The 5:2:1 divider

[arDAWG]

I have an ABit AT7 Max mobo. I have oc'ed the cpu I am currently using--an original T'Bird 1.4ghz (soon to be replaced w/ a T'Bred). I have set the fsb to 166 & 168 & booted into XP sucessfully w/ NP. I set the divider in the bios to 5:2:1. It is my understanding that this divider does not apply until, at least, 166fsb is attained, cuz otherwise u would be underclocking the agp/pci bus. Anywayz, when I boot into XP & run SiSoft Sandra 2003 (retail ed.) & check Mainboard Info, it showz that my agp bus is 84 & pci is 42 w/ a divider of 4. What I need to know is: does SSSandra actually read the agp/pci bus or does it calculate the agp/pci bus speed from the cpu fsb, assuming a divider of 4??? If so, what proggy will give an actual reading of the agp/pci bus??? If not, then why would the divider not be set to what I chose? Is the original T'Bird compatiable w/ the 5:2:1 divider? It seemz to me that this would be a function of the mobo, independant of the cpu, but I cannot confirm this for certain. The ABit manual only gives a brief description of the divider & answers none of my questions. I do not want to run the agp/pci bus @ 84/42, cuz I've read that, contrary to myth, there is no real gain in doing so (except for a insignificant ide performance boost). IMO, leaving the agp bus @ 66 & oc'ing the core & mem would yield better results.

 

[phsstpok]

Sandra does not have the ability to detect the programming of all clock generators. SiSoft has this fact posted somewhere in the Sandra FAQ's.

I don't know what program does report the information accurately, sorry.

<b>99% is great, unless you are talking about system stability</b>

 

[arDAWG]

k001, thanx. I kinda figured the divider wuz @ 5:2:1, I don't think my 8500 would fly w/ 84mhz on the apg bus. 😉

 

[phsstpok]

I'm sure your AGP is in spec but 84 Mhz isn't a big deal anyway. People with overclocked Intel 440BX boards have been running their video cards at 89 Mhz.

<b>99% is great, unless you are talking about system stability</b>

 

[arDAWG]

Is it pretty much true though that running the agp @ or close to spec & oc'ing the core/mem (I use Rage3d Tweak)is a better propostion??? I read somewhere that oc'ing the agp bus did little to boost 3d2001se results or fps in games. If this is the case, IMHO it would be better to run in spec, if nothing else for better pci/agp stability.

 

[phsstpok]

I don't know. I've never had a board where I could select to lock or not lock the AGP speed. Without this option it's a real difficult thing to verify AGP performance under different conditions. The problem is if you can't lock the AGP speed then when you do overclock AGP you are also changing bus speed, memory speed, etc. Hard to confirm whether the AGP speed increase does anything or not.

Personally, I think that overclocking AGP might increase AGP communication speed but can't increase 3D speed. Just as you don't see much boost going from AGP 2X to 4X to 8X probably wouldn't see anything from overclocking AGP. Just my opinion.

<b>99% is great, unless you are talking about system stability</b>