ATI and FastWrite

TwistedMetal · Feb 14, 2004, 11:24 PM

Ok, I have been hearing alot about this issue, so I did some research on it. Reading pages and pages on it.

FastWrite

It's supposedly a direct communcation to your video card to improve performance.

Yes, it supposedly does decrease your video card stability.

FastWrite has a 50/50 chance of working correctly.

ATI recommends turning FastWrite OFF, except for the 9600. There are alot of issues with FastWrite OFF on that card.

If you are using a VIA Chipset, it's recommended that you have FastWrite ON. As it can cause some issues. I personally am using a VIA Chipset with Hyperion v4.45 (all the lastest versions crash my XP) with FastWrite OFF. I have not seen a performance decrease and it does seem more stable.

I guess it's based on your motherboard, chipset, video card, and driver versions.

If you have RANDOM GAME CRASHES, you may want to try enabling/disabling FastWrite. As that is a known cause for crashes.

Enable FastWrite with Omega Drivers 2.5.22 (Based on Catalyst 4.2)

Start, Run, regedit.

File, Find, DisableAGPFW, delete DisableAGPFW, and then Find Next (F3). Repeat until it can't find anymore. BEWARE, THERE ARE A WHOLE LOT OF THEM!

Disable FastWrite

Install the Omega Drivers 2.5.22 (Based on Catalyst 4.2).

Disable FastWrite in your BIOS.

Summary

With FastWrite ON/OFF you may not notice a difference at all. If you get RANDOM GAME CRASHES, try getting all of the latest drivers for your hardware, try ENABLING/DISABLING FastWrite to see if that makes a difference.

I'm guessing why FastWrite works for some and doesn't work for others is because of the hardware/software. There are a ton of video cards and driver versions out, that it's just a guessing game. This video card with this version of chipset drivers, with this version of Catalyst drivers works perceft. But, if you update your chipset and video drivers, it may conflict. I think it has to do more with the chipset drivers, then video drivers.

Video drivers work with the chipset (DUH), but if there is an update for the chipset (happens alot) and if they recoded something in a different way, then it could cause video driver conflicts. Then the video card driver programmers would have to recode so that something could work again. But if you update your chipset drivers and not your video card drivers, then you could possibly get a conflict there. It's just a bunch of mess...

Just play around with FastWrite. If it works, it works. If you don't notice any change with it ON, turn it OFF. If you get crashes, turn it on/off to see if it helps.

***Omegadrive*** · Feb 14, 2004, 11:57 PM

Do you know why I forced FW to OFF in this set?
I get a lot of E-Mails daily, and most of the problems users experiencing are crashes, You want to know how I have helped them? Telling them to turn OFF fastwrites, and IT worked 80% of the time (other crashes where related to AGP settings).
That's the reason I forced it on for this set, to help people that know nothing about FW.

Have you catually done bechmarks WITH and WITHOUT FW enabled using FRAPS?
I have, and you know what difference it is?
~0.5%

Try it, you may even get a surprise...

Judas · Feb 15, 2004, 12:10 AM

i'd have to say great job there Twisted Metal.... i'm not sure how to.. but someone could probably make a file that does the reg cleaning for someone.... this would make it much easier for those that doesn't want to touch the registry... themselves..

and one that puts them back (so.. it creates a backup... removes... open the program later.. and puts them back....

TwistedMetal · Feb 15, 2004, 04:09 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Judas
i'd have to say great job there Twisted Metal.... i'm not sure how to.. but someone could probably make a file that does the reg cleaning for someone.... this would make it much easier for those that doesn't want to touch the registry... themselves..

and one that puts them back (so.. it creates a backup... removes... open the program later.. and puts them back....

As soon as I read this post. I created a few .inf files to do just that.

mainman · Feb 15, 2004, 04:20 AM

I think its time to put a sticky on the forum about all the fastwrites issues. Like Omega said, most of the time that people have driver related problems it has something to do with this. This is really getting old, and should be taken care off by Ati.

dink1722 · Feb 15, 2004, 06:22 PM

The more I overclocked my CPU the more AGP Fastwrites ON was causing a problem.

I picked up the performance in a higher CPU overclock by having AGP Fastwrites off.

Abit NF7 (Nforce2) and ATI 9800 Pro at 408/352

Zebra · Feb 16, 2004, 10:10 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by mainman
I think its time to put a sticky on the forum about all the fastwrites issues. Like Omega said, most of the time that people have driver related problems it has something to do with this. This is really getting old, and should be taken care off by Ati.

Fast Write issues are not driver related. There is just a poor matching of hardware signalling. Most likely the motherboard is at fault. Why? Because during system post, there is supposed to be a series of test running within the chipset to the AGP interface to set things up properly, called the Calibration Cycle. If your BIOS shows an option to enable or disable it, you should keep it enabled. Smartgart does further testing during boot to determine if it safe to keep it enabled. There may be some other issues within the game code itself when it tries to use the fast writes. How many times has your desktop crashed due to fast writes being enabled? I would say, none! It happens during a lot of activity, especially in 3D applications. It's not just an ATI issue. It is part of the AGP spec, and it apparently is not being adhered to by the hardware manufacturers. I would guess that luckily, it is now an optional piece of the AGP 3.0(8X) specification.