SmartGart

Speed316 · Jul 5, 2003, 08:02 AM

I've just installed Omegas New drivers based on the Catalyst 3.5's...no noticable peformance increase...and I'm just wandering if theres anyway to enable the smartgart tab

Thanks

Kgentatszu] · Jul 5, 2003, 08:06 AM

Welcome Speed316 to DH!! hope ya enjoy! any way, have you tried reinstalling the drivers??? did you use drivercleaner to clear your previous ones??? and when you installed your current one, did you follow the instuctions as stated??

Speed316 · Jul 5, 2003, 10:00 AM

I've reinstalled the drivers using DriverCleaner before hand. The problem I've had with Catalyst Drivers ever since I got my Gigabyte Maya II Radeon 9700 Pro, is that I've never been able to install the drivers the normal way e.g download drivers - double click on them and install (It always comes up with this error - This Display Driver is not compatible with the Display Adapter(s) installed on your system)

I have to install them manually e.g download the driver, extract the contents of the driver onto the desktop...then going to device manager and installing them from there.

I follow given instructions where I can

Speed

The_Neon_Cowboy · Jul 5, 2003, 02:31 PM

i am pretty shure omega removed it in his last release... if you want the tab you have to got ati drivers

Speed316 · Jul 5, 2003, 03:49 PM

Thanks - I thought that might be the case

The only Ati Catalysts that have ever given me the Smartgart tab were the 3.1 set, and I don't really want to go back to them

- I tried the Ati Catalyst 3.5 to no avail

I guess I'm just stuck with this problem

Speed

Judas · Jul 5, 2003, 03:58 PM

the 3.2 has it as well...

The_Neon_Cowboy · Jul 5, 2003, 04:00 PM

well sart gart doesnt really do anthing... when you think about it... most people dont like smart grat and there is even a smart gart remover on the ati website... with out going into deatil some peiople find it usefull but most dont....

pato · Jul 6, 2003, 12:40 PM

hi

i find it usefull, because it's the only way i know, that i can change the agp mode and fastwrites for me

pato

shuki · Jul 6, 2003, 12:52 PM

*cough* it does not change anything only in that little smart gart tab.... the ONLY way to change those settings is by going into your BIOS and doing it manually regardless of what smart gart tells ya

pato · Jul 6, 2003, 01:00 PM

and there come the problem, i can't change those settings in my bios....

i know it would run with riva tuner, but that one doesn't support the latest few driver releases...

Speed316 · Jul 6, 2003, 02:44 PM

I have a HP computer...thus...I cannot change anything of value in the BIOS - Simply because its not there

If anyone knows how to get round a HP BIOS I'd like to hear from you

Speed

PS-----Heres some Comp Specs:

P4 - 1.9Ghz
1Gb PC2100 RAM
Gigabyte Maya II Radeon 9700 Pro
ASUS P4B266LA (Mobo)

Forge · Jul 6, 2003, 02:57 PM

Easiest way? Don't buy an HP.

pato · Jul 6, 2003, 02:59 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Forge
Easiest way? Don't buy an HP.

thanks for your really great help....

any more ideas?

Forge · Jul 6, 2003, 03:01 PM

That's really the only option. Smartgart doesn't do much, you can't 'get around' the HP BIOS, and you said Rivatuner is no-go for you.

Unless you want to borrow this magic wand I have here....

pato · Jul 6, 2003, 03:06 PM

stupid question, but why does it work if i change the agp mode on my second pc with a nvidia card in the drivers menu?

shuki · Jul 6, 2003, 03:26 PM

I know of no windows based program that will effectively change a mobos BIOS settings. Doesn't matter what the windows based program tells me unless I change it in the BIOS (ie NOT windows!! two different things here) then it will not actually be changed.

Speed316 · Jul 6, 2003, 03:41 PM

I didn't think there was any way around this problem. I guess the only way would be to install a new motherboard

Thanks for the help

Speed

pato · Jul 6, 2003, 04:37 PM

@shuki

that's not quite right.
if you have acpi activated (i think it's that one, but not shure), are the windows settings dominant, the bios settings will be ignored and the driver settings will be used.

pato · Jul 6, 2003, 04:59 PM

wierd wierd...

but good news

with the omega 3.5 drivers are you able to use rivatuner and change your agp and fastwrite settings!
http://content.guru3d.com/index.php?...vatuner&menu=8

Speed316 · Jul 6, 2003, 07:06 PM

Thats a good find

I'll try it out...and thanks for the support

Speed

shuki · Jul 7, 2003, 01:41 AM

my question is this, "how do you KNOW they are changed?" I mean even right now I can change my ATI FW to ON in the ATI CP. I reboot and it says ON in FW. I then reboot into BIOS and it is clearly set to OFF in BIOS. so how do you know that FW is on or off (my benches are almost identical) and how do you know is AGP x really is changed too? maybe to set it to 2x then bench then set it to 8x and bench and see if there is any difference??

pato · Jul 7, 2003, 08:25 AM

@shuki

you have to trust the drivers... ok in my case is a big stability problem with the card and I hope to fix it this way.
the prob is, I can't set the agp rate to 2x, so you or anybody other who can do it, have to bench it.

pato

kelston · Jul 7, 2003, 03:26 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by shuki
*cough* it does not change anything only in that little smart gart tab.... the ONLY way to change those settings is by going into your BIOS and doing it manually regardless of what smart gart tells ya

Smartgart is useful for me. It's the only way I can enable Sideband Addressing on my nForce2 board. BIOS only has the option to Enable/Disable Fast Writes, but disabling Fast Writes in BIOS disables SBA as well. However, if I enable Fast Writes in BIOS and disable it in Smartgart, SBA gets enabled.

So it is, in fact, useful for changing something.

How do I know it's changed? Well I would tend to trust PowerStrip and WCPUID, considering there is not SBA option in BIOS.

Unless of course, you can offer a better explanation as to why the programs report SBA enabled/disabled depending on what I put in Smartgart.

thor777 · Jul 8, 2003, 02:18 PM

You can get to Smartgart settings if you are using Omega drivers. Just go to Start Menu, Programs, find Radeon Omega Drivers vx.x.xx and u'll see Advanced Smartgart Options. Also, windows settings CAN change BIOS settings. I once changed an on-board video memory size setting in Windows and when I rebooted, BIOS settings changed to reflect the change I made in Windows.