Re: 478 vs 775 insurrection

Posted on 2022-10-06, 01:11

by

by VDNKh

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm gonna stir the hornet's nest and probably flog a dead horse too, but here it goes. From what I gathered around here, for my possible future "Turbocharged BlastProcessing Overk1ll SuperComputer98" build, is this: It's a hypothetical I've been exploring lately too with my build. But the PT880 …

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Re: Windows swap file minimum sizes

Posted on 2022-10-04, 17:06

by

by VDNKh

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

A swap file is meant to be a substitute for RAM. If you have more RAM than you ever typically need, then a large swap file is redundant. I use a fixed 32 MB swap with 512 MB of RAM with: ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1 just for compatibly with anything that might need to use it. Never had any issues …

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Re: Not Another Ultimate Windows 98 Build

Posted on 2022-08-25, 23:49

by

by VDNKh

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I'm not sure I follow. If I was to do a clean install of Win98SE (with no chipset or GPU drivers) I would see a resource conflict in Device Manager? On which device specifically? There was no resource conflict on my MSI K8T Neo V, before or after installation of drivers (NVidia, VIA). I guess it's …

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Re: Not Another Ultimate Windows 98 Build

Posted on 2022-08-24, 01:10

by

by VDNKh

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Others here on Vogons have also tested multiple versions of the chipset driver. I've tried several different ones myself, including the Windows 95 VxD version of the AGP driver. All experience the same issue. All those versions are broken as VIA probably never discovered the issue. But since AGP …

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Re: Asrock 775Dual VSTA & Core4Dual thread

Posted on 2022-08-22, 14:56

by

by VDNKh

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

RETROKOMODO wrote on 2022-08-22, 14:46: Hi There. With a 4CoreDual-VSTA on the way to me I don't suppose you happen to have those bios files handy and could share them please?. Here you go: 4CoreDual-VSTA 2.39a

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Re: Not Another Ultimate Windows 98 Build

Posted on 2022-08-21, 20:40

by

by VDNKh

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Nah, I'm good. Best I can do is give you guys screenshots of my BIOS settings so you can compare, if you think that would help. Understandable. Myself and others on Vogons have tried every BIOS setting available, the issue is outside of BIOS settings as far as I'm concerned. While a reasonable …

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Re: Not Another Ultimate Windows 98 Build

Posted on 2022-08-21, 20:02

by

by VDNKh

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Thank you, that striking out NV forceware as a possibility. I'm looking at K8V-X AMIBIOS version history and it covers a time period lasting from May 2004 t/m October 2005. Something makes me speculate it has to do with UAGP v.3.5. standard introducing a number of GART-related registers. I've tried …

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Re: Not Another Ultimate Windows 98 Build

Posted on 2022-08-21, 19:51

by

by VDNKh

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I am using a modest FX5200 AGP in that motherboard with 3.19a BIOS and am also experiencing this issue. While one way to look at it is there is hardly any game explicitly requiring Win98 to run and pushing the AGP card to the max and one could just boot to XP for more demanding stuff... Though the …

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Re: Not Another Ultimate Windows 98 Build

Posted on 2022-08-21, 18:39

by

by VDNKh

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

In most games that came out for 98 the performance is fine. However, without AGP memory mapping, the GPU loses the ability to use Direct Memory Execution (DiME) There are a few games (NFS games in particular) that really seem to lean on this feature. Despite being from 1999, NFS IV cannot run at a …

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Re: Not Another Ultimate Windows 98 Build

Posted on 2022-08-21, 17:12

by

by VDNKh

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

A synthetic benchmark is meant to take into account AGP memory usage, as some games could end up using it, especially if graphics card has insufficient video memory. In order to do that, you would have to detect video memory size and fill it up with garbage textures that do not really end up being …

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Re: First Retro buid: W98SE P3 build

Posted on 2022-05-27, 22:16

by

by VDNKh

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

A new problem arose today. I installed the VIA 4 in 1 drivers (version 4in1435v) and when I start any game (Max Payne 1 and Dungeon Siege) they immediately freeze at the menu... I tried reinstalling my ti 4200 drivers, but that doesn't seem to help. Does anyone have an idea what might be the …

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Re: Not Another Ultimate Windows 98 Build

Posted on 2022-05-19, 05:58

by

by VDNKh

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Small update. Spoiler IMG_20220506_185707806_HDR.jpg I got a great CRT! A Dell P992. It can push 1600x1200 at 85 Hz and 1024x768 at 120 Hz. Been loving it. Got it off Craigslist locally for half of what it's probably worth. The picture is still great and there's not even a scratch on the outer shell …

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Re: First Retro buid: W98SE P3 build

Posted on 2022-05-15, 14:24

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by VDNKh

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I'm already quite happy with the rig, but I have the feeling the performance in certain games should be a bit better. Max Payne 1 doesn't run buttery smooth at 1024x768 and has some dips in FPS, whereas I have the feeling that shouldn't be the case. I have several GPU's laying around such as a …

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Re: Not Another Ultimate Windows 98 Build

Posted on 2022-04-05, 23:02

by

by VDNKh

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

GPU: Gainward FX5950 Ultra Gold Sample This is the second fastest FX series GPU you can buy, the fastest being the liquid cooled variant of this card. Caught it on eBay when looking for GPUs on a whim, I don't want to say how much it was. I went with the FX series over the 6000 series for better …

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Re: Not Another Ultimate Windows 98 Build

Posted on 2022-04-05, 21:51

by

by VDNKh

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I've also been trying to make heads and tails of the memory pointers in the registers but I'm not a computer scientist. Relevant ones are in red. The top two are listed as the "VIA Standard Host Bridge" in Windows and control AGP and GART. In red is the Base GART Low Address. The bottom 2 are PCI/ …

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Re: Not Another Ultimate Windows 98 Build

Posted on 2022-04-05, 01:37

by

by VDNKh

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Small update: With the help of Joseph_Joestar, I've been comparing a working GART configuration on their K8V-MX with mine. One thing that stood out to me was the xE0000000 - xEFFFFFFF allocated to Motherboard resources when it seems it should be given to the VIA Standard Host Bridge. That Host …

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Re: Not Another Ultimate Windows 98 Build

Posted on 2022-03-26, 18:43

by

by VDNKh

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Do you use moded (beta) BIOS for your board ( LINK ) ? IIRC, in RivaTuner there is VIA AGP support section, check what you can do from there. Decrease AGP Aperture Size. Did you patch Windows 98 with any r_loew stuff ? I have tried all of that as well. This post offers a possible solution by …

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Re: MSI K8T NEO-V + Athlon 64 - very slow 3D performance in Windows 98 (works great in Windows XP)

Posted on 2022-03-17, 12:05

by

by VDNKh

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yeah, figured that would be the case... I did notice one difference under Win9x. With the newest BIOS, dxdiag reported "AGP Texture Acceleration" as "Not Available". But with the oldest BIOS, it is now correctly reported as "Enabled". DX9_Win98.jpg Under WinXP, this setting was reported as "Enabled …

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Re: Not Another Ultimate Windows 98 Build

Posted on 2022-03-11, 17:36

by

by VDNKh

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

After a few months of on and off troubleshooting this AGP issue I've definitely narrowed the problem down to the AGP aperture/GART. For whatever reason there seems to be no AGP aperture and/or GART exposed to the display driver. When 3DMark01 polls the display driver for its aperture size (AGP …

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Re: BFG Geforce 7300 GT 512 mb performance issues

Posted on 2022-02-21, 18:22

by

by VDNKh

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

What VIA motherboard do you have? If you have 3DMark01 you can see if your GART driver is working. In system information, click on your GPU and see what "AGP aperture" lists. If it's 0 bytes then GART driver isn't working. Your video and texture memory may also appear incorrect.

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