AGP aperture size

[Monkus]

I wonder if someone could please explain this to me.

I've a recurring problem with my 9600 Pro running with NF7-S / Athlon 3200XP+ Barton / 512MB DDR, in that the card randomly crashes when being used. I've checked my BIOS settings to enable 8x AGP and FastWrites, yet I don't understand what the Aperature Size is.

If I increase my AS, or decrease it, what am I doing to the card's functionality?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Cheator]

If Fastwrites does not help, disable it. The issue with the 9600s and fastwrites I belive was distorted video. Infact turn it off and check for stability again.

Aperature size, if I am not mistaken, is the maximum amount of ram alocatable to the video card processing stuff like textures. It doesn't have much of a basis on performance, but my rule of thumb is either the same amount of vram you have or double. In your case, I would go same amount.

 

[Jacobman]

Ive always know it to be the more vram you have the less you need for an aperature size. Like if you have a 256meg video card then you should be fine with like 64 or 42.

 

[mruno]

here is some more info

 

[Monkus]

Thank you everyone, you've been most helpful. I had a play turning teh size up and down - the games began stuttering with a higher size, so I turned it down. The Video RAM is more than capable I hope!

FastWrites are turned off and no crashes so far. And yes, the whole system is ever so slightly over-clocked.

 

[Cheator]

No, you need the AAS on, you can't really perform that well with out it. But since you have so little ram, I reckon about 64-128 meg is good for you.

Fastwrites often create instability unless you have a decently new system. Leave it off and see if it freezes.

 

[Okagi]

Thanks for the links, I've also always wondered what that was. www.Answers.com is also a great site to find stuff like this, along with Wiki, of course. There isn't a direct listing for AGP Aperture at answers, though.