PlaneVuki wrote on 2024-07-22, 16:52:

What else can be done?

Maybe this VIA Apollo Pro 133A tweak guide could help?
https://www.snakebytestudios.com/columns/hardware/biostweak/

SDRAM Memory timings also on 2/2/2 latencys? You can see this with CPU-Z Vintage Edition.

For the mobo with Apollo Pro 133A chipset you may try to patch the BIOS with BIOS Patcher using command line options /p and /v.

/p - try add "+PCI" -option (RAM_freq > CPU_freq) to VIA 693A/694X/694T (Apollo Pro133/Pro133A/Pro133T)
/v - RAM-tweak for Pentium1/2/3 with VIA-based MB

I have done everything suggested on snakebytestudios link, but this only resulted in 1-2 fps increase, not much, unlike the boost provided by memory interleaver.

Still want to increase the performance on this mobo.

Any further suggestions?

PD2JK wrote on 2024-07-19, 06:23:

What are the AGP speeds (1x / 2x / 4x) on the VIA system?

Did you select AGP Turbo Mode while installing the VIA chipset drivers?

It's agp 2x on both mobos.

I tried both, standard and turbo, no difference.

PlaneVuki wrote on 2024-08-03, 15:09:

Any further suggestions?

[Fastest Trabant of the GDR - The Schumann Trabi. Interview & Featured, Technology and History] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZwk8tqNuTk

Do you have some emotional connection with this motherboard? Just replace it with 440BX or CPU with ~30% faster one.

I have one slot1 mobo with 440bx chipset.
The via one socket370 so I like it.

After memory interleaver the difference is 17%.
(Before it was 30%)

There is still one suggestion that I could not try.
Via 4in1 4.17 chipset driver, it won't install.

How can I manually install agp driver from it?
Want to give it a try, maybe it will be stable and fast.

So I did install via 4in1 v4.17 by copying the vxd from 4.17 t0 4.35 and using device manager.

But no boost in performance.

If anyone happens to know other tweaks please let me know.

Thanks all.

There are no other tweaks, VIA made bad chipsets up to ~2000.

Use a slotket and adapt the 370 CPU to the BX board.
Chances are you'll have much better performance across everything, especially since it's a BX2000 you have, which looks far more solid than the VIA board.
Also @rasz_pl made a good point. Anything VIA that was Intel based was hot garbage, except it was the cheapest option you could get if you wanted a dual CPU board on the cheap, and with little limitations. (e.g MSI 694D Pro-AR, MS-6321)
And as far as VIA's disaster chipsets, Intel had the worst VIA chipsets. AMDs were usually slightly better, though not by much, even as far as the AM2/775 era.

PlaneVuki wrote on 2024-08-03, 19:06:

If anyone happens to know other tweaks please let me know.

Thanks all.

In-Order Queue Depth = 4
If not in the BIOS, then through WCPedit
How - I don’t know

rasz_pl wrote on 2024-08-03, 21:04:

There are no other tweaks, VIA made bad chipsets up to ~2000.

Disagree, at least in so far as "there are no other tweaks" - this is a 694X that massively improves on 693A performance. It won't beat BX but should come to within a few percent of it. This one clearly isn't so it's not just 694X vs 440BX.

The not getting AGP 4x should be a clue: this is not just a different chipset, but it's a flagship BX board from a premium brand vs PC Chips Via. Almost certainly the Gigabyte board has far better BIOS optimalizations than the PC Chips board here. That means that the PC Chips board can be given a big boost with better BIOS - but that that probably needs modding.

dionb wrote on 2024-08-04, 10:10:

it's a flagship BX board from a premium brand vs PC Chips Via.

100%
No one is complaining about the Asus CUV4 motherboard

@PlaneVuki
If you’re really bored, download the datasheet and create a configuration pcr-file for WPCREDIT
Then we select register values ​​using brute force and see what happens.
The performance of VIA motherboards for C370 depends 99% of the BIOS

shevalier wrote on 2024-08-04, 08:33:

In-Order Queue Depth = 4 If not in the BIOS, then through WCPedit How - I don’t know […]
Show full quote

PlaneVuki wrote on 2024-08-03, 19:06:

If anyone happens to know other tweaks please let me know.

Thanks all.

In-Order Queue Depth = 4
If not in the BIOS, then through WCPedit
How - I don’t know

Yes this is very important. IOQD makes a massive improvement in memory bandwidth

This thread is making me vaguely remember one other peculiarity with the VIA chipsets. Wasn't there some kind of weird RAM that they support that never took off? Did any of that ever make it into the wild?

smtkr wrote on 2024-08-04, 14:31:

This thread is making me vaguely remember one other peculiarity with the VIA chipsets. Wasn't there some kind of weird RAM that they support that never took off? Did any of that ever make it into the wild?

VC-SDRAM. There were a few benchmarks in early 2000 with the stuff, it offered one or two percent better performance is pure memory benchmarks but nothing significant or actually worse performance in games and was expensive unobtainium. Made RDRAM look mainstream and sensible. Would like to get hold of a DIMM of the stuff though as I like this kind of weirdness.

Edit:
Feipoa did a topic on it a while back: Benchmarking Virtual Channel SDRAM (aka VCSDRAM)

shevalier wrote on 2024-08-04, 08:33:

In-Order Queue Depth = 4 If not in the BIOS, then through WCPedit How - I don’t know […]
Show full quote

PlaneVuki wrote on 2024-08-03, 19:06:

If anyone happens to know other tweaks please let me know.

Thanks all.

In-Order Queue Depth = 4
If not in the BIOS, then through WCPedit
How - I don’t know

I checked using wpcredit, its already enabled.

What else can I try? I can use wpcredit now.

Here are some Sis soft sandra shots:

These are with p3-666mhz

That memory score does seem a little low. Here is my Tyan S1854 which also has the 694x chipset with a Coppermine 1000.

ga-6vx7b-4x
SiSoftware Sandra 2002

Aida64 v5.20

Quake3

PlaneVuki wrote on 2024-08-06, 15:29:

I checked using wpcredit, its already enabled.

What else can I try? I can use wpcredit now.

https://hardwarebg.com/376-%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%BA … 8A%D0%BD%D0%BE/
Translated from Bulgarian

So let's begin: […]
Show full quote

So let's begin:

1. See how on row 00, column 00 bit 06 is white?!? That means he is selected right now!!! Selection is made either with the arrows (up, down, left, right) or with the mouse!!! Most important are bits 50, 51 and from 64 to 67!!! The picture you see in an optimized ASUS P3V4x bottom!!!

We start with the registers one by one:

Register 50 (this means row 50, column 00) - everything from 0 to 6 must be enabled and 7 must be changed to 4-level - the change is made by pressing the EDIT button, and then using the arrows to the left - to the right you get to the desired option and select 0 or 1 and then press the SET button and answer YES to the next question about changing the chipset registers.

Register 51 (row 50, column 01) – the following changes should be made here:

CPU DRAM READ 0 ws on enable ,
CPU DRAM WRITE 0 ws on enable ,
CPU DRAM Prefetch Depth on 4-level and concurrent CPU/PCI Master on enable !!!

Registers 64 to 67 - they are for the SDRAM memory and change depending on which slot the memory is in!!! In principle, the following values ​​should be changed:

X/X precharge to active on 2T , X/X active to precharge on 5T , and most importantly X/X bank interleave on 4-way – this gives the greatest performance!!!

If, when setting any of the values, the computer crashes, then the value was too aggressive and the chipset did not last or the memory did not last!!!

Do not change the value of X/X CAS Latency - this change requires a more complex write and will make the computer slow - change it through the BIOS!!!

https://theretroweb.com/chip/documentation/ds … 51282736616.pdf
page 29

https://web.archive.org/web/20061019151407/ht … a/apollopro.zip
PCR file