hey guys,what do you set your aperture size to? I mean latest games like GRAW and quake 4 require a lot of texture space(512 etc.). BTW, i got 1gig of ddr ram and a 256mb 7800gs.i have option in bios up to 512mb. thanks in advance for any recommendations! update:i discovered that a 256mb or 512mb setting actually causes level loading problems in FEAR and COD2 , so this leaves me with 128...
I used 64 and 128 MB values but i didnt notice any difference. I think 128 is a safe bet. Doesnt take large amount from system mem and in the same time gives a good size for the GFX card if need it.
It doesnt take up system memory, but rather allocates additional addresses for textures if and how much needed only.
I played around with aperture size and found if I set it below 256 I get studder and 10 second freezes in newer games so I leave it at 256 or higher.
'AGP aperture size defines how much system memory the AGP controller is allowed to use for texture maps.' - from some website, so by setting this value you reserve RAM, NOT VRAM
BFG recommends either 64 or 128Mb for the 7800 GS OC so I assume this would apply to other 7800 GS's as well. For what it's worth, I experimented with this and never noticed any change in performance whatsoever regardless of the aperture size I set, bet it 32 or 512.
I don't think this will improve FPS but rather the smoothness of game play...notice any difference? I currently have it set at 128. Previously I had it at 32 and 64 and when I played games taht required autosave, the autosave would be seem quicker and smoother when at 128 rather than 32 or 64. 128 and 256 I did not notice any difference. This only happened with some games as it did nothing for others. So :S
thanks for all the replies!! well, i guess my board's gart table driver(the memory addresses allocated) also known as agp gart driver (i got sis 741 gx-m) doesnt operate correctly when set to 256 or higher aperture size because of the level loading problems in COD2-it shouts about some directx error.so i stay with 128 for now,i hope i dont experience the stuttering mentioned above,BTW it could be your soundcard driver related!
what i usually do is set it to half of your gfx cards ram, so a 512mb card would use 256, 128 would use 64 etc. most of the time it doesnt really make a difference what you have it set to, but some games need extra space for textures so allocating that space helps decrease stuttering and slowdowns(random low fps).
no, it has nothing to do with the video cards ram, and setting it to half is not recommended for instance, setting it to64 on a 128mb card would cause texture overflow when you set games to high quality. the best method is to always have it at atleast 1/4 of the available system memory. this will resolve texture loading lag due to the system having an increased available texture cache if its required
never said it has to do with the video cards ram, thats just my rule, based on my own experiences. setting it to 1/4 of your system ram is pointless for 2 gigs of ram(512) as it would not help any and most likely make it slower, as system ram would be taken from the processor(bf2 for instance). Your card has to be fast enough to process the large textures, and needs ram to store them. 128mb cards most likely wont be able to run the high textures smoothly, regardless of how much ram is available to it. some cards like a 7900gt with 256mb could use 256mb of system ram for the extra textures as it can process them. regardless of what rule/method/whatever you want to use, most people will find it best to have it set at 128 or 256.
