This might help some of you---FPS

[Viet Vet]

Graphic Aperture Size

This BIOS feature allows you to select the size of the AGP aperture. The aperture is a portion of the PCI memory address range dedicated as graphics memory address space. Host cycles that hit the aperture range are forwarded to the AGP without need for translation. The aperture size also determines the maximum amount of system RAM that can be allocated to the graphics card for texture storage.

The AGP Aperture size can be set using the formula : maximum usable AGP memory size x 2 plus 12MB. That means that the actual usable AGP memory size is less than half of the AGP aperture size. That's because the system needs a write combined memory area equal to the amount of actual AGP memory (uncached) plus an additional 12MB for virtual addressing.

Note that all this is merely address space, not physical memory used. The physical memory is allocated and released as needed only when Direct3D makes a create non-local surface call. Win95 (with VGARTD.VXD) and later versions use a waterfall effect. Surfaces are created first in local memory. When that memory is full, surface creation spills over into AGP memory and then system memory. So, memory usage is automatically optimized for each application. AGP and system memory are not used unless absolutely necessary.

Now, many people recommend the AGP aperture size should be half of the amount of RAM your system has. The required AGP aperture size will become smaller as the graphics card's memory increases in size. This is because most of the textures will be stored on the graphics card itself. So, graphics cards with 32MB of RAM or more will require a smaller AGP aperture than graphics cards with less RAM.

If your graphics card has very little graphics memory, then you should set the AGP aperture size as large as you can, up to half the system RAM. For cards with more graphics memory, you needn't set the aperture size to half the system RAM. Note that the size of the aperture does not correspond to performance so increasing it to gargantuan proportions will not improve performance.

Still, it's recommended that you keep the AGP aperture around 64MB to 128MB in size. Now, why is such a large aperture size recommended despite the fact that most graphics cards now come with large amounts of RAM? Shouldn't we just set it to the absolute minimum to save system RAM?

Well, in the first place, many graphics cards require an AGP aperture of at least 16MB in size to work properly. This is probably because the virtual addressing space is already 12MB in size! In addition, many software have AGP aperture size requirements which are mostly unspecified. >:(Some games even use so much textures that AGP memory is needed even with graphics cards with lots of graphics memory.


And if you remember the formula above, the actual amount of AGP memory needed is more than double that of the required texture storage space. So, if 15MB of extra texture storage space is needed, then 42MB of system RAM is actually used. Therefore, it makes sense to set a large AGP aperture size in order to cater for every software requirement.

Note that reducing the AGP aperture size won't save you any RAM. Again, what setting the AGP aperture size does is limit the amount of RAM the AGP bus can appropriate when it needs to. It is not used unless absolutely necessary. So, setting a 64MB AGP aperture doesn't mean 64MB of your RAM will be used up as AGP memory. It will only limit the maximum amount that can be used by the AGP bus to 64MB (with a usable AGP memory size of only 26MB).

Now, while increasing the AGP aperture size beyond 128MB wouldn't really hurt performance, it would still be best to keep the aperture size to about 64MB-128MB so that the GART table won't become too large. As the amount of onboard RAM increases and texture compression becomes commonplace, there's less of a need for the AGP aperture size to increase beyond 64MB. So, it's recommended that you set the AGP Aperture Size to 64MB or at most, 128MB.

[M. O.]

Yes I see but it shouldn't nbe recommended to dig around in the BIOS. And I doubt this will be effective. Ok you get more memory -> you dont have to load textures many times and you get a better performance, but still if you have a bad card you have to read the data in and this will always take time, and it will hack anyway since the Graphics Card Processor is bad.

Well you could get a few FPS more but it's not worth the risk.

[Viet Vet]

This is assuming your card is working.... also.... think about this info...http://www.omegacorner.com/.. drivers here offer more flexibility. More "tweaking" parameters.

[Viet Vet]

AGP aperture is a fragment of addressing space immediately below the physical addresses used by an AGP card's frame buffer (video memory). This part of address space is used by AGP cards to access the system memory where textures are stored. Physically the system memory is addressed starting from the address 0 up to its total size. The AGP aperture is divided into logical pages, and the pages are mapped individually into the physical pages of system memory.

Choosing the AGP aperture size is like setting the screen resolution, it depends on many factors. You can increase or decrease the default setting to suit your application requirements. If the target system has less memory than that specified for the aperture, then AGP applications will run in available memory.

You can change the aperture size in your BIOS setup - it may be called something slightly different, so check for a setting that is measured in MB and can be set to values such as 16, 32, 64, 128 and 256.

Please note, however, that it is possible to experience speed advantages of 2-3 fps from setting the AGP Aperture size to 256, regardless of the amount of RAM that you have. There are some games that may have visual problems resolved by setting the AGP Aperture size to 256. Beware that setting the AGP Aperture size too low (below about 16) will actually disable AGP which will cause a speed decrease, although stability problems may be solved . There are also some programs that have problems (stuttering for example) when the aperture size is set too high. Experiment and see which setting is best for your system and applications.

[M. O.]

Well, new drivers is always something =) But it's too much work to do the other things, it's not worth it.

[Viet Vet]

[quote author=[TKC]Mullah Omar link=board=t2&thread=1052428445&start=4#0 date=1052500351]Well, new drivers is always something =) But it's too much work to do the other things, it's not worth it.[/quote]


Only if you are too d**n lazy to try and improve your system for better game play.

[Viet Vet]

Or if you are to hypacritical to listen to advise from a non-tk'er

[M. O.]

No, because I have a good working card and that I like my FPS as they are. And if I want to use some of my well-needed system RAM to the gfx RAM I will experience longer wait times in Windows and I dont want it. To improve the FPS there is a better way, use the No-Cd crack. But of course this would maybe improve many things theoretically, but I doubt it would be good for amateurs to move around things in the BIOS and therefore it ain't a common solution. Anyway I agree that it can be useful if you have much RAM and a little VRAM memory and you feel that it's a good solution.

[M. O.]

And yes why decrease the AGP when you can increase it to 8x by buying a new board.

[Viet Vet]

Ok but... why spend more money on this stinking game ?

IN Fact why spend more time trying to make this stinking game run on systems that clearly play other games. Its the stinking devs and thier stinking engine and coding that is at fault.

[M. O.]

Yes thats true but the ideas are good.