3D stuttering on VIA chipset mobos
Ever since Win2K came out, I have noticed stuttering problems in 3D games (e. g. UT, SOF, Counter-Strike) that only afflict Win2K systems with VIA motherboards (Soyo 7VCA, Abit VT6X4, MSI KT7 Pro), but not on systems with Intel BX or 815E mobos or AMD 750 mobos(Abit SE6, Asus CUSL2, Abit BX6r2, FIC SD11).
Ever since Win2K came out, I have noticed stuttering problems in 3D games (e.g. UT, SOF, Counter-Strike) that only afflict Win2K systems with VIA motherboards (Soyo 7VCA, Abit VT6X4, MSI KT7 Pro), but not on systems with Intel BX or 815E mobos or AMD 750 mobos(Abit SE6, Asus CUSL2, Abit BX6r2, FIC SD11). The stuttering, which is worst when a new level/map has just been loaded, does not surface at all when running Win98 or WinME on any of these boards. All systems have fast CPU, fast hard drive, and 128MB RAM. Solutions that I have tried that failed: 1) Switching video cards - Geforce 256, GF2 MX, and Voodoo5 5500 (with too many driver versions to list here) all stutter; 2) Fresh Win2K SP1 installs with various versions of VIA 4in1 drivers - 4.24, 4.25a, 4.26, (even NO 4in1) all stutter; 3) Installation of Microsoft SP2 hotfix for VIA chipset - actually solves a different problem, but still stutters; 4) Installation of MS/AMD LargePageMinimum registry patch - still stutters, but at least 3Dmark2000 works now; 5)Installation of DirectX 8 - still stutters + new problems too; 6) Adjustment of myriad BIOS settings - including AGP4X/2X, AGP aperture 16MB-256MB, fast writes, AGP driving value, memory bank interleaving, VGA palette snoop, video/system BIOS cacheble, memory hole and many others - no effect on stuttering; 7) Enable/disable DMA - no help; 8) Increase swap file size by various amounts on all partitions - no effect.
The ONLY thing I've tried that completely FIXES the problem is moving the hard drive off the VIA on-board controller and on to a seperate PCI controller such as the Promise Ultra100 or Ultra66. This leads me to believe that the Bus Mastering (?) driver for VIA chipset, both what comes with Win2K and VIA's 4in1, is BUGGY and sub-optimal on Windows 2000. Buying a 3rd party HD controller for every VIA system I build is not a convenient option. BTW, I have seen this problem referred to elsewhere, specfically a review of the ABIT VT6X4 on a hardware review site, but the reviewer didn't know what caused the stuttering and didn't care because "Win2K is not a gamer's OS" blah blah blah! Screw that! I have sent emails to various mobo manufacturers and they were not forthcoming with solutions. I suspect that the only way this is going to get fixed is if VIA fixes it (hold breath - not). I am posting this hoping that someone out there knows of this problem and has some miraculous registry patch (or something) they can share!
The ONLY thing I've tried that completely FIXES the problem is moving the hard drive off the VIA on-board controller and on to a seperate PCI controller such as the Promise Ultra100 or Ultra66. This leads me to believe that the Bus Mastering (?) driver for VIA chipset, both what comes with Win2K and VIA's 4in1, is BUGGY and sub-optimal on Windows 2000. Buying a 3rd party HD controller for every VIA system I build is not a convenient option. BTW, I have seen this problem referred to elsewhere, specfically a review of the ABIT VT6X4 on a hardware review site, but the reviewer didn't know what caused the stuttering and didn't care because "Win2K is not a gamer's OS" blah blah blah! Screw that! I have sent emails to various mobo manufacturers and they were not forthcoming with solutions. I suspect that the only way this is going to get fixed is if VIA fixes it (hold breath - not). I am posting this hoping that someone out there knows of this problem and has some miraculous registry patch (or something) they can share!
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