Fast Write?

[joek71]

Hello

I am setting Fast Write = Enabled in my BIOS, but when I do the Si Soft Sandra test it shows me that Fast Write is disabled. I have GeForce3 Ti 200. Can someone please tell me if this is normal.

Thanks,
Joe

[Berkswolf]

I wouldn't worry about it. In practice it does pretty much nothing anyways. >:)

[BigBen]

Hi,
I have the same prob with my card and after checking around and asking people it does seem to be the norm and as Berks said it seems to make very little difference


Regards

[joek71]

Thanks guys, so why does everyone say to put it enabled then if it make no difference?

[mackerel]

Well... when it works, fast writes can give you a few extra points on 3dmark. Hardly worth the effort...

[mdzcpa]

In order to get fastwrites working, you need to enable it in the BIOS and the driver. You need a little proggy like NVMax or Pwerstrip to do it (I prefer NVMax).

I have found the AGP implementation on the AMD 760 mobos (like the KG7) to be so solid that AGPX4, Fastwrites, and sidebanding all work great. I leave these enabled on my KG7.

On my KA7 (and my KT7A when I had it), I found fastwrites caused trouble so I left it off. It seems the AGP of the KT266A is much improved as fastwrites does not appear to cause any trouble on the KR7A.

So the Rule of Thumb is if you can get it to work...great...a few extra FPS. If not...no biggy. Basically just what everyone else already said:D

If you're real interested, try that NVMax proggy. It works great with the Ti series cards and WinXP.

[RaNGeR.GaV]

I had similar problems with getting Fast Writes working. I had to hack my Geforce3's bios and enable it in there. I also tried to enable Sideband Addressing, but it seems it's disabled on my mobo :(

[joek71]

What is this program NVMax proggy? Where can I get it and how do I use it?

[joek71]

I did enabled it in the BIOS, but it show up in SiSoft Sandra as disabled.

[mdzcpa]

You can get NVMax directly from thier website...it's free. It is very simple to use. Leave your NVidia drivers installed as is. Just install the NVMax program and run it when you want to make changes to the video card settings.

Get it here (http://www.nvmax.com/cgi-bin/nvmax.pl?action=welcome) .

Fastwrites will continue to show as disabled until you use a program to activate it in the driver.

[joek71]

Ok I downloaded it but when I try to run it nothing happens. Just get a DOS Screen and then it disappears. What is going on here?

[mdzcpa]

Sounds like you have a self-extracting exe file there. Usually after the DOS box closes, the extracted file appears.

No matter, I've emailed the NVMax file to you.

[joek71]

Thanks, I tried to run it and it ran fibe. Now I tried to set it enabled Fast Write, it says it is enabled but SiSoft still says it is disabled and Wcpuid also says it is disabled. Can you explain this?

Thanks,
Joe

[joek71]

I never recieved your email.

[RaNGeR.GaV]

If it still isn't working then I'd say it's because its disabled in your video card bios. The only way to fix this is to hack that bios! :)
If you are feeling that keen, go to: http://www.guru3d.com/xbios/
This is the program I used on my GF3. It is really easy to use.
Of course messing with your vid-bios is dangerous. A friend of mine enabled "saideband addressing" on his GF3Ti and then couldn't get into windows :(
So if you do try this, make sure you have a copy of the default bios (which the program above will let you save), in case you have to restore it.
Best of luck :)

[mdzcpa]

RaNGeR.GaV may have a good point. If you are sure you have enabled fastwrites in the BIOS and in a proggy like NVMax, then you may be stuck.

As RaNGeR.GaV has said, beware messing with the vid card BIOS. IMOHO, if it is the vid card BIOS that is the issue, I'm not sure I'd mess with it for a few FPS from fastwrites.

However, it bugs me that the vid card BIOS would hold you back. I've sold quite a few GF3 Ti series cards, and all of them had fastwrite ability (and includes the Morpheous and VisionTek models).

Sorry about the email:(. My email service has recently been switched and it is still pretty spotty (and very frustrating). I'll send it again if you need it...just ask.

BTW, what driver are you running with that Ti 200?

[joek71]

I am using drivers that where sent from PNY after I spoke to them 2.7.2.0