So, this newsgroup finally died

"Kyle" <> wrote in message
news:. ..
> "Stampir" <> wrote in message
> news:BksJj.197$...
> | "Alex Zorrilla" <> wrote in message
> | news:...
> | > Hey, Stampir.
> | >
> | > Unfortunately, a Radeon X850XT AGP card will not work, as that is
> an AGP
> | > 3.0 card (1.5V/0.8V, 4x/8x speeds), and the FIC VA-503+ is an AGP
> 1.0
> | > motherboard (3.3V only, 1x/2x speeds). In fact, you could not
> even insert
> | > the X850XT into the VA-503+ even if you wanted to, since the AGP
> slots
> | > have keys in different locations (because of the voltage
> differences).
> | >
> | > If you happen to have any other ATI cards laying about your house,
> I think
> | > any Radeon card will probably do as long as it fits (Radeon 9100
> and
> | > below, I believe). In fact, I think ATI also had decent DVD
> hardware
> | > support as far as the ATI Rage 128, if you happen to find one of
> those
> | > laying about.
> | >
> | > Basically, anything with "iDCT" support in this table:
> | >
> http://www.cyberlink.com/english/pro..._comp_list.jsp
> | >
> |
> | Interesting, the documents I've read suggest that all the S3 Savage
> | vid-cards had
> | iDCT and motion compensation, obviously POwerDVD 4.0 is using it
> because
> | it's so
> | much smoother than my GeForce 2/GTS (which only has motion
> compensation).
> | This
> | despite the fact my S3 Savage4 is only running at 162Mhz core,
> 180Mhz memory
> | and
> | the memory is regular SDRAM, while my GeForce 2/GTS was running at
> 225Mhz
> | core/180Mhz
> | memory (360Mhz DDR). BOth cards have 32MB of local video memory.
> |
> | Of course my motherboard chipset (MVP3) isn't indicated as supported
> either.
> |
> |
> | > --Alex
> | >
> |
> | Thanks ALex. Strangely enough, I had an ancient S3 Savage4 Pro AGP
> card
> | laying around and gave it a try. Even though the card was a dog for
> gaming
> | it
> | works MUCH better for DVD video playback. The difference is amazing,
> even
> | in PowerDVD. Unfortunately, even w/this card I still get the
> occasional
> | stutter.
> |
> | I've had to add so many fans to this system that it's now as loud as
> my
> | gaming
> | rig, I think it's time to give up on this project.
> |
> | What I wonder, and maybe Kyle B. or you can answer this question, is
> WHY
> | the memory bandwidth is so unbeleivably bad on my VA503+. I'm
> running
> | a single stick of 256MB of SDRAM at 124Mhz and the lowest latencies
> and
> | I only get 192MB/sec. PC66 is supposed to get something like 528MB/s
> | and I can't even get HALF that!
> |
> |
>
> Of all my SS7 mobos, the 503+ achieved the best memory scores, and
> your 192MB/sec is as good as it gets. Keep in mind that theoretical
> and actual performance are typically very different values. My
> recollection is that my best scores were in the 170-180 range on a
> 503+, my Soyo 5ehm got about 160 or so. The difference is explained
> by the aggressive memory parameter setup that the 503+ BIOS uses (I
> used Oda's WPCREDIT way back when to confirm the PCI register
> differences between the 503+ and the 5ehm boards). Could be the
> chipset is the limiting factor in this situation.
> --
> Best regards,
> Kyle
>

Thanks Kyle. It's just unreal though. An 8 byte wide bus running at 124Mhz
and
can only acheive 191MB/s!

I managed to get my K62550 up to 620 (5 * 124Mhz), but it errors out in
Memtest #7 (basically EVERY single quadword fails). The memory bandwidth
actually increased noticeably over 560 when I did this too.

I think a good vid-card w/hardware accelerated video (like Alex suggested)
would
get this system capable of playing back DVD's smoothly, but I've just
noticed that
while my DVD playback is much better w/the S3 Savage4 Pro the audio is
*completely*
screwed up so badly that I can't even make out the dialogue.
AAAAAaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhh.

I am using an ISA Soundblaster AWE64, but I figured the ISA bus was more
than
fast enough to keep up w/stereo, 16-bit sound sampled at 44Khz?

If only I still had some working socket A surplus equipment, but it all got
fried long
ago (the stuff I didn't sell that is).