Simviation Forums

Started out wrong, but reformatted/reinstalled everything, redid all my tweaks, restored vid card settings, and...
Nothing. No real improvement in FS9 performance. The upgrade was from an AMD 2000 Athlon (1.2GHz) to a Sempron 2800 (2.0GHz), but using wcpuid/cpuclk shows an Athlon running at just over 1.2GHz.
Either I've done something wrong, or I've been ripped off. Any thoughts?  ???

I would doubt that you have been ripped off, especially if you got the old Genuine AMD CPU papers...

Have you tried CPU-Z 1.2.9 and the normal 3DMark benchmarks? That should give you a true showing as to performance. Try 3DMark01, that's mainly CPU.
Dan

Hm. Forgot about 3D Mark; I'll try that. But if it yields the same result, what does that mean? Does the mobo still think it has the old CPU installed, and if so, why?

Just a random thought I had that would apply to your situation - does the mobo have the latest Firmware? Otherwise flash it. May help a lot. Check the manufacturers site.
Dan

You haven't got your bios set up properly Rottydaddy.

It's not hard if you know what your doing

Thanx congo, but I was under the impression that reinstalling the OS would allow the mobo to identify that chip and set itself up accordingly (as it apparently did when I first set it up with the old CPU). I've considered the FSB speed, and the mobo will in fact handle up to 166MHz (I did some of my homework... ), but how do I change it? I cannot find that anywhere in the BIOS or CMOS settings in the Setup menus.

It's in the bios, or if as you say, it does actually support it, it may need a bios upgrade, but that's a last option.

Try to find hidden bios menus that provide the setting, get back to me here and state your exact mobo ID, and I can find out how for you.

Sry, I meant to add that the Op Sys, has absolutely nothing to do with it.

Edit:  Or sometimes the bus settings are jumpers on the mainboard, but usually with older or cheaper chipsets.

Thanx again. I've gotta get going, but i took a minute to check BIOS again, and found that the DRAM timing was set for manual, with CAS latency on 3, bank interleave disabled, Trp at 5t, Tras non-DDR at 7t, and Active to CMD at 5T. Set the Timing to "by SPD" but other values didn't change, even after reboot.
I'll have another crack at it later, and if you're still curious, here's the mobo specs:
Epox EP8KRAI
Northbridge: KT600
Southbridge: VT8237

According to Epox, this board will support FSB speeds of 333MHz with my setup; I have just shy of 1GB of compatible RAM  (PC2700). The board alledgedly will do up to 400 MHz with just two sticks (unstable with three); for now I have three, but 333 would be better than 266, which is what I'm getting.
I'd figured setting DRAM Timing to "by SPD" would auto-detect the RAM and allow for the max. that the CPU could handle... maybe I need to go manual with different settings than those listed?

Thanx again. I've gotta get going, but i took a minute to check BIOS again, and found that the DRAM timing was set for manual, with CAS latency on 3, bank interleave disabled, Trp at 5t, Tras non-DDR at 7t, and Active to CMD at 5T. Set the Timing to "by SPD" but other values didn't change, even after reboot.

While ram set to SPD is fine, A ratio of 1:1:1  for cpu/fsb/ram speed  is desirable as it usually yields best system performance on this type of AMD rig.. Thus, it may be beneficial to syncronise ram speed to cpu/fsb speed by whatever means the bios allows.

The ram timings you refer to (5T,7T etc) are somewhat critical. I set these to spd, see what they go to , and then tweak from there. RAM Timing changes can make a system unbootable, in that they may need a CMOS CLEAR by jumper, resulting in BIOS defaults. A typical ram timing spec would be 8-4-4-3 at 200mhz FSB speed or 400mhz DDR on PC3200 ram modules.

[quote]
According to Epox, this board will support FSB speeds of 333MHz with my setup; I have just shy of 1GB of compatible RAM

Did you ever clear the CMOS after installing the new CPU? That's a must do as it allows the BIOS to detect the new CPU settings.

Also, some BIOS will start out at minimum safe defaults. That may be what happened here -- you're at 100 FSB. You can change that in the "Power BIOS Features" section in the BIOS setup. You'll be able to adjust the CPU frequency 166 (or higher if you want to overclock it.)

If you don't have the latest BIOS (8/10/2004), it may be required for Sempron compatibility. http://www.epox.com/USA/article.asp?ID=1779

You're manual will give you details on how to do any of this. http://www.epox.com/USA/article.asp?ID=1855
(The download is really slow.)

Awesome, guys- thank you. No, I didn't clear BIOS; that would explain a lot. For some reason I thought I didn't need to get that involved, but it sure looks that way- CPU detecting software IDs the new chip as an Athlon, not Sempron... a pretty good clue.
I'm at lunch on a jobsite right now; eager to get home and dig into this again. Hmmm... maybe I can sneak outta here early...

The setting is called "CPU Clock" which is the front side bus setting, enter "166" in there. Turn off "full screen logo" if that's enabled so you can see what's happening at bootup.

"System Performance" and "CPU Timing" can also be played with (increased) to allow faster timings if your hardware will handle it.

The "Expert" setting sometimes allows more tweaking options..

Be careful and be prepared to make the CMOS reset jumper your friend.

OK, I think I have a clearer picture now, but one more question: Currently I have 1 stick of 512 RAM, 1 256, and 1 128 (it's a long story). Will that 128 stick be of any use, will it hinder my efforts to sync CPU/RAM speeds, or...? I'd like to stay as close to 1GB RAM as I can for FS9, but it sounds like that last little bit of memory won't necessarily provide any enhancement in performance.
BTW, all three are PC2700.

Never have used Epox boards, but there could be a bus speed jumper somewhere on the board... as it seems to run the same speed as the old one

If that doesn't help, get a BIOS update


SPD is the 3mmx3mm thing on memory modules, usually located near the connectors. It's used for configuration (and for lockout tricks as compaq did for a while)