AGP Graphics Cards

How to Install
&
Maintain Your Graphics Card

If you are about to install a new graphics card or you want to give your old card
a spring clean, then this handy guide booklet gives you all the information you
need to get the job done – Safely!
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What is AGP - Accelerated Graphics Port
Today’s computers rely upon graphic intensive applications from ordinary office
desktop software to the gamers 3D power hungry games. All these graphic intensive
programs make demands upon your Graphics card which can be divided up as
follows:

• Digital Video Solutions

• Simple desktop programs
• 3D games

Each of the above applications make different demands upon the graphics card and
therefore you need to choose your card accordingly or keep your present one clean to
prevent over-heating and stop stability problems from occurring.

Part 1 - To help you choose your new card you need to know what questions need
to be answered which relate to the graphics cards performance for each of
the above applications.
Part 2 - How to set up your motherboards BIOS to get optimum performance from
your graphics card.
Part 3 – How to install a new graphics card.
Part 4 - To help you keep your present graphics card from over heating you must
be able to partly dismantle the card to clean it safely.

Part 1. Choosing a new Graphics card

Video editing
For this type of software you need a card that can handle digital video data and
process it on the graphics card itself (sometimes referred to as – processing on-the-
fly). These cards talk about real-time MPEG-2 capture and encoding for DVD
authoring and the like. But in essence, they are capable of taking digital video data
directly from source and convert/process the data and transfer to your hard drive
without your computers CPU been involved. So, if you are into video then look for
something like the Matrox range of graphics cards.

Simple Desktop Software

Almost any cheap AGP card will do for this type of requirement. In fact, I would
suggest that you consider ‘On-Board’ graphics when choosing your motherboard as
this will more than do for this type of requirement.

3D Games
Well, how much do you want to spend? Every new game that comes out today,
make’s new demands upon the graphics card and therefore they quickly become
outdated. So, when choosing your card, trying to future proof your investment is very
difficult. However, all new games can be played on older cards without the new fancy
features such as ‘Transform & Lighting’ etc. The type of cards you need to consider
are:

• nVidia – GeForce range

• ATI – Radeon range

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Both of these chipsets are used by a great many different manufacturers which all
have very similar performances. Whichever type of chipset you choose is very much
down to personal choice as they both offer comparable performances.
So, when you have chosen your new graphics card, I will show you how to install
your new graphics card and check your BIOS settings.

Things to check BEFORE you buy!

NOT all motherboards support the latest AGP graphics cards. You MUST check your
motherboards specification, either in the handbook or in the BIOS. The problem is
with the AGP memory chip voltages and timings. These are as follows:

AGP Specification AGP Signal

Voltage AGP Speeds
1.0 2.0 3.0
X Same as PCI Bus or
3.3V X2
X 3.3V, 1.5V X2. 4X
X 3.3V, 1.5V, 0.8V 2X, 4X, 8X
X 1.5V, 0.8V 4X, 8X

As you can see from the above table, the voltages vary with an increase in the AGP
speed. The slower the speed the higher the voltage.
The AGP port voltages are:

2X – 3.3V
4X – 1.5V
8X – 0.8V

If you check your motherboards handbook you should find what AGP port settings are
available. If you have lost yours, then you can check using your BIOS or try
downloading a new manual from the web. To obtain the information from the BIOS -
switch on your computer and hold down the ‘delete’ key (some computers use other
key configurations) to enter the BIOS. You are looking for

‘Advanced Chipset Features’

Scroll down the menu till you find – AGP 4X or 8X support/Mode

If you can select different speeds up to 4X or 8X here, you will be able to fit one of
the latest AGP graphics cards. If your motherboard only has 4X, then you can still fit
one of the new cards but it will default to the 4X speed which is slower than your
cards.

One note of caution – If your motherboard does not list at least an AGP speed of 4X, you
will not be able to fit on of the latest new graphics cards. In fact, some nearly new
motherboards will have memory timing problems with the very latest graphics cards. It may
be wise to either consider up-grading your motherboard & processor. Checkout the Forums
for your motherboard, if there are any problems for your motherboard/graphics card
combination, you may wish to check the motherboard manufacturers web site to see if you
require an up-dated BIOS file in order to use one of the latest graphics cards.

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Part 2. The BIOS - Terms Used for AGP Settings
AGP Spread Spectrum – Disable
This allows the wave form produced by the AGP port to – Spread, there by reducing
‘EMI – Electromagnetic Interference. This will prevent ‘Eves dropping’ on data sent
to the graphics card – leave set to ‘Disabled’ for best performance, as enabling it will
produce a loss in performance.

Graphics Aperture Size – 64M

This is more than necessary for your card, in fact, you may be better off lowering this
value for the latest cards as the ram you select here is taken from your main system
ram to act as a buffer. It was introduced by Intel in the early day of the AGP port
when graphics cards had limited amounts of on-board ram. Some performance gain
may be achieved by increasing the amount of ram for older graphics cards. Leave at
default setting!

AGP Frequency – Auto

Here you may select frequencies from 50MHz to 100MHz in 1MHz increments. This
is the frequency below or above the normally PCI bus frequency from which the AGP
frequency is derived. It is normally running at the same as the PCI bus of 66MHz –
therefore - Auto is taken as meaning 66MHz. However, changing it may make some
difference to bench-marking results, increasing the frequency may give an increase in
performance. I would recommend leaving it set to – Auto.

AGP VDDQ Voltage - (Voltage between Drain and common for Data Quad-band)
This is the supply voltage to the output buffers of the memory chips on the graphics
card. It is normally set to 1.5 Volts; however, over-clocking your card will make it
less stable and therefore prone to crash. Increasing this voltage helps to stabilise the
cards memory buffers and helps prevent crashing – be careful!

AGP Fast Write – Enabled

This allows your graphics card to ‘access’ memory directly and bypass the main
memory. It does control how the cards memory is written to by the motherboards
Chip-Sets (the North Bridge chip). In some unusual cases, it has been known to affect
some PCI devices when enabled. If you have PCI devices which start behaving
strangely – then you could try disabling this feature to see if it is the cause of your
problem.

AGP Mode – 2X, 4X, 8X

You will be able to select which AGP speed you require for your card here. Graphics
cards designed to run at 8X speed will NOT work on motherboards designed for AGP
speeds of 2X.

AGP 8X Support – Enabled

Most new motherboards will have this option. If you are fitting one of the latest
graphics cards which has AGP 8X, then you must set to ‘Enable’ to get the best from
the new card, otherwise, leave to ‘Disabled’ for older cards which do not have the
AGP 8X feature.

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V-Link – [2.5V]
This controls the data link between the north bridge and south bridge controls. There
may be some trade-off in increasing this voltage to help when over clocking your cpu.
However, this will not help if you have stability problems even before you begin to
over-clock your system. Leave at the default setting – 2.5V.

AI Overclocking – [Manual]
The default setting of standard does not always give a stable system. Setting this to
[Manual] forces the system to accept the default settings without overclocking your
system.

AGP 3.0 Calibration Cycle – Enabled

The default setting for your system is (disabled – allows the system to boot using an
older Ver. Graphics card). If you are absolutely sure you have the latest graphics card
–V 3.0 - then this should be ‘Enabled’. This lets the system use the full potential of
the latest AGP Version 3.0 standard. Give better system stability for the latest
graphics cards.

DBI Output for AGP Trans – [Enabled]

‘Dynamic Bus Inversion’ – this is again a feature of the latest AGP Ver. 3.0
specification. This must be ‘Enabled’ when using the latest graphics cards for system
stability. Remember though, if you are not sure if you have the latest graphics card
fitted to your system could result in the system failing to boot. Be careful!

Search for MDA resources – [Yes]

This is a bit of a problem as not everyone is aware of what this actually means. It use
to mean ‘Monochrome Display Adapter’ in the early days of computing. However, It
is more than likely to mean ‘Multiple Display Adapters’. For best system stability –
leave at the default setting.

VLink 8X Support – [Enabled]

This must be enabled for the latest graphics cards for best performance and stability.

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Part 3. Installing drivers for your new Graphics card
Before you begin to install your new graphics card you MUST uninstall the previous
graphics card drivers. However, if your new card is an ATI model you may need to
check if some motherboard drivers are present for your motherboards chipset prior to
uninstalling your old card. The motherboard drivers which are sometimes left out by
some manufacturers are called any of the following:
ƒ AGP Driver ƒ Chipset Driver
ƒ AGP Miniport ƒ GART Driver
ƒ AGP VXD Driver ƒ VGART

If you continue to install your new graphics card without these motherboard drivers
installed will result in a ‘Blank’ screen after boot-up – which is very difficult to get
out of. What you need to do is make sure the motherboards chipset drivers have been
installed first. If you know for sure they have then you will not have any problems. If
you don’t know if the motherboard drivers have been installed then you MUST install
them now before you proceed any further with the installation of the new ATI
graphics card – nVidia graphics cards are not affected to my knowledge by this
problem.

Step 1 - Uninstall your old graphics card drivers

From ‘My Computer’ select properties

Then ‘Hardware’

From here - navigate to ‘Device Manager’

and scroll down till you find display Adaptors

From here you will be able to select the uninstall option. When complete you will
need to ‘SHUT DOWN’ your computer – DO NOT RESTART. Restarting your
computer will result in the old adaptor to be reinstalled.

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Step 2 – Shut Down your computer
Make sure your computer is ‘Switched OFF’ before you try to remove the old
graphics card. Some motherboards have a LED on-board which – when lit indicates if
power is still ON. It is safer to remove the power cord from the computer to make
sure nothing is still powering the computer such as a ‘UPS’ device (Universal Power
Supply). Installing a new graphics card when the LED is still lit may result in damage
to your motherboard and your graphics card.

Step 3 – Remove the old Graphics card

Make sure you are earthed by touching
the computer case and remove the
screw securing the old card. Carefully
lift the old card from the AGP slot
(coloured brown) which is the one ‘Set
Back’ from the other white PCI slots.

Step 4 – Install the new Graphics card

Locate the brown AGP port and
carefully insert the new Graphics card.
You must be careful NOT to touch the
gold contacts on the edge of the card
as this will lead to corrosion forming
on the surface over time and lead to a
faulty computer months later.

When you are sure that the new card is seated correctly check to see if it is flush with
the brown connector and locked in place either by the sliding lock (push the bar
towards the left) or seeing if the automatic lock has dropped into place. Insert the
screw to secure the card to the computer case. You are now nearly ready to power up
your computer. Some graphics cards require a power lead to be installed at the rear of
the card. The manual may suggest you piggy-back the power connector from the hard
drive. I would advise against this as it has been known to cause power fluctuations
during high 3D graphic intensive games which cause the hard drive to momentarily
corrupt data resulting in the computer crashing. It is better to take the power from a
spare power connecter directly from the power supply.

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Step 5 – Installing the new drivers
Plug your power lead back in and switch on. Hold down the ‘delete’ key to enter the
BIOS and make the following settings:

AGP Mode - 8X or 4X (depends upon what your new card supports)

AGP Fast Write - Enabled
AGP Frequency - Auto
AGP Aperture size - 64M (make it match the amount of memory on the card)
AGP VDDQ Voltage - 1.5V
AGP Spread Spectrum - Disabled
AGP 8X Support - Enabled

When you have done – select ‘Save settings and exit – Yes

Once the computer re-boots you will find that the desk top has defaulted to a much
lower resolution of 600x800 16 bit colours etc and the device manager will display
that a standard VGA display adaptor is in use. You can either use the drivers that
came with the graphics card or you can download the latest drivers from the
manufactures or chipset manufactures web sites. It is a simple matter of following the
on screen instructions to complete the installation of the graphics card. When the
install is complete you will be prompted to ‘Restart’ your computer – select OK.
When all is done you can start to enjoy your new graphics card features.

Part 4. Maintaining Your Old Graphics Card

Have you been plagued by a noisy graphics card fan or experienced several crashes
during a game. Then you may wish to check your graphics card for signs of ‘Dust
Build-up’ in and around the cooling HSF (heat-sink and fan).

Check the cooling fins at both ends

to make sure air can flow freely.

If there is a build-up of dust you

need to remove it to prevent over-
heating which will cause your
computer to crash and ultimately
shorten your graphics cards life. The
problem is – how to get at those fins!

Simple – you need somewhere to work which is flat and can support the card without
bending it which will result in permanent damage. Use either foam backing or a
polystyrene ceiling tile. DO NOT work directly onto a hard surface – the graphics
card has surface mounted components which are easily damaged. The foam or
polystyrene will ‘Support & Cushion’ the card whilst you work.

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Step 1 – Remove the outer cover
Usually there are two small
screws which hold the outer
plate.

These screws are ‘Self-

Tapping’ screws which make
their own threads between the
fins. Loosen one and remove
the other screw. This will allow
you to twist the plate around to
help you get at the fan and the
fins.

A noisy fan is usually a result of the bearing becoming ‘Dry’ with prolonged
exposure to heat. Remove the three small screws which hold the fan in place.

These are also ‘Self-Tapping’ screws – however, to prevent them from loosening
during use, they may be held in place by a special glue called ‘Thread-Lock’ or ‘Nut
Lock’.

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With a good fitting driver you will easily be able to remove the screws. Once you
have the fan out, flip it over to reveal a plastic cover which protects the bearing. Use a
sharp knife to prise the cover partly away from the fan and put 1-to-2 drops of 3-in1
oil onto the bearing. Don’t be tempted to put more oil in as this will ‘Flood’ the fan
assembly.

To clean the HSF (heat sink & fan) use a small brush to clean the fins. It is not
necessary to use any solvents as these may damage the delicate electronic insulating
coating which protects the electronic circuit board.

A cleaning kit is available from:

Maplin Electronics code: PT47B

The kit includes a small vacuum

cleaner which is handy for
hovering out the dust in and
around the whole graphics card.

DO NOT BEND any of these

CAPACITORS – they break off very easily!

To re-assemble your graphics card reverse sequence above, but make sure you secure
the fan screws using ‘Thread Lock’.

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Insert your graphics card back into the AGP slot – note some newer AGP slots have a
locking mechanism which secures the card in place. It may be either a sliding lock
which you push/slide towards the left or it may be a flip-over type which
automatically locks the card in place as you insert the card. Check that the graphics
card is pushed fully home – there should be no gold contacts visible above the AGP
slot.
Make sure the fan is plugged into its socket and if it has a power socket at the rear
edge plug the power lead into the socket.
Boot up the computer when you are satisfied that everything is assembled correctly
BUT ensure you enter the BIOS to check the AGP port settings. This will also
give you time to check that the graphics card cooling fan is working properly.
Failure to check this now could result in booting up the computer with a cooling
fan which is not working – result – DAMAGE! Check it NOW!

When you are satisfied that the fan is working – wait a minute or two to make sure –
check the BIOS AGP settings. Don’t be tempted to make several changes at once.
Better to make one change at a time or start by loading system defaults and start from
there. Run a bench marking tool such as Unreal Tournament and make a note of the
frame rate. Make the next BIOS setting change such as AGP frequency and then run
the test again making notes as you go to see if there are any improvements. Testing
for system crashes will require the game to be played over a long period of time to
check for system stability. Usually, if the computer plays well for up to two hours
without crashing it is a good indication of system stability.

That’s it – you’re all done!

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