what is Graphics Apperture?

[croco]

Hello,

What is Graphics apperture in BIOS and what value should I put in (default is 64MB)? I have an AGP card with 128MB. Will it make a difference in performance if I put 128MB for the graphics apperture?

Thank you

 

[confoundicator]

It's the amount of system memory that can be used by your video card. The short answer is <b>yes</b> you might see a small performance gain, and there are no negative side effects, so you might as well set it to 128MB (assuming you have 256MB or more system RAM, your system specs would have helped).

 

[croco]

Thanks a lot

 

[TKS]

The aperture size adetermines the maximum amount of system RAM that can be allocated to the graphics card for texture storage. Many people recommend the AGP aperture size should be half of the amount of RAM your system has. I think that is bullcrap because the same people try and tell you that your pagefile should be 1/4 the size of your total RAM. They're inversely proportional...in otherwords, as one gets bigger, the other gets smaller. In this case, your graphics card is large at 128MB RAM. So you should set your aperture a bit smaller than that. Exactly what you should set it to is up for debate...but I'd try around 64MB (I set mine there for a 128MB card). Note that increasing this number does NOT affect your graphics card performance. Nor does reducing this number give your system RAM a performance boost. Hope this helps...


<font color=red>To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer.</font color=red>
<font color=green>Farmers' Almanac, 1978</font color=green>

TKS

 

[cleeve]

Ditto, TKS hit the nail on the head.

Cofoundicator is off on this one.

------------------
Radeon 9500 w/256 bit memory bus @ 367/310
AMD AthlonXP 2000+
3dMark03: 3439

 

[confoundicator]

I stand corrected. I hope he comes back for more info. Rather than try to give a simplified answer I should have just posted <A HREF="http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?location=1" target="_new">this</A>.

I still say that changing it from 64 to 128 won't hurt anything (increasing AGP aperture size does <b>not</b> decrease the amount of system RAM available). Am I wrong here too?

<A HREF="http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?location=1" target="_new">http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?location=1</A>

 

[Crashman]

On EVERY system I've tried, I've found optimal results with AGP aperature set at 128MB.

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

 

[Nights_L]

Are you saying it would increase performance? graphics or system?

 

[Crashman]

It can increase system performance in games...some game apps are set up to use up to 128MB of it. The most notable is the benchmark 3D-Mark 2001.

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>