Have a look here, there was a discussion on what VIA driver was best to use according to version of chipset... VIA 4-in-1 driver experiences

I once put together a test WIN98se system using an Aopen AX64 slot 1 motherboard that uses the same chipset(apollo pro 133a) your motherboard has and i used v4.43 along with an Aopen gf2 mx400 64mb 2x/4x agp videocard, and it showed up as agp4x without any issue.

Installing and then uninstalling the VIA chipset over and over while in windows has always been dicey, unfortunately. its best to wipe the hdd and start fresh when experimenting with different version drivers, i know its time consuming, but its alot better than dealing with the headaches you are going through right now, give it a whirl, you've got nothing to lose, but lunch.

GL

Use RivaTuner.

I have tried different Via drivers, but nothing helped. I have the idea that the Nvidia drivers do something that makes them fall back on agp 2x

Maybe this can help:
https://www.tweaktown.com/guides/68/agp4x_via … _fix/index.html

egbertjan wrote:

I have tried different Via drivers, but nothing helped. I have the idea that the Nvidia drivers do something that makes them fall back on agp 2x

Incredible timing. I have run across this recently as well with a very interesting Chinese Socket 370 board that I posted about awhile back. It's basically a Gigabyte GA-6VTXE-A knock-off and even accepts a forced BIOS update of that Gigabyte board via UNIFlash v1.4. I've tried all the VIA chipset versions so I will definitely try that NVidia driver version you mention and see if 4x enables. I have read, though, 4x only gives a very small bump in overall performance, but I'm willing to give it a go with my Gainward 5950 Ultra.

Once again - just use RivaTuner.

The Serpent Rider wrote:

Once again - just use RivaTuner.

Ya, I know, didn't help in my case. There were some corners cut on the knock-off mobo such as some temp sensors are MIA so it could be just the board.

The Serpent Rider wrote:

Once again - just use RivaTuner.

I tried the Rivatuner.
In rivatuner I can set the agp speed, but unfortunately I can only choose from 1x and 2x agp there.

You need to unclock those features first to enable 4x mode and FastWrites.

Color me curious. I'll go back and see if I missed that. Time to reinstall 98. I will admit it's been about a decade since I used it so this would be great if I can get 4x working on this board.

I only bring out my best case for this kind of testing.

The gainward 5900 videocard.... i've got one just like it, that was the brand to own back in the day, especially the Golden Sample models, quality binned core and memory chips made excellent overclockers, i have mine nvbios flashed to ultra speeds, stable as a top.

Yeah, think I'm SOL. Looks like that board is strictly an AGP 2x model even though the BIOS shows AGP 4x mode. Guessing they still manufacture them for industrial application, etc. for legacy systems.

Thats unforunate... because the AGP slot is a universal 2x/4x varient, so it being stuck at 2x only is quit odd.

By default, Nvidia drivers will always limit early VIA chipsets to 2x without FastWrites. RivaTuner will unlock everything even on KX133.

You will likely get instability at 4x on the early VIA AGP 4x boards. NVidia intentionally has their cards run 2x on those boards.

Probably on some boards and with early VIA drivers. Never experienced any instability problems with my roster of boards.

The Serpent Rider wrote:

Probably on some boards and with early VIA drivers. Never experienced any instability problems with my roster of boards.

Which boards and what is the suggested VIA driver? Also which OS have you had success with?

The ASUS K7V with KX133 that I have hasn't been friendly to 4x. It was interesting to see because their prior 2x-only K7M isn't very friendly to 2x. Heh.

The Serpent Rider wrote:

By default, Nvidia drivers will always limit early VIA chipsets to 2x without FastWrites. RivaTuner will unlock everything even on KX133.

can you tell me how to unlock that in rivatuner?

Bige4u wrote:

Thats unforunate... because the AGP slot is a universal 2x/4x varient, so it being stuck at 2x only is quit odd.

Well, not surprising since they have cut other features from the board such as temp sensors, some dip switches and the game port from the original Gigabyte design. It is the VIA Apollo Pro 133 chipset which I now realize is strictly AGP 2x. According to Wikipedia the VIA Apollo Pro, Pro+ and Pro 133 were all limited to AGP 2x and it was only the Pro 133A & 133T that had 4x support in the Apollo line. Regardless, with the GeForce FX 5950 Ultra combined with that Chinesium board gets a score of 9056 in 3DMark01SE. So not too bad at 2x and the board is stable as a rock which surprised me. Plus the driver CD identifies the manufacturer as "Banana Digital". Who could hate a board with a name like that? 😎 Thanks for the help and sorry if I hijacked this thread a bit.