AGP Sidebanding

[SickPup404]

I have an ABit KT7A-RAID and Elsa Glaidiac Ultra. When I run Sandra, it says I have AGP sideband addressing disabled. Can it be enabled in this combination? I don't see any (obvious) place for the setting in the BIOS.... :confused:

[Brian48]

It's disabled in the video card's BIOS. Can't enable it unless you flash the video card with a reference (or hacked) BIOS. Don't worry about it. Just leave it disabled as per nVidia's intention.

[Ammok]

I disagree. Go to www.voodoofiles.com and download NVmax from there. With this utility you can adjust all the settings on your Nvidia card including FastWrites, SBA, Via 4x, Via Side Band Addressing, AMD 2x, AMD SBA, and a host of other things to your hearts content. Did I mention overclocking as well?

[NDD]

I disagree :)
You can't enable SBA neither with nVMax nor with any other utility. It would be a registry hack, but SBA remains disabled unless changed in videocard's BIOS, and mobo supports it.
And it wouldn't really matter much when enabled. I just got about 100 mere points in 3DMark2001 when I've flashed my GeForce2 Pro with modded BIOS. And I got also some problems with my mouse pointer in FIFA2002 :(

[Ammok]

ND I do not think your quite right there. Unless NVmax has options that you can select but do not actually do anything. (If it was MS kit I'd believe you straight away)

I have a G2 mx400 and can access considerable amounts of agp and sidebanding with the NVmax program and modify the settings.
its got AGP 1x,2x,4x,Auto
FastWrites,Auto
SideBand Addressing,Auto
under Compatibilty/AGP Gart it also has
ALi 4x
ALi FastWrites
Via 4x
VIA SideBandAddressing
AMD 2x
AMD SideBandAddressing

I do not know enough about the vid card bios to do anything with it, (or even access it) but with nvmax I can change practically anything. I am using version 3.0072b which is brilliant for anyone with a Nvidia card.

No I don't know if SickPup's mobo supports these things, but he won't go wrong with NVmax even if it doesnt. he still get lots of things to tinker with.

[Brian48]

NVmax may offer these things under Windows, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's actually enabled and functioning. It is a software hack. For this function to work properly, you need all three components working in conjuction with each other.

1. Function enabled under MB's BIOS
2. Function enabled under video card's BIOS
3. Enabled in video card's driver.

SBA has been disabled in the video card's BIOS per nVidia's recommendation ever since the first GeForce SDR was released. The only exemption to the rule is cards from Creative and later, Asus, that permited this feature enabled (and that was really more of a marketing ploy).

[Ammok]

Anyone know how access the Vid Card bios or hack it?

Any links on same subject?

[Brian48]

Lots, but you have to look for them. Go the Driver/BIOS section over at this site (http://home.earthlink.net/~chinmonster/links/index_links.htm). I think there's a few URLs to some sites covering this matter and how to hack it.

[Ammok]

Cheers

[NDD]

Brian48 is 100% right.

Offtopic : nVMax author is getting all his source codes and all the help from RivaTuner author. If you want real tweaker, without fake entries, use RivaTuner (http://www.nvworld.ru/downloads/rivatuner.zip) (man ... it almost sounds like commercial :) ).
For the same reason I'm not using GeForce Tweak Utility :(

[Ammok]

B*gger.

I spent ages tweaking the little devils all over the place looking for improvements in my benchmark scores.:mad:

But I least I am learning something useful now.:D

Off to install rivatuner.:p

[Ammok]

Installed Rivatuner and I am again well impressed.

THX ND again.

Now here's a bummer, Rivatuner shows no sidebanding as expected, but, shock,horror, no fastwrites either and I definitely have those on my mobo bios. Sheesh.

[NDD]

Ammok - best utility to find out if your mobo/videocard support SBA/Fast Writes is SiSoft Sandra. Another fine one is WCPUID, available at www.h-oda.com
Double-check your mobo/videocard.

Glad I was able to help ;)