The PCI card is a NEC USB 2.0 that I used in all the systems because all chipsets have only USB 1.1 connectivity. Just to be clear, on NV7 -133R there is a VIA VT6202 chip that provides USB 2.0 but the rest have only USB 1.1 so I used a NEC card in order to have decent speeds.

Most of you will jump again: but AMD 760 and bridged AGP cards are incompatible! There are many forum post where users reported not being able to run AGP cards with a bridge chip!
I am sure that all users tested to the best of their abilities and found that indeed there is a huge problem. However I found through trial and error that ALL AGP bridged cards work fine with AMD 760 chipset and KG7 - raid after certain BIOS options are set the right way.

BIOS options on Abit KG7 - raid that ensures full compatibility with NVidia AGP bridged video cards - that is no crashes, no BSOD, no funny distortions on the monitor, they just work and worked 100% during all tests:

You may have noticed in the pictures with all the components laid down that 2 different motherboards are there: KG7 - raid and KG7 "standard"; the only different between the 2 versions is the RAID controller.
That is because all tests have been done twice; first time with the raid version, second time with the standard version. If a single result differs by 5% or more between the runs that I start all over: XP reinstall, all benchmarks and games again installed on a formatted hard drive and new results obtained an 2 different boards. That is done in order to ensure that there is no error, if someone else decides to make some tests with an identical system all results will be the same/very close.
Also in order not to influence the results all additional controllers present on all the boards have been disabled in the BIOS; on KG7 - raid for example the raid controller is disabled; this is done so these results are error free and everyone with a similar system can easily check them.

nd22 wrote on 2024-06-05, 08:19:

Question 3: where is SIS 735? There is only one manufacturer with only one mass produced model: ECS K7S5A. There may be more models such as Chaintech 7SID, MSI K735 Pro but I am not sure how many of them are out there as it seems SIS was not loved by the Taiwanese boards partners at all. In any case Abit did not manufactured a single model with SIS 735 so it is not included in the tests however I should point out that period correct reviews were highly positive. Sis 735 was considered the best 266mhz chipset for the Athlon XP! I should also point out that most if not all implementations of the SIS 735 are of low quality and cheap from questionable manufacturers. Phil did make a video about ECS K7S5A Pro and it was always behind boards with KT266A from Asus so maybe the reviews back in the day were somehow enthusiastic.

We had a thread here about NF and I did some quick comparisons between that and the 735 and it does lag behind, though that can be said about all pre-NF Socket A chipsets: Re: nForce 1 (220/415/420 aka Crush 11/12) thread

While no doubt NF boards were more expensive, you also have to take into account the value you would get with Soundstorm, which was a darn good bonus.

Very good link Sir! I did a quick read of that thread and those results are pretty interesting!
How about Ati video cards? They also work just fine; the settings in the Advanced chipset features are identical however in the Chipset driving control menu the settings in the AGP driving control subsection are different!
Stupid me did not took a picture of them but if you take my words for it I tested Radeon X1650 pro and X1950 pro with Rialto bridge and they work 100%.

Now let's talk about CPU compatibility: official BIOS of KG7 support up to Athlon XP Thoroughbred 2000. However I found out during testing that KG7-raid can run XP 2400 with no problems at all though the board will NOT run with an Athlon XP 2600! Please note that BIOS version DM (seen in screenshot number 2) is flashed which is the second last version. The last version is DS - using it causes big problems with AGP compatibility - the system hard locks with any bridged video card before you get a chance to enter the BIOS!

Unlike NV7-133R memory compatibility is very good: the first 2 modules I put in worked!

And this is the system info as it was used for all tests; no screen tearing, no artifacts, AMD 760 and geforce 7600 GT - best buddies 😀

The system ready for some hard work:
You can see how the RAM clips are so close to the video card that they are almost touching it; that is why geforce 7800gs can not be used with this board!

Circled in red in the picture below is another piece of hardware: Abit postman - a port 80 debug thingy that connects to the system management bus header present on all Abit boards used and which is extremely valuable when memory compatibility is up in smoke or AGP port is acting like a madman where I put the 7600 GT in the KG7 - raid. Extremely rare!

Now we go over the next platform to be tested: VIA KT266A represented by, you guessed it 😀, another Abit motherboard. Waiting to show its potential, made me proud 😀 and defend VIA honor is the NOS KR7A - 133R, the final revision of KR7A family with the ATA133 raid controller!

The box comes even with a carrying handle! Below the main compartment where you find the board you will find a lot of goodies; besides the manuals you got PATA cables, CD with drivers and even blue clips for cable management! The note with the message that this board supports both 3.3V and 1.5V video cards is still in the AGP slot.

Bios settings used for testing. The latest official version CX has been used as it provides the best results! With the beta version EJ the scores are actually lower in all the tests! CPU fast command decode, PCI master bus time-out and Master priority rotation control must be set at the values shown in pictures in order to get the best performance possible!
Memory compatibility is excellent: I just grabbed 2 sticks, put them in and on to testing!
Please note that this board lacks the P4 power connector so a PSU with a strong 5V rail is required!

CPU compatibility: officially up to Athlon XP Thoroughbred 2000, but again I found out that this board runs 100% OK with the Athlon XP 2400. Please note that this board refuses to run with the Athlon XP 2600! Samsung 160Gb hard drive works fine on this board!

I even made a screenshot with the Super PI result with the 2400 installed:

However for testing I put in the Athlon XP 2000:

System info as reported by Everest 5.50; the motherboard accepted the 7600 GT with no complaints whatsoever unlike the KG7 - raid!

We finally arrived at the last platform: VIA KT133 A represented by the KT7A - raid motherboard. It is the only chipset with SDRAM and only SDRAM support. Finding 3 512mb sticks that run on this board was a real challenge; even finding compatible memory for NV7-133R was sorted out faster! In the end I got 3 identical sticks made in USA by an unknown manufacturer: Tanisys!
Please note that again I took pictures with the second board used to verify results obtained with the first and this one does not have the raid controller!

The system ready to go; note again how close the RAM clips are to the AGP port! There is no way I could have used the geforce 7800gs on this board!
Cards present in the system:
AGP: geforce 7600 GT
PCI4 cover: Abit postman debug
PCI5: NEC usb 2.0 card
PCI6: Creative live 0100