Help PNY GF3 Ti200 owners!

[maap]

I was messing with the BIOS. I know, it's a no no but I was trying to enable Side Band Addressing using Ray Adams nvidia bios editor. The program works great except SBA is somehow tied to fastwrites. If you don't mess with SBA it's a great little program. When I enabled SBA and found it unstable, I reloaded my original bios that I saved but fastwrites are now gone. I probably didn't save it the right way. The system tells me FW's are no longer supported by the video card hardware which is bull because they were. Even swaped cards between machines and it's definately the card.

If anybody out there owns a PNY GF3 Ti200 could you please download these two programs and send me an untaited copy of the PNY Ti200 bios at maap@erols.com. This will in NO WAY affect your bios. It just mirrors it.

This is the best way and the way I should have backed mine up in the first place is;

Get a copy of NVFLASH.EXE :

link :
http://www.x-bios.3dgames.ru/module...ame=nvflash.zip

and a copy of DOS4GW.exe

link:
http://www.x-bios.3dgames.ru/module...name=dos4gw.zip

Run then from the same directory in in pure dos mode like this (-b is for backup):

dos4gw nvflash -b<filename> i.e. dos4gw nvflash -bpnyti200.rom or what ever you want to call it.


I know there are some PNY GF3 Ti200 owners out there, could you please lend this bonehead a hand. I've learned my lesson. Thanks.........

Oh and for those of you that don't think Fast Writes do anything, my 3dmark 2001 scores dropped from 7860 to 6430 just by having fast writes disabled so tell me it doesn't make a difference.

 

[maap]

Problem resolved.

I emailed the guy who made the pogram "Ray Adams". He modded the program to allow individual resetting of fastwrites in the bios. Emailed me back and posted the new build on his site. Pretty cool and pretty quick. Thanks Ray.

All is well...........

 

[Syn]

I know this is OT but how do you like the PNY GF3 Ti200?I was thinking of picking up this card(cheapest from newegg)and was wondering if you were happy with it.I've never owned and PNY card and was concerned with the quality of the board.Does it o/c well?

 

[maap]

I love it! If you look at my sig, It O/C's to 255/560, can take the mem to 570 but starts to artifact. Heck, that's as high as some O/C'd Ti500 cards. The quality is quite good. It's actually manufactured by MSI for PNY. The PCB says MSI 8851 rev 1.30 on it and the bios reads as Micro Star International (MSI). To make it short, I'm very pleased with cards construction, 2d image quality, O/Cing and 3D performance. It carries a lifetime guarantee, has TV and DVI connectors too. Oh, the O/C to 255/560 is with stock cooling. I added a TT Crystal Orb hoping to push the core to 260 but still locks up at that speed.

As with all cards, if you intend to O/C, it's still the luck of the draw.


Great card!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Xtasy]

I tried this program b4 and wonder wut options do u set to enable fastwrites?

 

[Syn]

Thanks maap,looks like I'll go with the PNY card.

 

[maap]

<< I tried this program b4 and wonder wut options do u set to enable fastwrites? >>



Ray Adams just released a new build yesterday, build 42 which added Fast writes. Here's the link to the Ray Adams NVIDIA BIOS Editor:

Heck, there's a new release today! Just released build 42 and when I went to verify the link it's now build 43.

Downloaded it and what he changed: when he added the fastwrites option yesterday under the "initialization tab" it just said <FW ?> and it was checked (ie disabled). Build 43 now says " FW Disabled" .

NVIDIA BIOS Editor v1.0 RC1 build 43

 

[pgebhard]

It looks like I might get the PNY card too; you sure make it sound great. The only debate I have is whether I should choose Visiontek or PNY...What do you think?

 

[maap]

I hate reccomending cards. I think they're both good. I also like Gainward alot. I have a Gainward GF2 Pro/450 and it's great card. Almost bought the Gainward Ti200 but opted for the PNY instead and I'm not sorry. Just read through the forums and see what Visiontek and other PNY owners have to say. Also check;
HardOCP Video Forum
Sharky's Video Forum
Overclocker.com Video Forum

Good luck, these choices are always tough. My only reccomendation is whatever card you get make sure it has 4ns memory.

 

[pgebhard]

How do I really find out what mine has. I just bought the Xtasy 6564 so I assume it has that fast of memory. I was just wondering.

 

[maap]

I was just searching for reviews on the Xtasy 6564 Ti200. They don't list the memory specs on the Visiontek website.

Here's some reviews for you to read. There are lots of reviews on the Xtasy family and all are favorable, but these are the only ones that I've found that actually quote the mem speed/type. So far, what it looks like is that the 6564 has 5ns memory.

Nvmax Review of the Visiontek Xtasy: GeForce2 ti, GeForce3 ti200 & ti500

Xbit Labs VisionTek Xtasy Family Review

Evil3d Review of the Xtasy 6564

Speedy3d Review of Xtasy 6564

 

[pgebhard]

Doh...5ns...will I notice it? I mean cmon, its only one nanosecond, thats only a billionth of a second. I was also wondering how the gf3 ti 200 compared to the gf3 ti 500 and normal gf 3 and also the gf2 ultra. I know the specs are diff and all that, but does anybody have any of them? I was wondering how the performed in realistic conditions.

EDIT: I have also heard about the GF4, that'll be one heckuva card.

 

[maap]

<< Doh...5ns...will I notice it? I mean cmon, its only one nanosecond, thats only a billionth of a second >>


Yes, quite possibly you will. Theoretically, and I stress again, theoretically, 1ns is a big deal. It will affect how high (in Mhz) your memory can go.

It's an easy formula. To calculate the theoretical limit of your memory divide the ns into 1000, the result will be the Mhz, if it's DDR, multiply it by 2.

example;

5ns memory has a theoretical limit of 400mhz.
1000/5=200 or 200mhz, 200x2 for DDR = 400mhz

4ns memory has a theoretical limit of 500mhz
1000/4=250 or 250mhz, 250x2 for DDR = 500mhz

Now 100Mhz will make a big difference, so 1ns IS a big deal.

Think of Nvidia's specs for a Ti200, 175mhz core and 400mhz memory (5ns). When a manufacturer puts 4ns memory on a Ti200 you should expect to O/C to at least 500mhz, 100Mhz higher then spec.

Theory is a wonderful thing, isn't it? But parctical application is what counts. There are a lot of 5ns memory chips out there that can far exceed the 400Mhz theoretical limt, but it's still highly unlikely they'll get much past 500Mhz if at all, and more likely hit somewhere in the mid 400's. It all depends on the fabrication process and chip yield.

My 4ns memory has a 500mhz limit (theoretically), but I can get it up to 570, yet I've seen other 4ns memory hit the 580-590 range and then others then can't get past 530.