8X AGP Video card in a 4X AGP Motherboard

[SteveLewis]

I had my PC custom built this past March. I have an Intel D845PESVL mother board which supports 4X AGP. I also have a MSI GeForce Ti4200 8X AGP video card w/ 128Mb of DDR. On the nVidia control page the 4X AGP box is checked and can not be changed.I am suffering from intermittent stutters (down to about 5 seconds now) every 10 minutes or so in FS9. Could the mismatch between AGP settings be a problem?Just a thought. I'm chasing the wind here.

[Guest kilo_sierra17]

To be honest Steve I am not sure, I always thought that if your MOBO didn't support 8x that the card would slow down to 4x? I do not know for sure, I only have a 2x MOBO and my GeForce 4 works good, I have the noraml version which is 4x and I have no stutters.

[SteveLewis]

Just completed a flight from Kansas City to St Louis. Had Autogen on Basic (? Least setting). Still had a 5-7 sec pause every time the weather updated (Using FSMeteo 6.3) as new weather stations come into range.I'm thinking now that it's time to fish or cut bait. I have this WinXP Home OEM disc sitting here and I think I'll install it this weekend. I've been dreading doing it but sooner or later I need more RAM or something. I've got 512 and I downloaded the Sandra test software and tested my PC. Did pretty good. My RAM efficiency was 88%. Don't know why I'm running out of RAM, though. I'm befuddled. :(

[Guest kilo_sierra17]

Well 512MB Ram is lots, that's generally a good amount for XP, do you have these issues when you don't use FSMeteo??

[SteveLewis]

I have them with both FSMeteo and FS9s real world weather.

[Guest kilo_sierra17]

Time for XP :-), if you are running 512MB RAM under 98, did you make sure to edit it so that it will utilize all the RAM?

[SteveLewis]

MMmmm. How do I do that? According to RamIdle I am using it all since at times it says "0"....Flew again tonight. Reinstalled my SoundBlaster Live! 5.1.... Had the slide show on downwind to KSDF... Haven't had that since I took it out! (what a coincidence???) Looks like it's back to the onboard audio until I can afford (or sneak) a SB Audigy card....Let me know how to edit it so it uses all the ram in Win98Se... Thanks.:-waveSteve

[SteveLewis]

Also, just checked my system.ini file. Here's some funny settings:under {386Enh} ConservativeSwapFileUsage=0under {VCACHE} MinFileCache=0 MaxFileCache=0 CHUNKSIZE=0No wonder I was stuttering tonight. I changed them to: ConservativeSwapFileUsage=1and, MinFileCache=524288 MaxFileCache=526336 CHUNKSIZE=1024Are these good settings? Thanks.Steve

[Guest kilo_sierra17]

Man your SB Live card is crap! Surprising considering mine gives me no trouble, I do not know what you have to change for 98, hopefully someone here will see this and let you know.

[Guest Kurt]

Steve,This is what I have and it seems to work fine.ConservativeSwapFileUsage=1MinFileCache=65536MaxFileCache=360448no chunk size setting.I'd suggest disabling any ram utilities and test and then retest with them enabled. Of the few ram utilities I've tried, I've found that at best they do not help and some actually make things worse. Kurt M

[Guest Kurt]

Steve,Use system monitor to check what is happening. The pics below are from FS9 at different times and settings. So far I've never seen the swap file being used and have not run out of memory. Win98se with 512 ram.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/36469.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/36470.jpgKurt M

[SteveLewis]

Kurt, Thanks. I'll try these settings. It will have to be Monday, though. Wife and I are off to visit Son#2 in Centreville, Virginia today after work. Have to do some work on his PC to get him ready for cable internet installation on Sunday. :) I was suprised to see all of the "0"s in the VCACHE section of my .ini file after my flight. I guess that since there was nothing there previously, it just set them at "0". Next week I'm going to set up XP-Home on one of my spare 20G hard drives and see what I get with only FS9 on it. If I get everything to work (and, I've downloaded at least 2 "how to do a clean insatll of XP" articles from the internet), and FS9 doesn't pause for 5-7 seconds every 3-5 minutes, then I'll do the XP clean install on my 80G 7200rpm main HD. I'll back up everything on CDs first, of course. ;) I've tried every tweek and trick I've seen but still have the 5-7 pauses which occur mainly 1) about 10 seconds after FSMeteo updates (ding) and 2) when I begin my decent. These pauses even occur when I have no Autogen. During the pauses, my HD light does not light up and the sound and mouse still work. :-hmmm I really like FS9 -- even with these pesky pauses. The weather and all makes it 100% more real than FS2002. I'll get it someday. Probably take XP, another 512 of DDR333, and a new sound card but, what the H*ll......

[SteveLewis]

I don't have System Monitor on my system. Can I get it off the 98SE disc? or do I have to get it another place?My RamIdle trial period ran out and I'm not going to buy it. Didn't seem to help any.

[Guest Kurt]

Steve,-"Can I get it off the 98SE disc?-"Install fromcontrol paneladd/remove programswindows setupsystem toolsdetails Kurt M

[SteveLewis]

Thanks!