Boost Nvidia Gaphics Card Performance without overclocking.

[qwijibow 0]

Most computers support AGP modes called "Fast Writes" and "Side Band Addressing".
i wont go into detail about what they are, its way too confusing.

but whats important about them is
1) they are dissabled by default .
2) dissableing them causes a noticable drop in 3d graphics performance.

The reason they do this, is because some chipsets (some versions of VIA for example) become very unstable and crash when FastWirites are enabled.

this is rare... but, but defaulting to off, willsave Nvidia alot of money on the customer support side of things.

But many of you Nvidia users out there have hardware which is Stable with FastWrites and SBA,,but you are not using it.

FIRSTLY... before you go on, make sure that you have a rescue disk, AND you know how to use it, just incase your system is one of the few unstable chipsets. if you are unlucky enough to have an unstable chipset, you will need to boot the rescue disk, and edit a config file to resore your system to default... but more on that later.

to find out if your system is capable of SBA and FastWrites
run the following 2 commands...

cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/host-bridgecat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/card

both commands MUST report that SBA and fastWrites are "Supported"

example output

bash-2.05b$ cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/card        host-bridge  status
bash-2.05b$ cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/card
Fast Writes:    Supported
SBA:            Supported
AGP Rates:      8x 4x
Registers:      0x1f000e1b:0x1f004312


bash-2.05b$ cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/host-bridge
Host Bridge:    PCI device 10de:00e1 (nVidia Corporation)
Fast Writes:    Supported
SBA:            Supported
AGP Rates:      8x 4x
Registers:      0x1f00421b:0x00000312

if your Host Bridge reports "Not supported" then you may need to enables it in your system Bios,, or update your bios... Otherwise, your system isnt capable of this performance tweak.

Now.. lets have a look at the current status of SBA and Fast Writes..
run the code

bash-2.05b$ cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/status

here is some example output...

bash-2.05b$ cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/statusStatus:          Enabled
Driver:          AGPGART
AGP Rate:        8x
Fast Writes:    Enabled
SBA:            Enabled

Your SBA might already be enabled... but your Fast Wirtes Will be Disabled.
(if they are enabled... then this tweak has already been carried, possably by your distro vendor)

So far.....
you have seen alot of code, lots of quotes and yet not actually done anything.
the tweak is surprisingly simple..

make a backup of the file "/etc/modules.d/nvidia"

mv /etc/modules.d/nvidia /etc/modules.d/nvidia.backuptouch /etc/modules.d/nvidia

now open up the file /etc/modules.d/nvidia and add these lines.

# Nvidia drivers supportalias char-major-195 nvidia
alias /dev/nvidiactl char-major-195
options nvidia NVreg_EnableAGPSBA=1 NVreg_EnableAGPFW=1

now reboot.

if your computer starts hard crashing shortly after the graphical user interface starts up, then boot your rescue disk, delete the file /etc/modules.d/nvidia and replace with the backup.

after a sucessfull rebott, check to see if FastWirtes was correctly enabled. by having anouther look at the following output...

bash-2.05b$ cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/status

now run your fave game

on my AMD64 3400+ and GeForce FX 5700LE this cuased a coonsiderable increace in performance on Ut2004 and other 1s person shooters.

[miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG 0]

Nice work man - I'm off to buy a NVidia card after reading this

[WaCo 0]

Nice work man - I'm off to buy a NVidia card after reading this

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I wouldn't be so sure on your place. Some Linux systems eg. Mandrake/Mandriva does not support Nvidia. I don't mean it doesn't at all, but installing the correct (any) drivers is very difficult and might still not work.

 

However, there are safe Linux operating systems for use: I mean here Slackware and Debian. Drivers work on them in supreme way ( though the newest drivers were too buggy it's prefered to install older ones ).

 

It's also good to read problems about nvidia drivers on linuxquestions.org

 

wish ya good experience with nvidia cards !!!

[cyph3r 0]

Heyy .. nice info on nvidia cards .. i have a NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP 8x .. would my card be supported with this tweak ? .. Oh and u mentioned that we should run the command cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/host-bridge .. could u please tell us where .. as in for n00bs like me .. is it in the command promp or somewhere else ?lastly .. u said .. " make a backup of the file "/etc/modules.d/nvidia " where or what is this etc, mv, touch .. are these commands or just folders ? i searched but didnt find em .. Plz do update us on this .. Thankx for the tweak again .. guess nvidia users would finally get some real work out of their cards ...Cheers

[WaCo 0]

Oh and u mentioned that we should run the command cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/host-bridge .. could u please tell us where .. as in for n00bs like me .. is it in the command promp or somewhere else ?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You are n00b....big n00b. No offense.

 

Every Linux is based on command prompt ! You can't use Linux without using command prompt ( command prompt <=> bash <==> shell <=> Bourne again shell ). 90% things which you perform, you do right in the command prompt.

 

 

Where the command prompt is? Press ctrl+alt+F2 and you'll see.

Where to learn how to use it? read abs.

 

Notice from Klass:

I am a Supreme Elite Linux Guru. I like to make new linux users feel like they are dirt under my feet. Next time I make someone feel like that Klass will ban me.

[gamerchick39 0]

Man i would love to do this, is there anyway to do the same thing, or something similar in Windows. I have a Nvidia Geforce 6800 and its maxed out on most games, but some like Doom3 still are totally maxed. I would love to get more out of my card!

[cyborgxxi 0]

Hey - this is some cool info! Thanks!! I'll keep in mind to do this thing after I'm through defragging my hard drive. It's 8% after an hour or so in SAFE MODE. I don't know if that's fast or slow. :DI have a GeForce FX 5700 and I think it will lag like hell in Doom 3 or other grpahic / memory intense games. I don't really know... like I said: my computer needs medical attention :PThanks anyway

[gamerchick39 0]

Hey - this is some cool info! Thanks!! I'll keep in mind to do this thing after I'm through defragging my hard drive. It's 8% after an hour or so in SAFE MODE. I don't know if that's fast or slow.

 

I have a GeForce FX 5700 and I think it will lag like hell in Doom 3 or other grpahic / memory intense games. I don't really know... like I said: my computer needs medical attention

 

Thanks anyway

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It sounds like the defraggin is a little slow haha unless you just gotta crapload of stuff on there. Mine took about 20 minutes to defrag but it has very little on it. Now my external hard drive on the other hand, that one will take a long time. I started to defrag it, but after about 3 hours it wasnt even half way done.

[cyborgxxi 0]

20 minutes?!?!! What the heck? Okay then... there is something seriously wrong with my computer!!Mine took at least 6 hours, I think, even on Safe Mode. :DI need help. Like dhanesh says, I don't know where to put this code in. I've tried command prompt but it doesn't work.I need help!!

[qwijibow 0]

I wouldn't be so sure on your place. Some Linux systems eg. Mandrake/Mandriva does not support Nvidia. I don't mean it doesn't at all, but installing the correct (any) drivers is very difficult and might still not work.

The nVidia OpenGL GLX binaries contain some closed source texture compression algorithms.
Because of this, the nVidia driver cannot be distributed WITH your installation cd's.

However, All linux distro's will work with nVidia Graphics cards 100% when you download the driver from nVidia.com.

to dhanesh:
Read the first post, there is a guide on how to detect if your card supports FastWtires and Side Band Addressing.

However from your confusion with the basic UNIX filesystems and commands, i would recomend you bcome more comfortable in linux befiore atempting this tweak.

If you have one of the unstable VIA chipsets, you will need to know how to use a little command line to get your system running in graphical mode again.

Enjoy.

[cyborgxxi 0]

Did you know that you can also boost your Nvidia graphics... or any sort of graphics card by overclocking your following graphic card components:Core clockMemory clockYou must note that the core clock value is ALWAYS lower than the memory clock value. For example, my core clock is 300 MHz while my memory clock is 450 MHz. Yes, I know, my graphics card sucks... but I got it for $150. I think I got ripped off!!Anyway, is there anyone who knows where to put this code in? Or is this code just for linux systems? Whenever I try to put this code in the command prompt, it turns up with an error. Someone help me with this problem or just tell me how and where to put the code in. I really need to boost my NVidia card to play my Battlefield 2 properly...

[qwijibow 0]

This tweak can be done to any Operating System, however the method of applying the tweak may vary from kernel to kernel.

this guide was for the Linux kernel

Ive not tried, but i assume the code should work exactly the same with other kernels like the FreeBSD UNIX kernel.

What error message do you get ? post it here.

maybe the instructions need tweaking a little for different distro's

EDIT: OOps, i think i may have forgotten to mention that you need to be a super user to run some of those commands, try running

su -<root passowrd>

before you enter the commands that cause the error.

EDIT2:
I have tried experimenting with overclocking the graphics card,
i didnt notice any change in performance.

but i wasnt willing to over volt the card.

overclocking is only good for shortening your hardwares life.

i dont recomend putting such epensive hardware at risk.

[iGuest 3]

no, my clock is higherBoost Nvidia Gaphics Card Performance

 no, my graphics core is 650 and my graphics ram is 577 /txtmngr/images/smileys/smiley5.Gif

 

its an nvidea geforce 8400GS overclocked to cook eggs

 

-reply by alex