AGP Aperture Size.... The Truth is Out There

[Spritzup]

Just a quick question... what should your AGP aperture size be set to. I've browsed quite a few pages now, and the answers range from 64-256, or half you available memory, etc. Whenever somebody answers this question though, they never say why it should be set at a certain value. So if you could give me an answer, and an explanation, that would be great.

Thanks Guys/Gals

[Howard]

Doesn't make a whole lot of difference what you set it to tbh. Lol.

[[GSV]Trig]

I set mine to double the GFX card RAM.

[thelonecrouton]

I set mine to double the GFX card RAM.

Yep.

[Spritzup]

Any particular reason, or just cuz it seems like a nice number?

[SilentDeath]

agp aperature lets your gfx card use up system ram/virtual mem much like a page file does for normal mem. good for when running in uber res with 6xaa and 16xaf.
its sorta pointless though as normal mem is slow adn with a 128mb card you are unlikely to ever need it. that said, there is not really any reson why you shouldnt have it high

[dgr]

given that cards with 256mb of RAM do not better than those with 128mb of RAM, i'm inclined to leave mine at 64mb....

dgr

[floppybootstomp]

I'd always believed it should be set at half the card RAM. Never did understand why though.

And, from my experience, it really doesn't make a whole lot of difference.

[MAS]

I always got told it was half your system RAM. Not sure why, I havent noticed any difference between 64mb and 256b.

[Nox]

no difference it seems - if it did everyone would be shouting about it! only reason i have mine set to 128mb is I read years ago it should be set to 'the number under the one which is half your system ram' (basically 1/4 the ram you have) and it kinda stuck.

Nox

[Spritzup]

I don't know if anybody will care about this, but I just ran a test using 3dmark2003. The only thing I change was the AGP aperture size. This is what I got:

64 meg= 5607
128 meg= 5605
256 meg= 5595
512 meg= 5626

Now in my case, 512 is 1/2 my ram. I'd be curious to see somebody do the same thing, but who only has 512 of ram. See if the pattern holds, or if 256 becomes the sweet spot for you.

As a side thought, I wonder if it would allow you to clock higher putting your aperture size lower.... hmmm

[G4Z]

I have allways used half the system RAM, I am sure that is the correct setting, cant remember who told me or how I know...

[Stubzz]

Don't ATI recoemnd that you have it set to either 64 or 128mb, or am i just dreaming.

Either way it doesn't make any difference

[SilentDeath]

31 3d marks is not even worth the effort of runnign 3dm imo.
only 9700 and faster cards are really fast enuf to use more than 128mb of mem anyway. aperature is just a limit not a fixed allocation - 3dm2k3 is NOT a good test as it will never need any aperature memory unless its ran in high settings like 1600*1200 w. 6xaa and 16xaf.
games like il2 with perfect land quality (opengl only) would be a better test. afaik though there is no good way to benchmark with it exept having fraps open as you play

the main reson agp aperature isnt noticable for you is - system ram has a bandwidth of about 3.2gb/s in most pcs, and the agp bus is also lot less than this, it is too slow to help. ther are no good benchmarks for testing large amounts of gfx mem. imo leave it at either 1x or 2x the amount of gfx mem you have

[Class--]

i have always set it to 128mb after doing some 3dmark tests. The trouble is i did the test way back when 3dmark2001 wasn't even out. I just kinda stuck to it and never thought much of it. There is a deffo a gain to be had if u select the correct setting but as shown above its a very small gain

Class

[DaftpuNk]

Just 128MB will do, all these plans of theories and that behind it are a waste of time. Those benchmark results are probably just the usual up-and-downs of everyone's favourite random number generator?