# What is AGP Aperture Size?



## W1zzard (May 16, 2004)

Show article


----------



## sandy (Aug 19, 2004)

*Plzzzzzzzzz  Help*

MY PC CONFIGURATION IS:

     p4 1.8gzh intel 845gebv2 motherboard
    256 mb ram 7200 rpm samgsung hdd
    ATI 9600 128mb agp

when i set the agp aperture size more than 64 mb the games pauses after every five or six seconds and its pretty much unplayable. But when i set the aperture size to 16 mb the games are playable smoothly without any pauses. I am pretty much confused as you said that setting the bigger aperture size would not be any problem, so could you please help me out with my problem...is there anything wrong with my hardware?? Or is there anything else i am missing out.
                               i will be highly oblieged if you guide me out of this problem.

                                                   thank you in advance


----------



## Deleted member 3 (Aug 19, 2004)

When you have a high aperture size you allow graphics to use up your system memory which is slower than the video memory. It seems that less faster memory is prefered.
Or graphics could be using your system memory and leaving nothing for other things, seeing that you have only 256Mb.
At least this is how I understand it.

Either way if things work fine with 16Mb aperture I see no problem, keep it that way.


----------



## cram (Aug 19, 2004)

> Or graphics could be using your system memory and leaving nothing for other things


Yep, this sounds right.  If you can afford it, getting more system RAM should help a lot.


----------



## sandy (Aug 24, 2004)

sandy said:
			
		

> MY PC CONFIGURATION IS:
> 
> p4 1.8gzh intel 845gebv2 motherboard
> 256 mb ram 7200 rpm samgsung hdd
> ...


----------



## warluck (Jul 11, 2005)

Put more memory and voila and more fun and good game .


----------



## DualGraphicLowTech (Aug 26, 2005)

*Graphic Aperture Size (GAS) Setting*

Low Tech ECS motherboard powered by SIS735 intergrated chipset.  
Memory PC2100 768MB
80GB WD HD
AGP MX2-400 with 64 MB
PCI MX2-200 with 32 MB
Span XP onto two displays with 1024 x 768 at 32 bit and 75 hz.

Discussion on GAS setting.
At 32MB the system locked all the time and MS XP was telling me its a driver related issue! Hum?
At 64MB the system locked at boot and at inconvenient times. (Like just as I complete a complex graph in excel and attempt a save and print.  Lost work! Agh!)
At 124MB the system ran much faster with no XP lock up smoother graphics.
At 256MB the system just pops the graphics from websites with smooth game play. (Note:  This still leave me with 512 MB for the system)  

By using 256MB GAS setting the system is using the cashe more effectively.  I am able to open multiple applications and write papers with graphics.  It has not cause any slow down or lockup.  In fact as I increased the GAS the CPU usage went up slightly with smoother operations.  The system have been in operation for 1-1/2 years.  I started to play with the GAS setting after the last MS update.  Turns out its not completely driver related.  Nvidia released a great universal driver that allowed spanning dual displays and used a lot of memory.  It was causing problems because the CPU was getting the computation completed and had no where to dump the information.  Once I increased the gas the task manager show much higher usage of cashe and cpu.  I am using more of my system resources effectively.  The online videos are streaming faster and games are streaming faster.

The more I read about GAS,  I have come to the following conclusion.  

1)  Systems these days require a minimum of 512MB to run CPU and apps smoothly.
2)  Graphics require 256MB to run smoothly, this is the GAS setting.
3)  Sum total of minimum memory is 768MB.
4)  Never allow the GAS to exeed 1/2 of the total system memory, this is a formula to crash and lock XP.  It does one heck of a number when it loops the memory and lock the system.  Only a hard exit and system reboot will get you out.
5)  DON'T RUN GRAPHIC CARD MEMORIES GREATER THAN SYSTEM MEMORY!  Where the heck is the system going to get the data to dump onto the graphic cards?
6)  Systems should have the same amount of memory as graphic card for GAS + double that memory to the system itself to run apps.

Dual graphic cards with 128MB = 256MB
GAS = 256MB
System = 512MB Min. more the better.

I would like to read some comments and response.  

Please don't run 512MB GAS with 256MB on graphic board and 128MB system memory.

Dual Graphics Low Tech!


----------



## POGE (Mar 25, 2006)

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but what is the PCI-E equivelent, if there is one?


----------



## zekrahminator (Mar 25, 2006)

all I know is, that if you want to shut off AGP aperture COMPLETELY (and you have an ATI card on AGP bus), go into CCC "smartgart" and tell it to shut off AGP write.


----------



## Lozza (Mar 25, 2006)

I find that when I set it to 512mb, it really helps in Battlefield 2 and Doom 3. I used to play Call Of Duty 2 with all textures on "High", and this was playable. After setting it to 512mb from 256mb, I can now play it with all the textures on "Extra". I'm quite happy.


----------



## Atom_Anti (Jan 24, 2008)

I don`t understand this whole thing.
Somebody tell me, if I have a hd 3850 AGP with 512Mb memory, than which setting is the best to me!
Thanks in advance!


----------



## Demos_sav (Jan 24, 2008)

This bios feature does two things.It selects the size of the AGP aperture, and it determines the size of the GART(Graphics Address Relocation table).

The aperture is a portion of the PCI memory address range that is dedicated for use as AGP memory address space, while the GART is a translation table that translates AGP memory addresses into actual memory addresses that are often fragmented.The GART allows the graphics cards to see the memory region available to it as a contiguous piece of memory range.

Host cycles that hit the aperture range are forwarded to the AGP bus without need for translation. The aperture size also determines the maximum amount of system memory that can be allocated to the AGP graphics card for texture storage.

Note that the AGP aperture is merely address space, not actual physical memory in use. Although it is very common to hear people recommending that the AGP aperture size should be half the size of system memory, this is wrong!

The requirement for AGP memory space shrinks as the graphic's card's local memory increases in size. This is because the graphics card has more local memory to dedicate to texture storage. So, if you upgrade to a graphics card with more memory, you shouldn't be deceived into thinking you need even more AGP memory! On the contrary, a smaller AGP memory space is required.

It is recommended that you keep the AGP aperture around 64mb to 128mb in size, even if your graphics card has a lot of onboard memory. This allows flexibility in the event that you actually need extra memory for texture storage. It also keeps the GART within a reasonable size.


----------



## Atom_Anti (Jan 24, 2008)

Thanks Dude!


----------



## Demos_sav (Jan 25, 2008)

Atom_Anti said:


> Thanks Dude!



No problem. Just remember....The more memory your graphics card has the less you should choose as aperture size. AND NOT VICE VERSA


----------



## candle_86 (Jan 26, 2008)

well if you didnt want to allocate any ram, couldnt you just not install the GART?


----------



## Demos_sav (Jan 27, 2008)

candle_86 said:


> well if you didnt want to allocate any ram, couldnt you just not install the GART?



Well you can't. It's installed by default and it is uninstallable. Only thing you can do is set its size


----------



## Demos_sav (Jan 27, 2008)

POGE said:


> Sorry to dig up an old thread, but what is the PCI-E equivelent, if there is one?



There is no equivelent in PCI-E. The only reason there is in AGP it's because of some older AGP cards having 32MB-64MB(or less). In the PCI-E, cards like that are very few so there is no reason for mobo manufacturers of creating GART and so adding more code in their already difficult to be coded bioses


----------



## brandonwh64 (Nov 25, 2010)

mithunsingh said:


> That's one setting I never look at/notice. But what I know of it, only cards with a low amount of on board memory are affected by it.



Necro!


----------



## Steevo (Nov 25, 2010)

If the amount of RAM allocated for the aperture is detrimental to the performance of the system than decreasing it will have a better effect than a larger aperture will.


What sort of system do you have? How much RAM, what card, what motherboard, what OS?


----------



## Helli (Nov 28, 2010)

Well, last activity of Demos_sav was in May 2009. 

Let's hope he is in good health and can read the answer to his 3 years old post. 

Helli


----------



## remixedcat (Dec 7, 2010)

LOLThread


----------

