AGP Apperture Probloms

[Darthgary]

My Bios dont have a setting for Apperture size, I have 128 MB of Video memory, But I have been seing software say I have a 64 MB apperture size.

I would like to se it at 128!

[cruiserlck]

How 'bout some system specs. What brand and model motherboard , graphics card , etc. I'm sure some guys round here could possibly help , but need the specs.

[Darthgary]

P4 2A GHz CPU, MSI 845E Max MOBO, Radeon 9000 Pro 128 Video Card.

[cruiserlck]

Well , sorry I can't help. I was hoping you'd have something similar to mine. I don't know much about MSI mobos or ATI cards.Sorry. Maybe somebody else around here could help. Anybody????

[cruiserlck]

Double post. sorry

[wackoguy]

i dont rely think u need to increase it, 128mb with 64 is enough, especially for a 9000 pro

[Darthgary]

I payed for 128 MB!

Your 64MB Aperature Size is not talking about the 128MB's of memory you have on your video card.

A general rule of thumb is, the AGP Aperature Size is 1/2 of your system RAM.

If you have 128MB's of SYSTEM memory, then a 64MB AGP Aperature Size is fine.

Now, if you can't find the setting to change it, no big deal. The machine is running, and it's using all 128MB's of your video card just like you paid for.

I'm gonna go check MSI's site to see where this hidden setting is so that you can change it accordingly.

BTW, how much SYSTEM memory do you have in it?

[Tomteriffic]

The AGP aperture size is not a function of the video card, it's a BIOS function. It also has nothing to do with the RAM onboard the card. What it is is the amount of system RAM that the BIOS will reserve for overflow texture memory for the video card, if needed. As a practical matter, 64 MB is plenty and with a 128 MB vidcard, you may never use any of that.

According to the manual for your board, the AGP Aperture Size setting is located under the "Advanced Chipset Features" menu in the BIOS. See my enclosed screen shot.

You can set it to 1/2 your SYSTEM RAM and you might notice increase performance, you might not.

Your best step right now would be to run a benchmark utility like 3DMark and see what kinda score you get. After that, change your AGP Aperture Size up to 128, benchmakr again, change it to 256, benchmark. See which one gives you the best score and change it to that setting.

You can find the latest 3DMark03 here