What is "AGP aperture size?"

[Guest]

My computer crashed in all 3D Games (both directX and openGL), and even in 3D screen savers and DXDiag, when I tested 3D acceleration.

The "AGP aperture size" setting in BIOS was set to the default, 64 MB. After changing it to 32 MB and 16 MB, the same result. Finally, on 8 MB dxdiag and the 3D screen savers started to work.

And with "AGP aperture size" set to 4 MB everything works fine.

I tested this with two different video boards (NVidia Vanta, and NVidia TNT2 model 64), the same result, so it's not a faulty video board.

I want to know what "AGP Aperture size" is, and if it's normal for a motherboard to function without crashing only if I set it to 4MB.

Relevant hardware:
Intel Pentium III Celeron (Celeron II) 600 MHz (9x66MHz)
Two 128 MB, PC133, CAS 2 SDRAM DIMMs
PC Partner MotherBoard (Via Apollo Pro chipset 66/100 MHz bus)

Windows XP System Information:
System Summary:
OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name VLAD
System Manufacturer VIA Technologies, Inc.
System Model VT82C691
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 8 Stepping 3 GenuineIntel ~601 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date Award Software International, Inc. 6.00 PG, 18-feb.-2000
SMBIOS Version 2.2
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\System32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume2
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.0 (xpclient.010817-1148)"
User Name VLAD\Administrator
Time Zone E. Europe Daylight Time
Total Physical Memory 256,00 MB
Available Physical Memory 76,62 MB
Total Virtual Memory 874,16 MB
Available Virtual Memory 548,54 MB
Page File Space 618,67 MB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

Display:
Name NVIDIA Vanta
PNP Device ID PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_002C&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_15\4&9FD38EF&0&0008
Adapter Type Vanta, NVIDIA compatible
Adapter Description NVIDIA Vanta
Adapter RAM 16,00 MB (16.777.216 bytes)
Installed Drivers nv4.sys
Driver Version 5.01.2001.1240
INF File nv4.inf (nv section)
Color Planes 1
Color Table Entries 4294967296
Resolution 1024 x 768 x 85 hertz
Bits/Pixel 32
Memory Address 0xD0000000-0xD1FFFFFF
Memory Address 0xD2000000-0xD3FFFFFF
IRQ Channel IRQ 11
I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB
I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xCFFFF
Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\nv4.sys (5.01.2001.1240 (ReleasedBinaries.010717-0141) , 714,50 KB (731.648 bytes), 12-oct.-2001 17:26)


Vlad

 

[camieabz]

Accelerated or Advanced Graphics Port.

It utilises your main memory for graphical texturing. The value you set = the maximum amount it can use. The more main memory used for texturing allows the graphical memory to get on with the graphics rendering.

The usual default is 64Mb and it should be fine. Some people suggest 128Mb for better performance, some (like me) prefer to leave it at 64Mb. It depends on your gfx card and your amount of main memory.From what I see of your system, you may be ble to allocate 128Mb. Try it to see what happens. I would otherwise leave it at 64Mb and look elsewhere for the solution.

<b><font color=blue>~scribble~</font color=blue></b>

 

[Guest]

maybe he have a problem with this rendering,
and by cutting the aperture size, its preventing from happen ?
i would try to change the Memory dimms,
just for the check