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Thread: Radeon LE + New Beta Drivers - - HyperZ Reconsidered

  1. #1

    Radeon LE + New Beta Drivers - - HyperZ Reconsidered

    Last year I built myself a Pentium 4 system. I had no desire to build a performance dream machine, so I acquired my hardware components with thrift in mind. My choice of Video Card concluded with the acquisition of a (now original) Radeon LE 32MB (141/141).

    Anyone who frequently reads Anandtech will have most likely seen the article concerning this card (article released about a year and a half ago), which stated that HyperZ was enabled on the card, but was suppressed by ATI's driver installation when setup detected that the card was of the LE variety. The article went on to show how to enable HyperZ by editing the registry.

    As posted by several of the more popular Hardware Enthusiast Websites, ATI released new drivers for almost every Radeon model on the 31st of last month. Always intrigued by the prospect of increasing performance at absolutely no cost, I downloaded the drivers for my Radeon LE and benchmarked them in 3D Mark 2001. The cards performance increased almost 9% in terms of total score, but what really spurred my interest were the following numbers:

    Old Qualified Drivers:
    3DMark Score 2549 3D marks
    ...
    High Polygon Count (1 light) 3.9 MTriangels/s
    High Polygon Count (8 lights) 1.4 MTriangels/s

    New Beta Drivers:
    3DMark Score 2775 3D marks
    ...
    High Polygon Count (1 light) 6.4 MTriangels/s
    High Polygon Count (8 lights) 2.3 MTriangels/s

    Although the cause of such a significant increase could be related explicitly to driver optimizations, I can not help but wonder if HyperZ has now been enabled on my LE with no volitional tweaking.

    For those of you unfamiliar with HyperZ, it essentially increases the efficiency at which the DDR memory subsystem operates, allowing for (what some have claimed) 30% increased data throughput. A slew of third party ATI Radeon-based cards with the LE branding on many of them might give a possible explanation for the enabling (if it exists) of HyperZ on my old Radeon LE.

    I would like someone with a superior knowledge of what factors would contribute to the difference in scores to either affirm my conjecture or suggest another explanation.

    Ranma

  2. #2
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    Radeon LE Win2K

    I know that Enabling HyperZ will give u that kinda performance increase. Also fast Z clear with also dramatically improve performance. It's likely that one of those features were enabled. radeontweaker should show the setting when u first run it. I also have a few questions.

    This is more related to w2k and 2D slowness in the latest driver.

    First of all. Does anyone know where i can get a BIOS for LE to make it like the retail Radeon 32 MB DDR ?

    Secondly, i installed the latest radeon driver for w2k and it fixed the screwed up shadow effect in 3d but made my 2d (directdraw ?) very slow. For example, in subspace, i used to get like 40 to 60 fps at the slowest rate. Now i can only get 17 fps. It's also noticeable in other 2D games. I installed this driver...

    Recommended Driver - 5.13.01.6014
    7.65-011228X-2465C
    Posted February 14, 2002

    The previous non beta version was very fast 2D but the only problem was that the 3D shadow effect didn't quiet look right.

    Anyone run into the same problem ?

    Thx

  3. #3
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    If you want to alter the GPU/Memory frequencies you should install "Radeon BIOS Editor", extract your current card's BIOS to a ROM-file and modify it with this program by entering the desired speed values.

    Once done, you may rewrite the Radeon's BIOS with the modified ROM-file.

    Unfortunately, no other performance settings can be modified at this time (e.g. memory timings).

  4. #4
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    why would you want a bios for the LE when radeon tweaker can both enable the hyperZ in d3d and also lets you o/c it to 183mhz?

  5. #5
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    Thx for the replies.

    I want the retail BIOS so when i download the latest Radeon driver from ATI, i'm more comfortable that the driver will be most compatible with the card. For example, the driver also detects my card as a Radeon 7200 and not Radeon DDR LE or something like that. Also, the 2D in W2K in the latest driver is dog slow and i don't know how to make it better. Tweaking every possible setting didn't fix the lowest rate of 17fps in Continuum at 2048x res... i used to get like 60fps. Even when my card is o/c to 190/190 it's the same and also at stock speed. So it doesn't have anything to do with my o/c it.

    One other thing, where can i get the Radeon BIOS Editor ?

    TIA
    Last edited by evildead; 02-15-2002 at 02:40 PM.

  6. #6
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    The official homepage is:
    http://www.radeon2.ru/radedit_eng.html

    As to getting a retail BIOS file, the only thing that occurs to me is to post a message asking if someone who owns a retail model could supply you with the corresponding ROM-file.

    Greetings,
    Mr. D

  7. #7
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    evilhead. don't worry about it posting as radeon 7200. my friend's genuine radeon DDR is being recognised as 7200 as well. anyways i am quite happy with the older beta drivers under win2k.

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