Some info for a novice Socket 7/K6er

Discussion relating to Socket 7 hardware.
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chrono86
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Some info for a novice Socket 7/K6er

Post by chrono86 »

Hi!

I've been running an MVP3 system with a k6-2 550Mhz cpu, 512MB pc100 ram and Geforce 2 MX400 AGP card. I've noticed very poor performance under 3D games such as Quake3(31fps avg. under Demo four) or Unreal Tournament(15-29 avg fps). I've always been curious for this poor performance since my P3 733Mhz runs almost twice as fast. At first i thought this was just because the Socket 7 platform was inferior to the newer chipsets and archictecture of the P3 systems. After researching i've found out that i was mostly wrong. I'm replacing the 550 K6-2 with a 450 (hopefully going to OC to 600) K6-III+ in hopes of getting better performance out of this system but i was curious what tweaks i could do to get this system to run at full potential. Some questions i have are:

* Would some of this poor performance have anything to do with having more than 128MB of ram installed?

* If so, does having a plus processor fix this problem?

* I have a Soyo 5EMA+ v1.1, what bios settings should i have for the best performance? (almost all the tweak guides i've looked at always contradict each other)

* Also, what bios tweaking programs are the best for the k6+ platform? there are so many and i'm so ignorant.

* If there are any other tips, i would GREATLY appreciate them!

thanks to everyone in advance, i'm really looking for advice from people with experience and i've finally found a place where i can get it.
-rian
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blue
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Post by blue »

I have heard that some of the new dets preform really poor with socket7 motherboards, I'm sure some one on this forum remembers the good versons to use.
also you have to remember, the pentium 3 is always going to be faster not only does it have a higher clock it also has onboard L2 cache something your k6 is lacking plus there is always the fpu of the k6 witch is not much of a gameing beast.
p3 1ghz laptop
geforce2 go
256mb ram
feizex
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Post by feizex »

The figures you mention are about right for a K6-2.


If you get a K6-III or a 2+ then you will see better results but there's no point comparing them to a PIII 733 or an athlon 600 for that matter.
feizex
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Post by feizex »

BTW 7.97's were always good. ( not in 3dmark scores, but in games)
chrono86
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Post by chrono86 »

yeah, i heard the latest detonators were terrible for the mvp3, with the agp bus and everything. i guess that'll be the first thing i do once i install the k6-iii+. Is it true that ACZs give you less hell when overclocking than ACRs? or is that just a rumor?
-rian
jwhickman
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K6-X+

Post by jwhickman »

1. I presume you have the latest BIOS; http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/J.Steunebri ... s.htm#bios shows one w/ '+' cpu support
2. A K6-3 can cache 1GB of memory (k6-2+ does 512; think I remember this correctly); depending on your onboard L2, your k6-2 can may only be able to cache 1/2 your current memory.
3. The ACZ/ACR designation; should be info on this site for that somewhere, but the last letter is the case temp rating; Z is the highest, ie - it can get hotter and thus generally take more oc'ing.
4. I would use CTU or k6speed to verify that Write Allocation (enabled in BIOS) is actually enabled and that there is no 15-16M memory hole; which it should be with the above latest bios.
5. If you have OC'ing problems; disable your onboard L2 cache (my Asus P5A-B would not even run a 105fsb with it enabled. I run a K6-2+ 450 at 518 (115*4.5). Could never run anything above 550 at any fsb though. I did however build a K6-2 450 on my sis' comp (another p5a-b) that runs 115 fine with the onboard L2; so maybe its an AladdinV prob with the cpu's L2 vs. the L3.
6. Try running your Vcore at its min (2.0V, or maybe a little lower) before you start raising it for OC'ing.
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jonwest
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Detonator 12.90

Post by jonwest »

That's the best NVidia driver for MVP3, give that one a try and see if things don't improve for you.
chrono86
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Post by chrono86 »

wow thanks for the info! i really appreciate it. I looked through old posts and i found a link to this page http://www.reactorcritical.com but they don't have the 7.97s there, only the 7.78 and some other ones. Are the 7.97 detonators that good? or am i fine? and if not does anyone know of another place to find them? I'm glad about that ACZ thing, because that's the one i purchased, hopefully i'll be able to overclock successfully and happily. thanks!
-rian
georgep1
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Re: MVP3 system

Post by georgep1 »

Other than for some DX8 games, drivers from 7.58 to 12.90 will give the best performance. I haven't really tried anything over 40.xx in my MVP3 system but everything from 14.xx up through the 30s gave worse performance than 12.90 in most games.

You can find a whole bunch of drivers at www.3dchipset.com or www.guru3d.com

The + chip will definitely help you out with memory performance as exceeding the cacheable limit of your motherboard with a K6-2 results in a steep penalty in games.

Let us know how it goes.
chrono86
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Post by chrono86 »

So GREAT NEWS! My system so far runs very stable with my 450 k6-iii+ at 550 with it's 2.0V Core (very good news). At 600 it just randomly crashes when i run NetBSD, and Windows ME won't load all the way (it "freezes" (mouse still moves) at the desktop before showing the taskbar and icons). Would it be wise to up the Core Voltage to 2.1V just to see if it'll run stable then? (i'm a super novice). The heatsink appears to be cool at both 550 and 600 (not too hot, not too cold so i'm sure i put the thermal compound on well, i'm using an ALPHA PAL6035 heatsink by the way).

Now the real bad news. When i downgrade my dets to 7.97 or 10.80 quake 3 goes SUPER ULTRA SLOW. so slow, even in the start screen (itss like .25 frames per second maybe lower) i went to dxdiag and none of the display tests even work (3d or otherwise). So i did a systerm restore and everything works perfectly with the dets i had before (43.xx) (i get 10-20 more fps on quake 3 in the demo, which is a lot better!!). again, I'm using Windows ME. Does anyone know why when i downgrade my dets i'm getting this terrible behavior??

Also i'm using CTU to enable write allocation, but i have absolutely no clue what the number to the right of it is supposed to mean, what should i set it to? Also i have the latest bios but i can't find enable write allocation anywhere, i'm assuming this doesn't matter since i'm using CTU but does anyone know any better? it wasn't enabled when i first started CTU. Also what is write combining and how would i use it for the k6-3? thanks a lot again!
-rian
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Jonnywizard
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Post by Jonnywizard »

I really don't have much to help you out in any way other than to say GREAT choice on the heat sink. I used that heat sink on all of my K6+ systems.

AWESOME cooling IMHO. You might want to pick up MotherBoard Monitor to keep an eye on your temps.

http://mbm.livewiredev.com/
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