new vid card

[Steve Schaub]

I'm switchin from a ATI 9600XT 128 to a ATI X800XL 256. The question I have
is I'm sure there is some settings in the bios I can change to help the new
card run to it's potential, but which ones?

Another is I recently upgraded from 512 ram on my puter up to 1 @1/2 gig of
ram. Again any changes to be made in bios?

Specs Asus P4C800 Deluxe mobo bios 1019 I think
1 1/2 gig Ram
ATI 9600XT (soon ATI X800XL) AGP
Audigy 2LS soundcard
Thanks for any advice, I'm really pumped about gettin this new card.

 

[Paul]

I'm switchin from a ATI 9600XT 128 to a ATI X800XL 256. The question I have
is I'm sure there is some settings in the bios I can change to help the new
card run to it's potential, but which ones?

Another is I recently upgraded from 512 ram on my puter up to 1 @1/2 gig of
ram. Again any changes to be made in bios?

Specs Asus P4C800 Deluxe mobo bios 1019 I think
1 1/2 gig Ram
ATI 9600XT (soon ATI X800XL) AGP
Audigy 2LS soundcard
Thanks for any advice, I'm really pumped about gettin this new card.

For the video card, I recommend setting "Enjoy" to [The Max]

ATI cards have the SmartGART software and Control Panel Tab, and
the ATI software more or less does what it feels like. Check the
SmartGART tab and see if the card is at 8x etc.

Don't forget to remove the old video card drivers, before you
install the new card. Then install the new drivers. That should
help prevent goofy things from happening. You may find the new
card installer requests a later version of DirectX - there should
be DirectX on the CD from ATI, and you can download the latest
version from Microsoft.

On the RAM, it would help if you said what the RAM configuration
was, like 2x256MB + 2x512MB, 3-3-3-8 DDR400 or whatever. At
the very least, try to set the RAM up in a matched, dual channel
configuration, for best performance. The auto type settings are
pretty good, and perhaps setting "Performance Mode" to
[Standard] will enable PAT. Use CPUZ to see whether everything
is working the way it should.

"Intel Memory Guide for 875"
ftp://download.intel.com/design/chipsets/applnots/25273001.pdf

Paul

 

[Steve Schaub]

I'm switchin from a ATI 9600XT 128 to a ATI X800XL 256. The question I
have
is I'm sure there is some settings in the bios I can change to help the
new
card run to it's potential, but which ones?

Another is I recently upgraded from 512 ram on my puter up to 1 @1/2 gig
of
ram. Again any changes to be made in bios?

Specs Asus P4C800 Deluxe mobo bios 1019 I think
1 1/2 gig Ram
ATI 9600XT (soon ATI X800XL) AGP
Audigy 2LS soundcard
Thanks for any advice, I'm really pumped about gettin this new card.

For the video card, I recommend setting "Enjoy" to [The Max]

ATI cards have the SmartGART software and Control Panel Tab, and
the ATI software more or less does what it feels like. Check the
SmartGART tab and see if the card is at 8x etc.

Don't forget to remove the old video card drivers, before you
install the new card. Then install the new drivers. That should
help prevent goofy things from happening. You may find the new
card installer requests a later version of DirectX - there should
be DirectX on the CD from ATI, and you can download the latest
version from Microsoft.

On the RAM, it would help if you said what the RAM configuration
was, like 2x256MB + 2x512MB, 3-3-3-8 DDR400 or whatever. At
the very least, try to set the RAM up in a matched, dual channel
configuration, for best performance. The auto type settings are
pretty good, and perhaps setting "Performance Mode" to
[Standard] will enable PAT. Use CPUZ to see whether everything
is working the way it should.

"Intel Memory Guide for 875"
ftp://download.intel.com/design/chipsets/applnots/25273001.pdf

Paul

The ram is 3 sticks of kingston kvr400x64c3a/512 PC3200. I think this is
pretty cheap but stable ram.

 

[Paul]

The ram is 3 sticks of kingston kvr400x64c3a/512 PC3200. I think this is
pretty cheap but stable ram.

It would be much better, if you purchase a fourth stick of
kvr400x64c3a/512. If the four sticks are identical, you get
the ability to run in dual channel mode, and the memory
accesses can be interleaved, which means more pages can
remain open.

With three sticks, I think you end up in virtual single
channel mode, which will be slower than the other config.

Paul