AGP Aperture Size

Hi Peoples. Somebody educate me and tell me where I should set this in the BIOS for a card with 128 Mb RAM for maximum performance.
Would I be correct in assuming that this should be set to a value that is equal or less than the RAM on the card ?
Thanks

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Originally posted by AnonymousOne
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Originally posted by NovJoe
It is mainly for Graphics card support only. So that means if you are running apps that are eating up more memory than the VGA card can support, the need amount of RAMs capacity will be borrowed from the system's RAM allocated in AGP Aperture Size.
Thanks for the response, but I think you somewhat misunderstood my question. I understand the purpose of AGP aperture size as you've mentioned. I'll rephrase the question: When the AGP aperture size is set, is this amount of memory inaccessible by other applications if the video card isn't using it? In other words, I have 1024Mb of memory and my aperture size is set to 256Mb. Does that leave only 768Mb of memory for the system to use or can the rest of the 256Mb(aperture size) be used as well for other applications if the video card doesn't use them? Thank you again.
NO, its a waterfall effect. As memory "spills" (tops out) over the video memory it starts to take over some RAM... the ram is used as video memory as it is needed, it is not taken up from the start. So if u you decided to set your aperature at 128, the system RAM would stop filling up at 128mb...
So if your video isnt using it, its not taken up!

Similar Messages

How to use BISO ' "AGP Aperture size"

How to use BISO ' "AGP Aperture size"? Which value can i set?

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Originally posted by ThereforeTherefore
This article is dated, but it is the only benchmark I've ever seen for AGP aperature: http://www.tweak3d.net/articles/aperture-size/
Must be dated....its a Blank page?....tried the articles....link...blank also?

What is the best AGP aperture size ???

my VGA : radeon 8500 128 le
my ram: Spectec 512 (266) ddr one piece
what is the best agp aperture size u recomend??
thanks

may look here also:
http://www.neowin.net/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t173027.html

Set the AGP Aperture Size (BIOS)

in my bios of my k7n2 mainboard
should i set the AGP Aperture Size to 128 if i have a video card of 128 MB??
bocouse i have a radeon 9800 pro 128MB and the AGP Aperture Size is set to 64MB

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Originally posted by axeluktoo
Hi,
Speedcat: System RAM! (there's not many 512mb VGA cards around )
Axel
iv got 512 mb ram on my mobo
and 124 mb on my video card
what do you recomand?

AGP aperture size cause my computer to crash?!

Ok. When my AGP aperture size is set to anything past its lowest value (4mb), my computer crashes. I haven't noticed any huge performance differences when running at 4mb aperture size, as opposed to 64mb or 128mb, but i'm curious as to what anyone here might think the cause of this is? Would it most likely be my oporating system, my motherboard, my video card, my RAM, etc...?
System Specs:
Windows 98SE
MSI KT4V Motherboard
Radeon 9700 Pro (Made by ATI.)
512mb DDR RAM (Not sure what brand.)
Two 60gb Maxtor Hard-drives
400+ Watt Power Supply

I've been banging my head for two days now trying to figure out why my KT4V would not boot after setting initial bios.
I changed my AGP aperture size to 4mb and now I am up and running.
Windows XP sp1a
MSI KT4V
AMD XP 2200+
PNY G-Force FX * 5200 AGP 128mb DDR
1G PC2100 DDR 266
1 60G Maxtor DH
Entec true 3802 380W PSU

AGP Aperture size??? and CPU temp???

1. i have changed the Aperture size to 128Mb (instead of 64) and every time i enter a game, after at least 20 minutes (sometimes less) it kicks me out back to windows.
when i played generals it told me that i might have had a hardware malfunction... which is weird cause i have a new computer.
when i returned the aperture size back to 64, it worked fine, only slower... any ideas...?
2. my CPU reached some interesting tempretures, and i have a lot of airflow... the question is this, when i'm not running any porgram (IDLE time) my cpu sits at around 43 degrees, when i do run stuff (like games, or graphic progs) my CPU rises up to 58, and i even reached 62 once...
is this logical? shouldn't P4 CPU's be cooler then AMD's? how can i force a change on the CPU cooler to work faster (when i change it through Core center the max i get is 4500rpm), can i make it higher?
thanx in advance, EagleIL.

OK,
I have just finished assembling my 865PE monster. I must say, MSI is consistent, the only issue I have seen with them is 2 things:
1. They will never learn to measure CPU temperature correctly.
2. Bios updates never seem to improve things much, or can be a disaster.
Other than that, I checked my temps, and with a side fan and a rear fan and a blower (pci slot turbo blower) out, I had 26-28 deg C at startup (cold iron). My CPU temp was 48 deg C which is physically impossible, and the reported case temp was 38 deg C in the bios but 28 deg c on my independent temp system.
I rearranged everything with side out and reversed one of the rears to blow in, and I have a steady 22-23 deg c after 6 hours. The CPU still reads 48 deg c and climbes to 50-52 under load. The reported case temp is still 38 deg c and climbs 1-2 deg. So I do not believe the temp readings.
I also do not believe all the hogwash about the CPU coolers. The stock Intel cooler has always worked fine for me, and I remember a report that said it was one of the best, in a test against a bunch of them a year or so back. There is good reason for this (I work for Intel, so I know it is not made up): They package the cooler with thier retail chips and also provide them to OEMs. They have to take all the measures possible to ensure the CPU survives the 3 year warranty and the only thing (99%) that will kill a CPU is heat. The heat removal rate of the stock heat sink is sufficient to overcome even the extra heat from OC'ing for the most part, as they test it for that. I believe the rates are posted on the website.
I would say the AGP issue is possibly related to heat effecting the memory on your agp card, or a software issue with the AGP drivers themselves. I would reccomen you revert to another card and try the same scenario if you can. There may be issues using the 128 setting itself.
Good luck. I thought this board would be a nightmare, but it has performed flawlessly with XP Pro, 2.6C, 512 meg ram (CL3!!!)(Elixer), and a Radeon 9000 Pro. I loaded Office XP Pro/Frontpage/Adobe and ran all three with no issues at the same time.
Sometimes its like ::

AGP aperature size in BIOS

In the BIOS there is an AGP aperatire size setting and I was wondering what this setting should be set to. There are options for 64mb, 128mb, and 256 mb. I have a PNY GeForce FX 5600 256MBS DDR Ram. And does this setting even affect performance?

This BIOS feature allows you to select the size of the AGP aperture. The aperture is a portion of the PCI memory address range that is to be dedicated for use as AGP memory address space. Host cycles that hit the aperture range are forwarded to the AGP bus without need for translation. The aperture size also determines the maximum amount of system RAM that can be allocated to the AGP graphics card for texture storage.
The AGP aperture size should be calculated using this formula : maximum usable AGP memory size x 2 plus 12MB. The actual usable AGP memory space is less than half the AGP aperture size set in the BIOS. This is because the AGP controller needs a write combined memory area equal in size to the actual AGP memory area (uncached) plus an additional 12MB for virtual addressing. Therefore, it isn't simply a matter of determining how much AGP memory space you need. You also need to calculate the final aperture size by doubling the amount of AGP memory space desired and adding 12MB to the total.
Note that the AGP aperture is merely address space, not physical memory in use. The physical memory is allocated and released as needed only when Direct3D makes a "create non-local surface" call. Windows 95 (with VGARTD.VXD) and later versions of Microsoft Windows use a waterfall method of memory allocation. Surfaces are first created in the graphics card's local memory. When that memory is full, surface creation spills over into AGP memory and then system memory. So, memory usage is automatically optimized for each application. AGP and system memory are not used unless absolutely necessary.
It is quite common to hear many people recommending that the AGP aperture size should be exactly half the amount of system RAM. However, this is wrong for the same reason why swapfile size shouldn't always be 1/4 of system RAM. Like the swapfile, the requirement for AGP memory space shrinks as the graphics card's local memory increases in size. This is because the graphics card will have more local memory to dedicate to texture storage. This reduces the need for AGP memory. So, if you upgrade to a graphics card with more memory, you shouldn't be "deceived" into thinking that it will therefore require even more AGP memory! On the contrary, a smaller AGP memory space will be required.
If your graphics card has very little graphics memory (4MB - 16MB), you may need to create a large AGP aperture, up to half the size of the system RAM. The graphics card's local memory and the AGP aperture size combined should be roughly around 64MB. For cards with more local memory, you needn't create quite so big an aperture. Note that the size of the aperture does not correspond to performance so increasing it to gargantuan proportions will not improve performance.
Still, it is recommended that you keep the AGP aperture around 64MB to 128MB in size. Now, why is such a large aperture size recommended despite the fact that most graphics cards now come with large amounts of local memory? Shouldn't we just set it to the absolute minimum to save system RAM?
Well, in the first place, many graphics cards require an AGP aperture of at least 16MB in size to work properly. This is probably because the virtual addressing space is already 12MB in size! In addition, many software have AGP aperture size requirements that are mostly unspecified. Some games actually use so much textures that a large AGP aperture is needed even with graphics cards with large memory buffers.
And if you remember the formula above, the AGP aperture must be more than twice the size of the desired AGP memory space. So, if you want 15MB of AGP memory for texture storage purposes, then the AGP aperture has to be at least 42MB in size. Therefore, it makes sense to set a large AGP aperture size in order to cater for all eventualities.
Please note that reducing the AGP aperture size won't save you any RAM. Again, what setting the AGP aperture size does is limit the amount of system memory the AGP bus can appropriate when it needs to. It is not used unless absolutely necessary. So, setting a 64MB AGP aperture doesn't mean that 64MB of your system memory will be appropriated. It will only limit the maximum amount of system memory that can be used by the AGP bus to 64MB (with a usable AGP memory space of only 26MB).
Now, while increasing the AGP aperture size beyond 128MB won't take up system RAM, it would still be best to keep the aperture size in the 64MB-128MB range so that the GART (Graphics Address Relocation Table) won't become too big. As the amount of local memory on graphics cards increases and texture compression becomes commonplace, there's less of a need for the AGP aperture size to grow beyond 64MB. Therefore, it is recommended that you set the AGP Aperture Size to 64MB or at most, 128MB

RivaTuner and AGP Aperture

Anyone know if I can use RivaTuner (or some other soft-mod) to change my AGP Aperture size? I have an OEM board (ASUS A7N8X-LA) which has AMI 3.07 BIOS, but HP reflashed it minimizing (hiding) what end-users can modify via BIOS... currently using RivaTuner 2.0 RC15.4 on a 6800 AGP... successfully mod'd from a 12x1, 5vp to a 16x1, 6vp.. and from stock 350/700 to 370/760 (GPU core clock/ Memory clock)... but need to change my AGP aperture from 64mb to something higher (128 or 256). Thx.. all s welcome

I don't think it will matter really. I don't know if RivaTuner can. Look in my sticky for the nTune, perhaps there is something that can be done. I doubt it though.
I would try to contact HP and see if there is a way to unhide hidden menus..
Have you tried CTRL F1 or have you looked or asked in other forums like PCper or nfhq? They both have ASUS forums there...

AGP Aparture Size changing

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I'm running an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro, and I've noticed that I would get reboots in almost every 3d applications. I would even get bluescreens 0x8E, etc. saying IRQ screwup.
I have found that lowering the AGP Apature Size in your bios to its lowest setting helps a ton for stability. The AGP Apature Size basicly allocates system ram as video ram... System ram isn't as reliable as video ram. On my 128MB video card which has ram WAY faster than my DDR333, using the video cards ram not only speeds up your framerate, but also stabilizes your system. For not-so-great video cards you might notice a slight slowdown with this -- better slow than randomly rebooting.
I found this article at http://www.tweakxp.com/display.aspx?id=1792 and i was hoping this would solve my BSODS with 0x8E errors and the random shutdowns, how do i access this option using MSI Liveupdate 2's BIOS and Loading protocols?

Hi,
I suggest you read this:
http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?location=9
Click on "AGP Aperture Size"
Axel

Is there a definitive word on how high/low to set agp aperture, et al?

Seemingly, the most elusive part of the bios settings is the agp-related settings (agp aperture, fast-write, etc.). I say this, because all I ever find on posts is 'this is what I do', or 'well, this is my rule-of-thumb...'. Is there no definitive logic for how to set these? I realize, like some people say, you can futz with the settings, run a benchmark, rinse, repeat, until you get your best benchmark setting, but this seems a bit too 'random' for my taste. I'd actually like to understand what I'm doing, why I'm doing it, and be able to see the benchmark to prove it right or wrong.
Does anyone have a good, definitive understanding of these features to be able to offer a reasonable justification for setting them one way or the other? So far, in my limited understanding, I tend to think I should set my agp aperture to as low a setting as possible, for example, as my video card has 256mb onboard, which exceeds the requirements of the games I play in-and-of-itself. Thus, why would I want to tie up system ram when video card ought to have more than enough already? Maybe this sounds stupid, but that's why I'm asking

256Mb should be more than enough to run todays games at HI settings. From what I understand it only addresses out memory tasks when onboard memory has exceeded its amount. Running down the AGP bus to RAM would be slower than onboard because of the interface (GFX-upto 256Bit DDR3 etc). If the app can run happy with onboard RAM, the amount set for "aperture" is used for system use and is not set a side until the apps needs more than GFX can offer addressed onboard. It does need an amount set even if its the smallest amount. I thinks
Also please read below pages:
http://www.tweak3d.net/articles/aperture-size/
http://www.cybercpu.net/howto/basic/AGP_aperture/index.asp
http://www.anandtech.com/news/shownews.aspx?i=17139

AGP Aperture.. What is it and where should it be set?

While messing with my new MSI video card today I came upon a good question.. what should my AGP Aperture be set at for best performance? Is it based on amount of system memory? Video card memory?
To refresh your memory I have:
AMD XP 1600 Processor
512 DDR RAM (2x256)
MSI Geforce4 ti4200 64MB 8X
Asus A7A266 Motherboard
30 GB Hard drive
Thanks!

(long post warning)
You've all got a pretty good understanding.
VGA memory on your card is used as required by the application FIRST (for textures, buffers, code, etc.). Key point - VGA memory is FAST - remember, in the case of a G4Ti4600AGP it's clocked at ~650MHz(DDR). (and in the case of the GeForce 5600FX, that's now 1GHz DDR II)...
AGP Aperature memory is used NEXT (for textures) if your VGA memory is full and the application requires more. The amount of memory available is as you set in the AGP Aperature setting in the BIOS.
The key point about AGP Aperature memory is that it is the portion of your _SYSTEM MEMORY_ that _can_ be allocated to be used as AGP memory IF required.
What's special about it, is that any access made to it (by the Video card) is done directly through the AGP bus without need for translation (i.e. without CPU intervention) - this makes using the aperature memory faster than using normal system memory. (but still much slower than the local VGA memory as seen above - eg. a P4 can use 400MHz DDR RAM - much slower than the VGA memory not even accounting for latency, AGP bus speed, etc.).
Finally, if after this your AGP Aperature memory becomes full, then the application must resort to using regular system memory - requiring CPU/Memory Controller intervention - and share with other components (PCI bus) also requiring access to the system memory. MUCH slower.
Setting a large AGP Aperature won't hurt you as it's only going to be used if your VGA memory is full - however, once used, it's taking away from your system memory. So, if you set your Aperature to 128MB and you only have a total of 128MB system memory installed....
If your VGA card has alot of memory (64MB or 128MB by today's requirements), then it's likely you won't need a large AGP Aperature as the VGA memory will handle the load. Still, suggested requirements is to set your AGP Aperature at either 64MB or 128MB (and if you've got the system memory to spare, than all the more power to you). If OTOH, you've got a small amount of system memory, you may want to remain conservative here - but it will still also depend upon the amount of VGA memory you've got.
Eg: in 3DMark 2000, there was the 64MB texture test - anyone running a 16MB VGA card with an AGP Aperature of 32MB could not run this test - even setting the Aperature to 64MB didn't necessarily mean you could run the test due to overhead - from the link I posted above:
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AGP aperture must be more than twice the size of the desired AGP memory space. So, if you want 15MB of AGP memory for texture storage purposes, then the AGP aperture has to be at least 42MB in size.
The good news is that games today don't yet require this massive amount of memory, thanks in part to texture compression techniques, etc. - but who knows what the future holds (hence we're seeing cards with 128MB and now 256MB on board). A few more years down the line, and the technology will probably change altogether (I've already heard of the AGP bus being replaced).
(whew...I hope everyone understands better. This is at least my understanding of AGP Aperature - it might not be 100% accurate)

3.81GB in aperture Size?

Hi
When I run 3DMark2001 and check System info --> Motherboard Info -->AGP Capabilities, I get aperture Size 3.81GB............
Shouldnt it be 64 or 128MB?.......or do 3dmark f-kup the info?..........
The comp. runs great and i have no problems yet.....

sounds like 3d01se muck up, if it all works fine then don't worry about it, your 3dmark score looks good for your system too.
Babyface uk

AGP Apperture Size in BIOS

I have a K7T266 Pro2-RU, Bios 3.7, GeForce4 Ti4600 Video Card.
What is the right AGP apperture sixe to configure in the BIOS (64 megs, 128 megs)?
Thanks.

Here you go a good article to read including bench tests.
http://www.tweak3d.net/articles/aperture-size/index.shtml

A good aperture size on igp boards

what would you people recommend for aperture size and frame buffer size on a K7N2G-L (nforce 2 igp) with 2x256mb PC3200 OCZ Premier ram?

With digital images file size is a result of many factors. Image resolution and image quality being the two major factors.
So a filesize of 1 mb, for example, can be arrived at in many different ways depending on the file size you are starting with and the image quality and resolution you want in the final image.
So if you tell us what you are starting with and what you want to do with the final image we might be able to come up with a range of settings that will get you the desired results.
regards

Agp apar. size in the bios

my agp apar. size is set to 64
i am using radeon 9500 pro on a neo2-s and p4 2.6C
should i raise it ? will it give me some boost ?

There are varied opinions on this. Some say set it to half of your video memory size and some say set it to the same amount. If I remember correctly, the AnandTech folks did a study and did not see anything significant after 64K. I think there was a significant performance hit at 16K though. Also if you do a search, you'll come across posts on this subject in the MSI forum as well.

AGP Aperture Size

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