AGP and Socket 7 Boards

Socket 7 and AGP

Q: Am I likely to have problems if I upgrade to an AMD system and an AGP-equipped Socket 7 motherboard?

A: You may encounter problems, especially if your AGP card is one of the newer 2X or 4X AGP variety. We had poor results attempting to use a Voodoo3 or a TNT2 in a Socket 7 board. However, an older TNT card worked fine and, with some effort, we were able to get an ATI Rage 128-based card to work, as well. Some manufacturers, such as Asus, provide a special driver that allows you to specify PCI data transfer rates and protocols to minimize problems on Socket 7 systems.

GeForce 2 and AMD

Q: I recently purchased a new Nvidia Geforce 2 graphics card and installed it in my computer.  Unfortunately according to my motherboard manufacturer, (A - Trend) my mainboard will not work with this card.  I was wondering if in fact this is correct. If so what would be my most cost effective solution? If I do in fact need a new motherboard /processor where would I look to find the cheapest one?

A: It's not the processor that's at fault; it appears to be the card's power requirement exceeding the motherboard's resources.

Author Matthew Witheiler concludes, "...And while a GeForce2 Ultra is basically an overkill for a K6-2/3 system, you can pretty much be assured that the Ultra would be able to play games at FSAA 2X with nearly GeForce2 MX speeds."

Thus, my advice is to do one of the following:

• return the GeForce 2 and get a different card (e.g., Voodoo 5500)
• Replace the motherboard with either an EPOX or, preferably a newer model (ATIC.ca sells the GA-7iXE K7, Slot-A,3DIMM, 5P/2I/1A with an AMD Athlon K7-750 CPU and FAN for C$270).

NT and AGP

Q: What are the minimum requirements for AGP support in Windows NT 4.0?

A: As listed on the ATI tech support page, the system hardware requirements are a Pentium II with an AGP expansion slot. This statement, however, is not entirely true, as we've successfully run NT with an AGP adapter on an Aopen AX59PRO Socket 7-based system as well. At any rate, NT 4.0 must be upgraded with Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 3 (or higher) in order to recognize and support an AGP display adapter. Service Pack 3 can be downloaded from the MICROSOFT web site. The file size is approximately 18 MB.

The URL for the service pack is:

• http://www.microsoft.com/technet/archive/default.mspx

You can determine if Service Pack 3 is installed by checking the VERSION page in the NT DIAGNOSTIC. To get to the NT Diagnostic, from the Start menu, choose Programs -> Administrative Tools (Common) -> Windows NT Diagnostics.

ATI says, for its Rage Pro products, the NT driver version 4.3 (4.3.92) or higher should be installed AFTER Service Pack 3.

VIA in Feb. 2001 released a new set of so-called Via 4in1 Drivers that promise to improve hard drive performance under Windows 2000. These drivers also enable AGP texturing on supported systems. See windowplanet.net for details.

i740 and AGP

Q: kmoksi@po-box.mcgill.ca writes: I have an AX59PRO motherboard with a AMD K6-2 266 Mhz cpu. I am trying to run Windows 95 on this but cannot seem to configure my AGP Stealth II G460 on that...

A: There is a fix at www.via.com.tw for W95/98

On Usenet, Mike Gainy writes: If you really want to run an i740 video board in any super 7 mobo you probably need to use the PCI version of Real3D Starfighter. It has the bridge chip built onto the card so the i740 thinks its an AGP card. I hear performance isn't that bad either. There have been a *lot* of posts regarding AGP and super 7 boards due to the way VIA interpreted and implemented the AGP spec. Most vendors are now shipping mobos based on the"CE" revision of VIAs chipset which is supposed to correct this deficiency. I don't know if the ALI boards were subject to the same problems.

Ryu wrote: The Diamond homepage http://www.diamondmm.com states that the Stealth II G460 video card, using the Intel 740 graphics processo with AGP 2X requires Windows 95 OSR2. If a user only has the original Windows 95, can they still use the Diamond Stealth II G460 on their system?

Paul Moon replied: My understanding is that while the i740 based cards will run in OSR1, they will not take advantage of the AGP ability to access main system memory, hence crippling the potential of the card. It should run, though.

Graeme concludes: In summary, you need to use Win95 OSR2 or Win98, and use the recommended patch listed above.

For Further Reading

• See the Motherboards section for more PC building tips and product tests.