Question for other Nforce 2 board owners

DarkFoss · May 24, 2003, 01:14 AM

Ever since I started using an Nforce 2 board, in my case both an Asus A7N8X reg and Deluxe. I've noticed no matter what Catalyst drivers I've used I cannot get sideband addressing enabled. Fast writes are enabled though.
Sandra and 3DMark both confirm that sideband addressing is supported but disabled, no mention of it in the Smartgart tab either.

1. So I'm wondering if other Nforce 2 users have noticed this?

2. Does anyone know if it's a smartgart or bios related issue?

3. For those conspiracy minded amongst us, Do you think it's possible that the Nvidia chipset is programed to disable sideband addressing if it detects an Ati card to hinder it's performance?

Necrosis · May 24, 2003, 02:31 AM

Hmm..

Honestly I've never thought about but since you bring it up it's missing for me as well.

You know the latest nforce2 drivers install new video drivers if they see a Nvidia card in the machine. Hmm..interesting.

Dom · May 24, 2003, 02:38 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Necrosis
Hmm..

Honestly I've never thought about but since you bring it up it's missing for me as well.

You know the latest nforce2 drivers install new video drivers if they see a Nvidia card in the machine. Hmm..interesting.

Yeah. I noticed that too.

DarkFoss · May 24, 2003, 03:06 AM

Oops seems like Structoman brought this up in the ATI Radeon Forum yesterday.
Hopefully there it will catch the eye of The Catalyst Maker or Sireric and we'll get an answer. After all everyones always looking for a small performance gain

Structoman · May 24, 2003, 10:52 PM

Yes, and I found out that if you enable fast writes it disables SBA. Omegadrive stresses that fastwrites is an old technology and that SBA is the way to go. So either disable FW in bios or on SmartGART and SBA will enable. BTW, I haven't benchmarked this to see if there is a difference, but it makes sense to go witht the newer tech.

<Quote> Omegadrive says:

As I have always said, NEVER enable FW, it's not even worth the small speed increase (up to 0.5FPS increase), but in the case of sideband addressing, ALWAYS have it ENABLED, this allows the card to send & recive data at the same time form the AGP bus, if it is disabled, the data had to wait it's turn in the AGP pipeline, thus lowering performance a LOT.

I have never had that problem since the first thing I always do when tweaking the bios im a MB is turn off FW.

Zardon · May 24, 2003, 11:03 PM

fast writes on. SBA showed off in wcpuid.

turning off fast writes for the 9800 in bios and smartgart....... checked wcpuid again. SBA, showing capable but off.

Structoman · May 25, 2003, 02:56 PM

My mistake. I have to have FW on in bios and off in SmartGART for SBA to be enabled. At least this is what WCPUID is showing

BBThumper · May 25, 2003, 05:27 PM

........I really think that the fastwrites setting in the bios is for both fastwrites and SBA on the A7N8X boards Alot of work was done by structo and laserlight and I tried 4 different drivers omega 3.2-3.4 and cataylist 3.2-3.4 and all our results say the same thing................

Fastwrites must be enabled in the bios then turned off in Dumbgart or rivatuner in order to have SBA enabled.........

DarkFoss · May 26, 2003, 04:27 PM

Just did the same, having fw disabled in smartgart enableing ssb I picked up almost 100 points in 3DMark 2003. Perhaps Ati can work on the smartgart utility so both can be enabled at the same time like it is with Via chipsets.
I haven't yet tried the fix Shuki found at nforcershq for stuttering maybe disabling smartgart after installing the drivers before you reboot will enable both.
I'll have to give it a whirl later.

May 24, 2003, 01:14 AM	#1
DarkFoss HardwareHeaven Senior Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Downers Grove IL Posts: 688 Rep Power: 0	Question for other Nforce 2 board owners Ever since I started using an Nforce 2 board, in my case both an Asus A7N8X reg and Deluxe. I've noticed no matter what Catalyst drivers I've used I cannot get sideband addressing enabled. Fast writes are enabled though. Sandra and 3DMark both confirm that sideband addressing is supported but disabled, no mention of it in the Smartgart tab either. 1. So I'm wondering if other Nforce 2 users have noticed this? 2. Does anyone know if it's a smartgart or bios related issue? 3. For those conspiracy minded amongst us, Do you think it's possible that the Nvidia chipset is programed to disable sideband addressing if it detects an Ati card to hinder it's performance? __________________ Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety,deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. Ben Franklin, 1755

May 24, 2003, 03:06 AM	Thread Starter #4
DarkFoss HardwareHeaven Senior Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Downers Grove IL Posts: 688 Rep Power: 0	Oops seems like Structoman brought this up in the ATI Radeon Forum yesterday. Hopefully there it will catch the eye of The Catalyst Maker or Sireric and we'll get an answer. After all everyones always looking for a small performance gain __________________ Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety,deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. Ben Franklin, 1755

May 24, 2003, 10:52 PM	#5
Structoman DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Somewhere in Oregon Posts: 27 Rep Power: 0	Yes, and I found out that if you enable fast writes it disables SBA. Omegadrive stresses that fastwrites is an old technology and that SBA is the way to go. So either disable FW in bios or on SmartGART and SBA will enable. BTW, I haven't benchmarked this to see if there is a difference, but it makes sense to go witht the newer tech. <Quote> Omegadrive says: As I have always said, NEVER enable FW, it's not even worth the small speed increase (up to 0.5FPS increase), but in the case of sideband addressing, ALWAYS have it ENABLED, this allows the card to send & recive data at the same time form the AGP bus, if it is disabled, the data had to wait it's turn in the AGP pipeline, thus lowering performance a LOT. I have never had that problem since the first thing I always do when tweaking the bios im a MB is turn off FW. __________________ Asus A7N8X Dx Rev.2 1007 Final \| 2600 M Barton @ 2.4 GHz \| 1 GB TwinX PC3200 \| ATI Radeon 9700 Pro \| Audigy ZS \| Western Digital Raptor 74 GB SATA \| Western Digital 200 GB SATA \| NEC 3500 DVDRW\| Liteon DVD ROM 16X \| Antec TruePower 430W \| WinXP Pro SP2 Last edited by Structoman; May 24, 2003 at 11:02 PM.

May 25, 2003, 02:56 PM	#7
Structoman DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Somewhere in Oregon Posts: 27 Rep Power: 0	My mistake. I have to have FW on in bios and off in SmartGART for SBA to be enabled. At least this is what WCPUID is showing __________________ Asus A7N8X Dx Rev.2 1007 Final \| 2600 M Barton @ 2.4 GHz \| 1 GB TwinX PC3200 \| ATI Radeon 9700 Pro \| Audigy ZS \| Western Digital Raptor 74 GB SATA \| Western Digital 200 GB SATA \| NEC 3500 DVDRW\| Liteon DVD ROM 16X \| Antec TruePower 430W \| WinXP Pro SP2

May 26, 2003, 04:27 PM	Thread Starter #9
DarkFoss HardwareHeaven Senior Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Downers Grove IL Posts: 688 Rep Power: 0	Just did the same, having fw disabled in smartgart enableing ssb I picked up almost 100 points in 3DMark 2003. Perhaps Ati can work on the smartgart utility so both can be enabled at the same time like it is with Via chipsets. I haven't yet tried the fix Shuki found at nforcershq for stuttering maybe disabling smartgart after installing the drivers before you reboot will enable both. I'll have to give it a whirl later. __________________ Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety,deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. Ben Franklin, 1755 Last edited by DarkFoss; May 26, 2003 at 04:38 PM.

May 24, 2003, 02:31 AM	#2
Necrosis HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Ohio Posts: 8,838 Rep Power: 131 System Specs	Hmm.. Honestly I've never thought about but since you bring it up it's missing for me as well. You know the latest nforce2 drivers install new video drivers if they see a Nvidia card in the machine. Hmm..interesting.

May 24, 2003, 11:03 PM	#6
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 179	fast writes on. SBA showed off in wcpuid. turning off fast writes for the 9800 in bios and smartgart....... checked wcpuid again. SBA, showing capable but off.

May 25, 2003, 05:27 PM	#8
BBThumper DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: May 2003 Location: Philly Posts: 81 Rep Power: 0	........I really think that the fastwrites setting in the bios is for both fastwrites and SBA on the A7N8X boards Alot of work was done by structo and laserlight and I tried 4 different drivers omega 3.2-3.4 and cataylist 3.2-3.4 and all our results say the same thing................ Fastwrites must be enabled in the bios then turned off in Dumbgart or rivatuner in order to have SBA enabled.........