What performance difference do you see between APM and ACPI?

Since you're using Windows 2000, it would be possible to switch between both. I believe it's a matter of enabling/disabling it int he BIOS and then extracting the correct HAL file from the i386 folder to c:\windows\system32\hal.dll.

I remember back in the early days of Windows XP that performance took a big hit with ACPI (It puts everything on a virtual IRQ 11), that's why I ask.

mockingbird wrote:

What performance difference do you see between APM and ACPI?

Since you're using Windows 2000, it would be possible to switch between both. I believe it's a matter of enabling/disabling it int he BIOS and then extracting the correct HAL file from the i386 folder to c:\windows\system32\hal.dll.

I remember back in the early days of Windows XP that performance took a big hit with ACPI (It puts everything on a virtual IRQ 11), that's why I ask.

Sorry, 2000 is long gone by now! You reckon there's a difference between these power management interfaces?

philscomputerlab wrote:

Is this disabled by loading the BIOS defaults? Might check my GA-5AX with a V3 and check it out...

I think it's enabled by loading bios defaults,at least on my board,becouse i don't remeber enabling it.

I think my performance issue is specific to the PCI version of Voodoo 3 (or perhaps my PCI Voodoo 3) combined with the GA5-AX (or Aladdin 5). I do not think your BIOS settings will help as I have already tried everything™. My AGP Voodoo Banshee performs closer to the expected performance so if I ever buy the AGP version of the Voodoo 3 I will try it with the GA5-AX and report back, my guess is that it will perform if not perfect then at least alot better.

My PCI Voodoo 3 does however work perfectly with other platforms (BX, i815) so its not a case of a broken card. The GA-5AX motherboard also works fine with every other video card I tried, its the combination that just dosnt work as expected.

I have a voodoo 3 2000 pci,if u want,i could try in the weekend,to oc it to 3000 speed and run the tests see if there is any difference.

Nahkri wrote:

I have a voodoo 3 2000 pci,if u want,i could try in the weekend,to oc it to 3000 speed and run the tests see if there is any difference.

Yea it could be good to know if its a general issue or a specific issue with the version of PCI Voodoo 3 and Aladdin 5 board I own.

If I remember correctly F2bnp couldnt get his PCI Voodoo 3 to perform well with the Aladdin 5 board either which may or may not be related to his issues with the AGP version which were solved in this thread.

"Frame Buffer Posted Write" could be closely related to "VGA Frame Buffer" in your BIOS. I'd try following Nahkri's BIOS settings as they seem a little more similar to GA-5AX's BIOS than my P5A-B's. I used to have a GA-5AX with a Voodoo3 PCI producing crappy results and it all disappeared when I installed a Voodoo 3 AGP, so maybe whatever write combining optimization can be/is implemented through the specific BIOS setting only applies to AGP and doesn't help PCI cards at all.

When using a Voodoo 3 PCI with the GA-5AX performance was pretty much like my original post by the way.

As I wrote I have already tried every combination of BIOS settings with the PCI Voodoo 3 but if I ever try the AGP version I will make sure to test with the "VGA frame buffer" setting turned on. 😀

F2bnp wrote:

Sorry, 2000 is long gone by now! You reckon there's a difference between these power management interfaces?

Yes. And I wonder how Windows 98 handles it as well... I might try tinkering with this:

http://www.helpwithwindows.com/windows98/tune-37.html

But I need to know which benchmarks to run before and after. Any ideas?

You could try any of the ones I posted in the original post. Most of these are CPU bound when using a Voodoo 3. I'd be interested in your findings!

I have a feeling frame buffer posted write causes problems with other AGP cards though. It's often suggested to disable it.

Voodoo cards seem to work reliably on Aladdin V and you can tweak them without much issue.

So i re done the test with a pci voodoo 3 2000 overclocked at 166mhz

3dmark99:640x480 - 3489(cpu 8111)
800x600 - 3503(cpu 8117)
1024x768 - 3384(cpu 8017)

3dmark2000:640x480 - 1917
800x600 - 1902
1024x768 - 1873

Unreal Gold: 640x480 - 57.54
800x480 - 55.01
1024x768 - 48.07

Incoming:640x480 - 80.97
800x600 - 82.23
1024x768 - 72.68

Mdk2:640x480 - 38.7
800x600 - 38.8
1024x768 - 38.26

Dethkarz:640x480 - 74.22
800x600 - 62.77
1024x768 - 59.50

Shogo:640x480 - 56.65
800x600 - 55.93
1024x768 - 47.88

Nahkri wrote:

So i re done the test with a pci voodoo 3 2000 overclocked at 166mhz […]
Show full quote

So i re done the test with a pci voodoo 3 2000 overclocked at 166mhz

3dmark99:640x480 - 3489(cpu 8111)
800x600 - 3503(cpu 8117)
1024x768 - 3384(cpu 8017)

3dmark2000:640x480 - 1917
800x600 - 1902
1024x768 - 1873

Unreal Gold: 640x480 - 57.54
800x480 - 55.01
1024x768 - 48.07

Incoming:640x480 - 80.97
800x600 - 82.23
1024x768 - 72.68

Mdk2:640x480 - 38.7
800x600 - 38.8
1024x768 - 38.26

Dethkarz:640x480 - 74.22
800x600 - 62.77
1024x768 - 59.50

Shogo:640x480 - 56.65
800x600 - 55.93
1024x768 - 47.88

Your results seem to be fine so I guess your board works perfectly with the Voodoo 3 PCI. The issue dosnt seem to affect all boards or PCI Vooodo 3 cards which is good to know.

Nice! Thanks for the results Nahkri!

Skyscraper wrote:

As I wrote I have already tried every combination of BIOS settings with the PCI Voodoo 3 but if I ever try the AGP version I will make sure to test with the "VGA frame buffer" setting turned on. 😀

Well I was using an AGP V3 and found the performance to be lacking. Another boards with VIA chipset was quite a bit faster. This was part of the "4 in 1 retro gaming PC" when I used the GA-5AX.

Unfortunately I don't know about that BIOS setting 🙁

EDIT:

Guess what, the video has the BIOS settings recorded 😀 I loaded the defaults and turns out VGA frame buffer is enabled. But still, I had poor performance. I remember later trying another board with VIA chipset and it got better results.