Make your PC play games faster

by **shockwave203** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 5:01 pm

this is quite interesting. I recently installed Max Payne 2 demo, and it told me that my AGP texture acceleration was disabled, and enabling it could offer an increase of up to 50% in speed.

So...sure enough, I went into DirectX, and under 'video', the AGP texture accel option was greyed out.

I couldn't turn it on, I went to rage3d.com and read up a bit on it. I read a post where someone had the same mobo as I do (asus p4pe) and he enabled his AGP texture accel by installing the latest 845 chipset.

I realized that I never installed any driver chipset for my mobo. So I installed the driver on the disc that came with my MOBO (most people never do this, but you SHOULD!)

I then went into the ATI control panel, clicked on 'smartgart' and turned ON fastwrites. When my computer restarted, fastwrites was ON, AND AGP texture acceleration was ON in directX!

It worked! So...I ran the aquamark benchmark, and holy fricken cow! My score, which was 16,000 before installing the driver, jumped to an amazing 35,000 :eek:

I ran 3dmark, and my score increased by 500 points to over 5000 points!!!!!!!!

Enabling this option really gives your PC a boost, but sadly most people have it turned off, and have no idea how to turn it on.

So remember, if you can turn on fastwrites in your video card options, and have AGP texture acceleration enabled in DX, you are good to go!

If anyone has any trouble with enabling this, feel free to ask any questions.

I'm so happy! Just added major performance to my 'puter!!:D

by **Buliwyf** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 5:49 pm

enabling fastwrites is not a smart thing to do overall. that is why ATi gives that warning. It causes more problems then it does good.

by **Bullhead** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 6:11 pm

ATI smartgart will sometimes say fastwrites are enabled, even if they are disabled in BIOS. That being said, it is true that fastwrites are notoriously NOT good for ATI cards, and can cause some annoying stability issues, without great performance increses.

And shockwave, you're silly!

Correct order for any o/s install is:
1.O/S (duh!)
2.ALL Mobo drivers
3.Vid drivers
4.misc drivers (sound, LAN, modem, etc.)

You always want to install the vid drivers AFTER the mobo drivers, otherwise you can get really cool issues!

by **shockwave203** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 6:41 pm

Enabling fast writes isn't bad. If you turn them on, have no crashes, you enjoy faster performance. Considerably FASTER performance, let me tell you. BF1942 runs much much better now that I have turned them on. If you turn them on, and get frequent crashes, turn them off. Badda bing badda bang.

I think it's an issue with the catalyst drivers not detecting the mobo AGP driver that supports fastwrites because it's not installed in the first place. That's why it's important to update your mobo chipset drivers, so you dont get crashes. Some people aren't familiar with doing that sort of thing, so they get crashes, which is probably why ATI suggested leaving the option off.

so for anyone, if you can turn fastwrites on and don't crash, you're gold. if you turn them on, get crashes, you can just turn it back off, or you can install the latest chipset drivers for your mobo, uninstall and reinstall your display drivers, and you should be good. I'm just reiterating what I've read on Rage3d, so if anyone has anthing else to add about fastwrites (Bullhead you seem pretty knowledgeable in these cases) feel free to add.

Bullhead hahaahaha I should have known that eh? To be honest, I've never bothered with updating my mobo drivers since I had a VIA chipset, when i had to update my 4in1 drivers. but i know now!

**me loves me fastwrites**

by **Matt174e** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 6:50 pm

So what about the Nvidia chumps?

by **Horsepower** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 6:51 pm

the issues with enabling fastwrites were mostly on older computer configurations(approx 2 year old systems). last 2 systems i have built have absolutely no problems with it enabled. i'm on my first ATI card(9700 pro), and have no problems with stability at all(2.4 ghz cpu OC'ed to 3.0 on air). your results may vary.

by **Horsepower** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 6:54 pm

Originally posted by Matt174e
So what about the Nvidia chumps?

i had problems using fastwrites on nvidia cards. but again, that was on older sytems. try it out. you're not gonna hurt anything. just remember what your current settings are, so u can go back to them in case of a malfunction at the junction.

by **shockwave203** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 6:57 pm

Originally posted by Matt174e
So what about the Nvidia chumps?

i was just looking at nvnews.net, and a lot of people there are using fastwrites with their Nvidia cards.

don't forget about the AGP texture acceleration option in DirectX under the video tab

by **Cpl. Bingham** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 7:22 pm

Shock, it's the AGP Acceleration giving the boost. Fastwrites don't even "work" on ATI cards currently. It's like taking a placebo that also can cause heart disease, ie it doesn't do anything and it can have significant downsides.

If you can disable fastwrites and keep the AGP Accel on, that's the route to go.

by Conscious* » Tue Nov 18, 2003 8:05 pm

can someone help me out with an Nvidia 4200ti, in enabling fast writes? just leave me a pm or post here if you can, i could use a PC performance boost

by **shockwave203** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 8:23 pm

paul in directX do you have a greyed out option for AGP texture acceleration?

start, run, type dxdiag, under video tab

by **WDPsellout** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 8:25 pm

I can't find where you turn on AGP Acceleration, but that might be because I have a Nvidia card. Do Nvidia cards have APG Acceleration capabilities??

by **shockwave203** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 8:26 pm

Originally posted by Cpl. Bingham
Shock, it's the AGP Acceleration giving the boost. Fastwrites don't even "work" on ATI cards currently. It's like taking a placebo that also can cause heart disease, ie it doesn't do anything and it can have significant downsides.

If you can disable fastwrites and keep the AGP Accel on, that's the route to go.

okie dokie. i turned it off, leaving AGP text accel on, and it was still fast, so that's what does it.

I was thinking about upgrading to a 9800pro soon--i guess now i can hold off a lil longer

by Conscious* » Tue Nov 18, 2003 8:42 pm

Originally posted by shockwave203
paul in directX do you have a greyed out option for AGP texture acceleration?

start, run, type dxdiag, under video tab

nevermind mine is enabled by default

by **shockwave203** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 8:55 pm

are you sure? because if it's grey, and it says 'enable' that means it's disabled...

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