[H-GEN] question

[Hilton Travis]

[ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and
Unix-related topics. ]

Hi Frank,

> > > How is agp with Linux ? or Linux with agp
> > > I am about to put it on a P2 machine with a 8 meg s3
> > > AGP card and a PCI  sound card.
> > > that's right how would it go with PCI sound also
> >
> > AGP is a marketing gimmick.
>
> I would not necessarily agree with this. I have run an
> S3 Trio PCI card and replaced it on exactly the same
> board and setup with an S3 Trio 3D AGP and the AGP was
> much faster. The video bus on AGP should be much faster
> than the PCI bus. Although, test results I have seen on
> earlier AGP cards were pretty ordinary but I think the
> later ones are much faster. I think the PCI bus runs at
> bus speed but AGP can run at higher speeds 133 MHz is
> common and, presumably the 4X AGP runs at 266 Mhz?

I agree with you in so far that an AGP S3 Trio AGP card is noticeably faster
than an S3 Trio PCI card in the same system (Win98 or Linux).  The earlier
AGP cards were generally Trident cards.  A Trident card is usually slower
than any other card you can lay your hands on - they seem good at creating
the world's slowest video cards!

As far as bus speeds go, you're a bit off the mark.  Here goes...
CPU Speed	FSB Speed	Multiplier	PCI Speed	AGP Speed
   60		   60		  1.0X	  30		Not likely!
   66		   66		  1.0X	  33		Hahaha
   90		   60		  1.5X	  30		Nope
  100		   66		  1.5X	  33		Don't think so
  120		   60		  2.0X	  30		Really, now!
  133		   66		  2.0X	  33		Ho hum
  150		   60		  2.5X	  30		Nope
  166		   66		  2.5X	  33		Still not
  200		   66		  3.0X	  33		OK, maybe now we see one
  233		   66		  3.5X	  33		1X = 33MHz, 2X = 66MHz
  266		   66		  4.0X	  33		1X = 33MHz, 2X = 66MHz
  300		   66		  4.5X	  33		1X = 33MHz, 2X = 66MHz, 4X = 133MHz
  333		   66		  5.0X	  33		1X = 33MHz, 2X = 66MHz, 4X = 133MHz
  366		   66		  5.5X	  33		1X = 33MHz, 2X = 66MHz, 4X = 133MHz
  400		   66		  6.0X	  33		1X = 33MHz, 2X = 66MHz, 4X = 133MHz
  400		  100		  4.0X	  33		1X = 33MHz, 2X = 66MHz, 4X = 133MHz
  433		   66		  6.5X	  33		1X = 33MHz, 2X = 66MHz, 4X = 133MHz
  450		  100		  4.5X	  33		1X = 33MHz, 2X = 66MHz, 4X = 133MHz
  466		   66		  7.0X	  33		1X = 33MHz, 2X = 66MHz, 4X = 133MHz
  500		   66		  7.5X	  33		1X = 33MHz, 2X = 66MHz, 4X = 133MHz
  500		  100		  5.0X	  33		1X = 33MHz, 2X = 66MHz, 4X = 133MHz
  533		   66		  8.0X	  33		1X = 33MHz, 2X = 66MHz, 4X = 133MHz
  550		  100		  5.5X	  33		1X = 33MHz, 2X = 66MHz, 4X = 133MHz
  566		   66		  8.5X	  33		1X = 33MHz, 2X = 66MHz, 4X = 133MHz
  600		   66		  9.0X	  33		1X = 33MHz, 2X = 66MHz, 4X = 133MHz
  600		  100		  6.0X	  33		1X = 33MHz, 2X = 66MHz, 4X = 133MHz
  600		  133		  4.5X	  33		1X = 33MHz, 2X = 66MHz, 4X = 133MHz
  650		  100		  6.5X	  33		1X = 33MHz, 2X = 66MHz, 4X = 133MHz
  667		  133		  5.0X	  33		1X = 33MHz, 2X = 66MHz, 4X = 133MHz
  700		  100		  7.0X	  33		1X = 33MHz, 2X = 66MHz, 4X = 133MHz
  733		  133		  5.5X	  33		1X = 33MHz, 2X = 66MHz, 4X = 133MHz
  750		  100		  7.5X	  33		1X = 33MHz, 2X = 66MHz, 4X = 133MHz
  766		  133		  5.75X	  33		1X = 33MHz, 2X = 66MHz, 4X = 133MHz
  800		  100		  8.0X	  33		1X = 33MHz, 2X = 66MHz, 4X = 133MHz
  800		  133		  6.0X	  33		1X = 33MHz, 2X = 66MHz, 4X = 133MHz

See, I have waaaaaaayy too much time on my hands!!!

The above figures are for Intel processors only, and I don't know if the
766MHz processor will eventuate - I doubt it, they'll prolly jump straight
to 800MHz.

This table will prolly come in handy for a few people, and for a few
reasons.  Anyway, 1X AGP is 33MHz, just like PCI.  2X is 66MHz, and 4X is
133MHz - same as the new bus speed of Intel's new processors - what a
coincidence!  :-)

> If the Linux kernel has support for the
> > chipset in question, it'll work with AGP or PCI
> > regardless.  The s3's typically do NOT work
> > regardless of what type of card they are. ;)
>
> I presume Stephen is talking about X Windows support.
> I have been using S3 PCI cards for years and think they
> are great.  I am using a 16 Mb Riva TNT card at present
> which performs really well. The S3 chip on the AGP card
> is listed as supported (86c365, although there are a
> few variations on this) but I have not tried one of
> these with X.

I don't run X on my Linux box that often, but the S3 Trio 64 that's in there
seems to work quite well, if a little slow - only 32MB system RAM and 2MB on
the card!  When I had a Banshee in a system and had Linux on it, it was
quite snappy - nice!!!

> > PCI sound is the same -- depends on the type of chipset.
>
> Depends whether the chipset is supported in the sound
> software. I have run PCI sound cards quite OK. Generally,
> sound is not an easy thing to handle in Linux. It seems
> to be handled differently in different distros (eg some
> distros have it disabled by default in the kernel) but
> most ppl I see reporting indicate that if you fork out
> for the commercial OSS package there is tremendous
> support for nearly everything.

I'm probably about to install a sound card in my Linux server here.  It's
most likely to be a PCI card, so this thread interests me.

BTW, anyone know why my Squid 2.2-Stable5 doesn't allow me access when I use
the same .conf file that was working fine in 2.2-Stable4?  Help wanted!

Regards,
Hilton


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