Graphics card memory required for FSX..?

[cheesegrater]

OcUK GeForce 7900 GS 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-045-OK)  

Price:  

[DizZa]

I have done tons of texture tweaks in fsX, and even with them, my availible Vmemory goes to 0mb. So yes, a 512mb or larger card may be needed for maxed out settings. I would recommend the 512mb X1950pro.

Fozzer, try changing your AGP Aperture size to 256mb, that should help.

Flippin' bleedin Norah...it's another one of those Intel thingies all over again... ...!
...not only that, it's priced at.....
...wait for it....
Two hundred and fifty-five pounds in English money... ...!

That Intel is faster than any current AMD, and it does it at a significantly lower price than any AMD. The Core 2 Duo E6600 is most likely the BEST processor you can currently get.

[cheesegrater]

Good point. AGP aperature allows system RAM to be used as video RAM. You have plenty of system RAM.

[congo]

..............and it does it at a significantly lower price than any AMD

Well that's easy to say.

The only truth in that statement lies in the fact that no other CPU can actually match it's performance so a

[congo]

Oh, and AGP memory is slow by comparison to GDDR3 and don't some tweakers disable it altogether to get better performance on 512mb cards?

[Fozzer]

Fozzer, try changing your AGP Aperture size to 256mb, that should help.

Hold my hand and lead me to the sweet spot in my computer which enables me to perform this magic trick........!

...in other words...how do you do that... ....?
...and does it really take the load off my GPU's existing 128Mb memory...?
(At the moment the 128Mb is fully used up in FSX, at lowest settings)...!

Paul.... ...!

P.S. By the way....I have 3 system memory slots (not 4), and I put two sticks of 1 Gb in the two pink slots 1 and 3, and a 254 Mb stick in the blue slot 2.
On boot up the system automatically tells me it recognises my dual channel memory whatsit in big white letters, and the final memory size indicates 2.34 Gb of system memory....
As long as I put equal size memory in the 2 pink slots it seem to recognise the DUAL CHANNEL thingummy, and whatever I put in the 3rd slot just seems a bonus, adding to my total system memory
...is this OK...?

Cheers all...!

Paul.... ...!

[quote]OcUK GeForce 7900 GS 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-045-OK)  

Price:  

[congo]

I don't think the BIOS report is being honest with you Fozzer, give it a quick test in Everest to make sure, your bonus may indeed prove a hindrance. Do the memory bandwidth read test, and it will give you a comparison of your system strength with others, and if you test both 2gb and 2.3gb, I'd put money on the 2 sticks beating 3 sticks, if indeed your board is truly dual channel as advertised.

AGP Aperature, there will be a setting in the bios somewhere m8. It might not be called that exactly but it's there. The setting sets the amount of memory the AGP bus can borrow from the system, it doesn't reserve that memory, it merely allows it.
Poorer cards theoretically will use it more, I think that it's used for textures more than anything else.

[Fozzer]

I don't think the BIOS report is being honest with you Fozzer, give it a quick test in Everest to make sure, your bonus may indeed prove a hindrance. Do the memory bandwidth read test, and it will give you a comparison of your system strength with others, and if you test both 2gb and 2.3gb, I'd put money on the 2 sticks beating 3 sticks, if indeed your board is truly dual channel as advertised.

AGP Aperture, there will be a setting in the bios somewhere m8. It might not be called that exactly but it's there. The setting sets the amount of memory the AGP bus can borrow from the system, it doesn't reserve that memory, it merely allows it.
Poorer cards theoretically will use it more, I think that it's used for textures more than anything else.

Hi Congo....!

Just ran two memory tests with "Aida 32" Memory Benchmark Tests:

2 sicks of 1Gb Dual Channel memory.
Result:
Read = 2280 Mb/s.
Write = 970 Mb/s.

2 sticks of 1Gb Dual Channel Memory + 1 stick of 256 Mb Memory.
Result:
Read = 2480 Mb/s.
Write = 1004 Mb/s.

Adding more extra memory moved the benchmark higher up the list towards the top... ;D...!

AS for the AGP aperture size thingy in BIOS, all I can see is:
Advanced Chipset Features > AGP Frequency > Normal/66 Mhz to 100 Mhz in steps...
No mention of size in Mega bytes... ...!

Looking at the various Web discussions on AGP aperture size, the results seem to vary with the type of game being played...!
Some best at 128 Mb, some best at 256 Mb, some best left alone...!
LOL...!

Cheers Congo... ...!

Paul... ...!

Motherboard: Gigabyte. GA-7N400 S-L. 400 FSB. nForce 2. Dual Channel DDR. AGP 8X. (Socket A).
...and a partridge in a pear tree...

[congo]

I stand corrected!

Well, now you know for sure at least.

I don't understand why you got those results, a similar thing happened to me when I tested a Gigabyte NForce2 Ultra board I bought once, I couldn't figure out why then either.
It's not supposed to work like that

[Fozzer]

I stand corrected!

Well, now you know for sure at least.

I don't understand why you got those results, a similar thing happened to me when I tested a Gigabyte NForce2 Ultra board I bought once, I couldn't figure out why then either.
It's not supposed to work like that  ???

I wonder  if the board is actually even working in dual channel mode at all, because by rights, you shouldn't be getting results like that.


For a comparison, my 2800+ cpu was getting 2750 mb/sec in that test on a Soltek NF2 Ultra mainboard at 2.28ghz and a FSB speed of 182mhz.

It's also weird not being able to find the AGP Window setting, but oh well......

Hi Congo.....

If I put the memory into the "wrong" slots, the "Dual Channel Memory" text does not appear at boot-up....

But if I put all the memory in the correct slots the words "Dual Channel Memory Enabled" lights up in big bright letters on the DOS screen...Woo-Hoo.... ...!

Remember, I have a Magic Motherboard......!
LOL... ...!

As I mentioned, there doesn't appear to be an option in the BIOS boot up screen to allow a selection of actual AGP "Megabyte" size, only an AGP frequency selection... ...!

Cheers...!!

Paul....Magic is good.... ...!

[congo]

Ah, the penny just dropped........

There are special BIOS keys to get into hidden menus on some NF2 boards, that's probably where it is hidden if it exists at all.

[NicksFXHouse]

It use to be SHIFT F-2 followed by ALT F-3 as I recall

However AGP aperture should not be hidden

And for the record, AGP aperture was designed for lower memory video cards. It allocates a block of memory to be used by the system if the graphics memory is overrun. For cards up to 256mb and 1gig of system memory, 128mb AGP aperture in the BIOS should be fine however there were reports of some NV cards prefering 256 with a 256 video card on some games.

For 512 cards, I would recommend 256, especially if you have 2 gigs of memory installed.

A 512 aperture is a waste of your memory unless your using the system for 3D rendering in professional 3D software and a supporting professional 3D card which was designed for a pro to work.

[DizZa]

My purchased packaged computer has a fixed AGP Aperture size of 64mb. YAY!!!!  ::)

[Fozzer]

My purchased packaged computer has a fixed AGP Aperture size of 64mb. YAY!!!!  ::)

WOWZERS... ...!

It's fantastic to know that there at least two of us in the whole wide World who are still using AGP slots and AGP graphics cards...

The AGP King is dead. Long live the AGP King.......!

Paul....... ...!

P.S. ...what is this new-fangled "PSIe" malarkey? ....I ask myself...  ;D...!
LOL...!

[cheesegrater]

AGP is not dead, a lot of people use it, and you could still buy a brand new PCI card for your Dell that has no AGP port.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814129062