"AGP Fast Writes" yield >2x better WMV9 Hi-Def performance

[Tony DiMarzio]

Well..... I figured IT OUT!!!!! and it didn't take a clean install of
Windows XP SP2.

Never in my life, would I have thought that "AGP Fast Writes" could have
such a significant performance impact on, well... anything! As a rule of
thumb I've _always_ left it disabled to avoid potential complications and
because ATI cards don't generally benefit from having it on.

So I was just about to give up hope (this is after I booted into my XP debug
partition, which is basically a clean windows install I don't use for
anything but bug verification, and found that WMV9's were performing
abnormally in there too) when I decided to try MS's website to see if there
was any useful support documentation (long shot I know...). I then tried
this link,
http://ccon.futuremark.com/servlet/Index?pageid=/vendors/microsoft_wmvhd/advisor,
clicked on the T2: Judgment Day link, and ran the "Will it play on my PC?"
link. This installed a FutureMark OCX control that ran some quick test. At
the end of the test, it said my system may not be sufficient to play this
movie because "AGP Fast Writes" were not available. I smell an epiphany
coming..........

I rebooted faster that fsck and entered the BIOS, turned back on AGP Fast
Writes, saved/exited, loaded windows, re-ran ATI SmartGart, rebooted
again.... and THEN, loaded up the "Call of Duty 2 E3 2005 Xbox 360
Video.wmv". What the hell do you know?! It played flawlessly! NO dropped
frames. That's 60FPS, and CPU utilization was 40-45%. All along I've been
trying to figure this out and finally.... well... it was "AGP Fast Writes" -
the loathed instability-inducing AGP option from hell.

The shock hasn't worn off yet obviously. So, the question remains, "Why the
HELL does AGP Fast Writes yield greater than 2X performance increase when
decoding WMV9 Hi-Def videos?" --- Does anyone have any ideas?

--
Tony DiMarzio
(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)

My OC'ed P4 at 3.8 with a 1000+ FSB is hitting performance values as an
FX55 or better (but not by much). My memory BUS is at 1:1 at 250Mhz with
fairly tight memory timings for that speed. Bandwidth is in excess of
6200mb/sec.

I understand that the FX's can achieve a somewhat higher 3D gaming level
but the P4 with Hyper Threading makes for a more useful machine for me. I
was mostly an Athlon user (overclocker) until the P4C came out so I am not
partial towards either.

I just replaced a 9800Pro with the X800XT a week or two ago. The X800XT is
MUCH faster then the 9800Pro, no comparison! At least with 3D apps. I was
hardly able to play Doom3 at 1024 X 768 at Medium Quality with NO eye
candy. Now I can play at 1280 X 1024 at High Quality with 4X AA and 8X AF.
Giant difference in performance ability.

Enjoy.

You're really hitting 60FPS with 50 CPU utilization? There must be
something else wrong with my system then....

I can only hit 22fps with 100% CPU utilization, and that's on an Athlon
FX-53 OC'd to FX-55 speeds.

--
Tony DiMarzio
(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)

WOW!

The file Call of Duty 2 E3 2005 Xbox 360 Video.wmv and Quake 4 E3 2005
Xbox 360 Video.wmv are1280 X 720, 10000kbps video-2.

On my rig they play back at 60fps with about 50% CPU usage.

I can't wait for Quake4, it looks great.


As I expected... playing "Call of Duty 2 E3 2005 Xbox 360 Video.wmv"
results in 100% CPU utilization and a visually obvious lack of hardware
acceleration.

I was only able to hit 22-23 fps of the total 60fps in that video.
Sucks... Oh well, maybe later drivers will be able to accelerate a
larger variety of HD combinations.

--
Tony DiMarzio
(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)


Try these XBox 360 game trailers at 720p:

http://www.cdrinfo.com/forum/tm.asp?m=110829&mpage=1&#110829

The Call of Duty one is supposed to be at 60 fps, which shouldn't work
with DXVA.

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."


Well... what can I say? It works. With the below setup, I was never
able to hit 30fps on the 1080p Hi-Def content ( e.g.
"Step_into_Liquid_1080.wmv") off of MS's site. It would drop frames
to maybe an effective 15fps and CPU utilization would be pegged at
100%. I was, however able to play 720p content
(Step_into_Liquid_720.wmv) at full FPS with no frame drops previous
to WMV9 acceleration, but the CPU util was very high- on the order of
85%.

Now, after Installing CAT 5.6 and following the procedure at
https://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=19544, I
can play 1080p Hi-Def content at full FPS, and CPU utilization is
down to below 50%.

**** YEAH!

--------System Specs----------------------
Windows XP (2600-Professional) w/ SP2
AMD Socket 939 Athlon 64 FX-53, 1MB L2 Cache (2.4ghz@200mhz-FSB)
ASUS "A8V Deluxe Wi-Fi" K8T800 Pro (BIOS: 1011)
VIA Hyperion 4in1 456v
1024mb (2 x (512mb OCZ Platinum EL (2-3-2-5) DDR400/PC3200) Dual
Channel) [OCZ4001024ELDCPE-K]
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (Catalyst 4.10) (C-378mhz / M-337.5mhz) OC to
(C-411.75mhz / M-360.00mhz)
SbAudigy 5.1 (PCI-Slot 3)

*Promise FastTrak 378 (PDC20378) 2+0/RAID 0*
120gb Western Digital WD1200JB (RAID 1of2)
120gb Western Digital WD1200JB (RAID 2of2)

16x HI-VAL DVDRom (BDV316C) secondary/master
Plextor (PX-716SA) VIA SATA-1

LianLi PC-6070 *Silent* Aluminum Mid-Tower Case | 2x80mm intake fans,
1x80mm exhaust fan, 1x slot cooler
OCZ Modstream 520watt PSU | +3.3V(28A), +5V(52A), +12V(28A)

 

[Brian Dickens]

Tony DiMarzio wrote:

[snip]

Very strange, as the performance increase from AGP Fast Writes is
negligible.

=- Brian Dickens, the Netherlands

 

[Tony DiMarzio]

That was exactly my point. Strange indeed.

 

[Greg]

I have had fast writes enabled on all my ATI cards (7200, 7500AIW, 9700AIW
and 9800AIW) never had a problem I could blame on fast writes. I have not
had some of the recording and play back issues that others of this group
have had so maybe fast writes were of use.

Well..... I figured IT OUT!!!!! and it didn't take a clean install of
Windows XP SP2.

Never in my life, would I have thought that "AGP Fast Writes" could have
such a significant performance impact on, well... anything! As a rule of
thumb I've _always_ left it disabled to avoid potential complications and
because ATI cards don't generally benefit from having it on.

So I was just about to give up hope (this is after I booted into my XP
debug
partition, which is basically a clean windows install I don't use for
anything but bug verification, and found that WMV9's were performing
abnormally in there too) when I decided to try MS's website to see if
there
was any useful support documentation (long shot I know...). I then tried
this link,
http://ccon.futuremark.com/servlet/Index?pageid=/vendors/microsoft_wmvhd/advisor,
clicked on the T2: Judgment Day link, and ran the "Will it play on my PC?"
link. This installed a FutureMark OCX control that ran some quick test. At
the end of the test, it said my system may not be sufficient to play this
movie because "AGP Fast Writes" were not available. I smell an epiphany
coming..........

I rebooted faster that fsck and entered the BIOS, turned back on AGP Fast
Writes, saved/exited, loaded windows, re-ran ATI SmartGart, rebooted
again.... and THEN, loaded up the "Call of Duty 2 E3 2005 Xbox 360
Video.wmv". What the hell do you know?! It played flawlessly! NO dropped
frames. That's 60FPS, and CPU utilization was 40-45%. All along I've been
trying to figure this out and finally.... well... it was "AGP Fast
Writes" -
the loathed instability-inducing AGP option from hell.

The shock hasn't worn off yet obviously. So, the question remains, "Why
the
HELL does AGP Fast Writes yield greater than 2X performance increase when
decoding WMV9 Hi-Def videos?" --- Does anyone have any ideas?

--
Tony DiMarzio
(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)

My OC'ed P4 at 3.8 with a 1000+ FSB is hitting performance values as an
FX55 or better (but not by much). My memory BUS is at 1:1 at 250Mhz with
fairly tight memory timings for that speed. Bandwidth is in excess of
6200mb/sec.

I understand that the FX's can achieve a somewhat higher 3D gaming level
but the P4 with Hyper Threading makes for a more useful machine for me. I
was mostly an Athlon user (overclocker) until the P4C came out so I am
not
partial towards either.

I just replaced a 9800Pro with the X800XT a week or two ago. The X800XT
is
MUCH faster then the 9800Pro, no comparison! At least with 3D apps. I was
hardly able to play Doom3 at 1024 X 768 at Medium Quality with NO eye
candy. Now I can play at 1280 X 1024 at High Quality with 4X AA and 8X
AF.
Giant difference in performance ability.

Enjoy.

You're really hitting 60FPS with 50 CPU utilization? There must be
something else wrong with my system then....

I can only hit 22fps with 100% CPU utilization, and that's on an Athlon
FX-53 OC'd to FX-55 speeds.

--
Tony DiMarzio
(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)


WOW!

The file Call of Duty 2 E3 2005 Xbox 360 Video.wmv and Quake 4 E3 2005
Xbox 360 Video.wmv are1280 X 720, 10000kbps video-2.

On my rig they play back at 60fps with about 50% CPU usage.

I can't wait for Quake4, it looks great.


As I expected... playing "Call of Duty 2 E3 2005 Xbox 360 Video.wmv"
results in 100% CPU utilization and a visually obvious lack of
hardware
acceleration.

I was only able to hit 22-23 fps of the total 60fps in that video.
Sucks... Oh well, maybe later drivers will be able to accelerate a
larger variety of HD combinations.

--
Tony DiMarzio
(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)


Try these XBox 360 game trailers at 720p:

http://www.cdrinfo.com/forum/tm.asp?m=110829&mpage=1&#110829

The Call of Duty one is supposed to be at 60 fps, which shouldn't
work
with DXVA.

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."


Well... what can I say? It works. With the below setup, I was never
able to hit 30fps on the 1080p Hi-Def content ( e.g.
"Step_into_Liquid_1080.wmv") off of MS's site. It would drop frames
to maybe an effective 15fps and CPU utilization would be pegged at
100%. I was, however able to play 720p content
(Step_into_Liquid_720.wmv) at full FPS with no frame drops previous
to WMV9 acceleration, but the CPU util was very high- on the order
of
85%.

Now, after Installing CAT 5.6 and following the procedure at
https://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=19544, I
can play 1080p Hi-Def content at full FPS, and CPU utilization is
down to below 50%.

**** YEAH!

--------System Specs----------------------
Windows XP (2600-Professional) w/ SP2
AMD Socket 939 Athlon 64 FX-53, 1MB L2 Cache (2.4ghz@200mhz-FSB)
ASUS "A8V Deluxe Wi-Fi" K8T800 Pro (BIOS: 1011)
VIA Hyperion 4in1 456v
1024mb (2 x (512mb OCZ Platinum EL (2-3-2-5) DDR400/PC3200) Dual
Channel) [OCZ4001024ELDCPE-K]
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (Catalyst 4.10) (C-378mhz / M-337.5mhz) OC to
(C-411.75mhz / M-360.00mhz)
SbAudigy 5.1 (PCI-Slot 3)

*Promise FastTrak 378 (PDC20378) 2+0/RAID 0*
120gb Western Digital WD1200JB (RAID 1of2)
120gb Western Digital WD1200JB (RAID 2of2)

16x HI-VAL DVDRom (BDV316C) secondary/master
Plextor (PX-716SA) VIA SATA-1

LianLi PC-6070 *Silent* Aluminum Mid-Tower Case | 2x80mm intake
fans,
1x80mm exhaust fan, 1x slot cooler
OCZ Modstream 520watt PSU | +3.3V(28A), +5V(52A), +12V(28A)

 

[First of One]

CONFIRMED. Now I get 60 fps playing the Call of Duty video as well, compared
to 20 fps before. All this using a A64 3200+ (2.0 GHz) at stock speeds and a
9800Pro.

Now it's off to checking all my games to make sure Fast Writes didn't f---
them up...

 

[Tony DiMarzio]

Well..... What's the verdict? Has having "AGP Fast Writes" enabled adversely
affected any of your games?

So far so good for me. Haven't noticed any problems in the few games I've
been playing lately (CS: Source.... and that's about it )

Also haven't noticed any system instability or flakiness outside of 3D apps.

 

[Ken Marsh]

#Well..... What's the verdict? Has having "AGP Fast Writes" enabled adversely
#affected any of your games?

AGP Fast Writes gave me *no* problems until an update of Punk Buster for
Call of Duty came out... Suddenly the game was in stop-action, one
sound/video update per second.

I did everything, updated drivers, flashed Motherboard BIOS, video BIOS,
swapped hardware... I was literally about to RMA the motherboard when I
noticed "Fast Writes" was still on, turned it off, Viola'! Working
system.

Ken.