V5 6000 overclocking software fix needed

[hanksemenec]

Currently both VControl and VooDoo5 Overclocker set the frequency only on the first VSA100. I checked this with SoftIce.

So if you are trying to overclock, the card will still run rest of the chips at factory settings. You wil see only a marginal improvement in speed, since the card will run as fast as it's slowest VSA100.

Let me know if anyone has time to look at this.

Hank

[NitroX infinity]

This sounds like music to my ears and produces a big grin on my face

Does this also apply to the V5 5500?

[Rolo01]

This explains perfectly why I didnt get any improvement when overclocking the 6000. And I thought she still isnt maxed out on a P4-2800...

[Amigamerlin]

Originally posted by hanksemenec

Currently both VControl and VooDoo5 Overclocker set the frequency only on the first VSA100. I checked this with SoftIce.

So if you are trying to overclock, the card will still run rest of the chips at factory settings. You wil see only a marginal improvement in speed, since the card will run as fast as it's slowest VSA100.

Let me know if anyone has time to look at this.

Hank

Ciao Hank
Vcontrol come from koolsmoky and I think he can fix it.
I'll FWD this request to him and obviously I'll keep you informed about.

Ciao

[amp_man]

Two questions:

Does this also apply to the V5 5500/5000

Is this also the case with adjusting the registry value (grxclk or some such thing)?

[beta]

This does apply to Voodoo5, changing tghe value of "Grxclock" only OC's one of the VSA-100's, this makes a difference to FSAA performance but under normal operation does not effect framerate.  In order to OC a Voodoo5 you need to hack the BIOS "pllCtrl1" register and reflash to give the desired core/memory clock speed for both VSA-100's.  This does work.

-Edit: After further testing I'm convinced that flashing the BIOS won't do it either.  The second VSA-100 and it's 32MB of SDRAM (The SLI slave) doesn't seem to have it's speed set by the firmware or software, it seems to locked at 166MHz, which is obviously the stock hardware clock output.  The BIOS must be solely for the SLI master chip.  SLI must be enabled in software, (drivers).  In other words when you're booting up, in safe mode, DOS etc, SLI is not functioning.

[raffa]

interesting topic!

this explains perfectly why a soft overclock doesnt show up in fillrate gain like expected, while a bios overclock does.

beta, i can't confirm the edit part of your message. i have the bios modded to 178 mhz, that gives me a multitexturing fillrate of 630 mTexels in 3dmark2000. i "underclocked" back to stock 166mhz with vcontrol and got 585 mTexels.
take this as 100% and do a quick calculation, voila 108% of clock gives 108% fillrate.
if i overclock via vcontrol up to 190mhz i get 635mTexels, same as with everything else higher or equal than 181mhz, maybe my bios settings are 181mhz, dont remember excactly.

a thought: why would they use an extra PLL for the secondary VSA100 and the other half of ram? i see no reason to do so.


edit: checked my bios, it clocks to 178,9mhz so i dont know why the fillrate improves till 181mhz

[beta]

this explains perfectly why a soft overclock doesnt show up in fillrate gain like expected, while a bios overclock does.

Thats sort of what I though initially...

beta, i can't confirm the edit part of your message. i have the bios modded to 178 mhz, that gives me a multitexturing fillrate of 630 mTexels in 3dmark2000. i "underclocked" back to stock 166mhz with vcontrol and got 585 mTexels.
take this as 100% and do a quick calculation, voila 108% of clock gives 108% fillrate.
if i overclock via vcontrol up to 190mhz i get 635mTexels, same as with everything else higher or equal than 181mhz, maybe my bios settings are 181mhz, dont remember excactly.

Have you tried Quake3 benchmarking?  See if you get the same sort of result.  Direct3D is a different subsystem and SLI AA is handled differently when using this API.

a thought: why would they use an extra PLL for the secondary VSA100 and the other half of ram? i see no reason to do so.

Due to it being effectively another "card" rendering alternate scanlines, this device and it's memory is only actually used when Direct3D or Glide are initialised the rest of the time it is idle.

edit: checked my bios, it clocks to 178,9mhz so i dont know why the fillrate improves till 181mhz

eh? it's late...

-Edit: wow it must have been...

Anyway with a pllCtrl1 of aprox 182.8 the card shows a definate SLI mode fps gain, at 182.5: lower fps than at 166??!

[koolsmoky]

I've already sent a vsa100 oc tool to Hank. Sit tight and wait for the results.

-KoolSmoky

[cosworth6k]

Originally posted by koolsmoky

I've already sent a vsa100 oc tool to Hank. Sit tight and wait for the results.

-KoolSmoky

Image Insert:

732 Bytes

[koolsmoky]

Glide has kindly put the VSA100 OC tool up for downloads.
Grab it here: https://www.3dfxzone.it/news/reader.php?objid=261
Besure to read the docs before using it.

Thanks for bringing this to light Hank!

Enjoy!
KoolSmoky

[raffa]

that was fast, thx koolsmoky!

tool is working fine on my 5500

[hanksemenec]

Wow,

Thank you very much. The tool works like a charm. All 4 chips on V5 6k are getting programmed .

Thank You,

Hank

[beta]

Originally posted by koolsmoky

I've already sent a vsa100 oc tool to Hank. Sit tight and wait for the results.

-KoolSmoky

I, and quite a few other posting in this topic, Would be interested to know how this was achieved?  Unrevealing binaries disclose nothing of course...

[lecram25]

Like you're gonna get the source, lol