disabled AGP FWrites --> more Performance ???

**Mad-Marty** · 11-07-2003, 12:40 PM

Hi all,

I just disabled Fastwrites for my KT266A chipset,
and noticed an 3D mark 01 increase in 700 points.

Disabled them due to Call of Duty not working with Cat 3.8 otherwise.

System is an K7VT2 (Kt266A - thoguh wpcredit seems to detect Kt400) , AXP Thorton @ 2266 modded to Barton, Radeon 9700 Pro @ 390 // 290

Is this posible that there is an speed gain ?

IMO should be the other way around .....

**xDUCK** · 11-07-2003, 12:48 PM

Very strange... Perhaps your card was overheating/stressed too much, so disabling fastwrites helped stability (and therefore speed)? Seems to be the only logical explanation to me.

**Holst** · 11-07-2003, 12:56 PM

I think its down to the chipset.

Fastwrites is an odd thing, when its working it will give a slight perofmrance boost, but if its not working right your take a performance hit.

I also found that I did better with fastwrites off on several via based boards.. its allways worth trying with it on and off.

**Mad-Marty** · 11-07-2003, 01:08 PM

Thanks for the answer guys

So it's truly possible, and others seen this too.

There was an rumor that the Radeon clock higher with FW off ...
going to try that now *hehe*

I think I'll keep the core on 1,78V, and check it now ....

EDIT :

Is there any way to disabled FastWrites in the R9700Pro Bios ?
For NV cards this is an option in the bios edit ... not seen on ATI though ....

**Walrusbonzo** · 11-08-2003, 11:19 AM

Disable FW in the motherboards BIOS, should do it.

**st0nedpenguin** · 11-09-2003, 07:12 AM

FastWrites is pointless with a Radeon, it just tends to cause instability, and even if you can get stable with it enabled, it doesn't actually increase performance.

Although, from the readme for the latest Omega Drivers, it would appear that if you have a Radeon 9600 Pro card, you must enable FastWrites, although this is just a temporary fix until ATi resolves the problem.

Check out the readme here.

**Jeff** · 11-09-2003, 08:44 AM

Funny you should mention that SB, I've had a hell of a time with a 9500 I've been using. I disabled FW last evening and things have settled down... finally.

**Vanrick** · 11-09-2003, 12:08 PM

Originally posted by Jeff
Funny you should mention that SB, I've had a hell of a time with a 9500 I've been using. I disabled FW last evening and things have settled down... finally.

Is yours a 9500 Pro? If so, does disabling Fast writes boost up its performance in high overclocks?

My 9500 Pro is clocked to 396/325 .

**DScamp** · 11-09-2003, 12:23 PM

This is what I do and it works great: Reinstall the cat driver and when it asks you to reboot dont,go to cpanel\adm services\services...change the ATI smartgart service to "Manual" mode. Then reboot,once you get to desktop go back to "services" and RUN the ATI smargart service once...leave in manual forever though. Screen will blink and your system will run awsome...then install Ati Control panle. Set fastwrite to enable in the Bios but set it disable in the ATI control panel (smartgart tab),after you set it reboot when it asks you. This will turn on your sideband addressing. SBA is more of a speed boost than FW.

**b0bd0le** · 11-09-2003, 02:45 PM

i did the same thing, turned off fw for call of duty only to discover my 3dmark points increased by 100

call of duty was the only thing giving me problems with FW turned on go figure

**corbec** · 11-09-2003, 03:07 PM

whats SBA?

**st0nedpenguin** · 11-10-2003, 05:37 AM

Originally posted by DScamp
This is what I do and it works great: Reinstall the cat driver and when it asks you to reboot dont,go to cpanel\adm services\services...change the ATI smartgart service to "Manual" mode. Then reboot,once you get to desktop go back to "services" and RUN the ATI smargart service once...leave in manual forever though. Screen will blink and your system will run awsome...then install Ati Control panle. Set fastwrite to enable in the Bios but set it disable in the ATI control panel (smartgart tab),after you set it reboot when it asks you. This will turn on your sideband addressing. SBA is more of a speed boost than FW.

I'll definitely be giving tha one a try, cheers mate.

Do you know of any program that will accurately check SBA status on the NF7-S? It seems like every program I try gives me a different reading, some say on, some say off.

**Poki** · 11-10-2003, 09:48 AM

SBA= Side band addressing i Believe. It allows instruction data for the video card to run parallel with the graphics data on the agp port. It helps older/slower 2-4x agp cards alot but also causes instabilty. I think newer radeons have it inabled as default.
This is just what i remember... if it's wrong chime in and correct me please.

**SAE** · 11-10-2003, 12:52 PM

I 've been turning off fastwrites since the days of old kt266a

Decreases stability and speed... and ocability too.

SBA is worth a try... weird method though, DScamp

**Jeff** · 11-10-2003, 03:19 PM

Originally posted by SAE
SBA is worth a try...

If that's your pet name for your avatar then yes... I agree... definitely worth a try.

**SAE** · 11-11-2003, 08:43 AM

Originally posted by Jeff
If that's your pet name for your avatar then yes... I agree... definitely worth a try.

Hehe...

Yessss.

But I meant Side Band Addressing

**corbec** · 11-24-2003, 07:15 PM

uhhh....there is no smartgart tab in cat 3.5...

**Walrusbonzo** · 11-25-2003, 01:44 AM

I left my current Omega Cat 3.9s installed, set the Service to manual, changed Fast Writes to off in SmartGart, left FW enabled in BIOS, rebooted, and yep SBA is now on, FW is off.

Now I'll see if it's helped my performance.

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