famous country music singer/songwriter, right?

Hee Haw!

All the best,

DJ