ATI Radeon LE (Low End?!)

[goog40]

Another strange thing, I did the reg thing for the hyper-z and the other one oldfart posted, but it had about zero affect on the 3dmark score. My proccessor is a celeron running at 550 mhz, so it could be holding it back, but still, shouldnt there be some improvement with hyper-z? I'm running it at 183 now(not sure if the core clock is at that, just know the memory is), and it upped my 3dmark score rom the 2700s to the 3000s(stop laughing)

 

[oldfart]

That stuff is not there by default. The keys need to be added. Check your reg and see if the keys are located in \Driver\0000 as below. They may be \0001 or even \0002. If so, modify the below to match. Next, copy everything below into a text file and save as hyper.reg. Right click and pick merge. That should add the keys in.

********COPY THE BELOW*********

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ATI Technologies\Driver\0000\atidxhal]
"EnableWaitUntilIdxTriList2"="1"
"TableFogEnable"="1"
"WFogEnable"="0"
"ZFogEnable"="1"
"DisableHierarchicalZ"="1"
"DisableHyperZ"="0"
"FastZClearEnabled"="1"
"Vsync"="0"
"AntiAlias"="0"
"ZFormats"="15"
"ExportCompressedTex"="1"
"DitherAlpha"="1"
"ExportWBuffer"="0"

 

[Aihyah]

yea, they needed to be added, thanx, the reg example i had was incorrect.. the reg path was typoed.

Oh yea, so does anyone know the command line command for powerstrip overclocking? Both mem and core? want to set this up so i don't have to manually o/c each time i reboot.

 

[oldfart]

For PS 2.78, its like this:

c:\windows\pstrip.exe /clk 166 166 /exit

Make a batch file with the above, save as PS166.bat. Put a shortcut to it in your startup folder. Tweak the shortcut to "run minimized" and "close on exit". PS does some weird things. Have all of your refresh rates set for the resolutions you use. Dont use "optimal".

 

[Aihyah]

kewl thanx got it going up to 190 without crashing so far

 

[Aihyah]

hmm anyone know the command to get q3a (non team arena) to use compressed textures? i used to have it.. forgot it

 

[Aihyah]

ah well had to ramp down to 180mhz case is insulated by acoustic foam.. oh well found the command, r_ext_compressed_textures 1 to compress q3a textures

 

[oldfart]

r_ext_compress_textures 1 for Q3 1.17

r_ext_compressed_textures 1 for Q3 1.27

To timedemo with 1.27...from the console..

timedemo 1
demo demo127

BTW, use the 1.27h patch to pick up a few more fps.

 

[dxkj]

LE cards, they seem pretty good... any opinions on what is the best drivers for them??

 

[gkoehler]

oldfart - Thanks for your excellent posts in figuring out what the heck the Radeon LE is. Too bad user community has to do the manufacturer's work for them. I have seen two versions of the regedit fix.

Comparing the two and removing common lines, the differences are:
"Short" version (which seems to trace back to a Chinese post http://www.pcpop.com/info/20010212/ ) that was one fo the first articles looking into what the heck an LE really is.)
"DisableHierarchicalZ"="0"
"ZFormats"="3"

The oldfart version posted at Anand forum:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ATI Technologies\Driver\0000\atidxhal]
"TableFogEnable"="1"
"WFogEnable"="0"
"ZFogEnable"="1"
"DisableHierarchicalZ"="1"
"ZFormats"="15"
"DitherAlpha"="1"
"ExportWBuffer"="0"

I'm the sort of guy who should stay out of registry, but I'm willing to go in for this purpose. But which is best key change to use? When you disable DisableHierarchicalZ by using "DisableHierarchicalZ"="1", are you disabling HZ or disabing the disabling of HZ? This reminds of the bad old days of inscrutable DOS memory commands to tweak my hot new 16MHz 386 with 40meg hard drive.
I freely fess up that I don't know squat, all sincere replies appreciated. - gkoehler

 

[Aihyah]

0= yes 1= no, so yes, you are saying no to the disable oops backwards

 

[oldfart]

As far as ATI support on that card, it is an OEM only product that is not meant for the US market. It for the Far East market. In fact ATI doesn't even produce the card.

HyperZ has 3 components. HierarchicalZ, HyperZ, FastZClear. By default a non LE card has is set up the following way with no registy entries made. If you put them in, it will work the same.

"DisableHierarchicalZ"="1"
"DisableHyperZ"="0"
"FastZClearEnabled"="1"

HierarchicalZ is off by default on all cards because it can cause visual artifacts on some games when enabled. Many tweakers have been recommending turning it on for a speed increase. Its up to you. You can run it either way.

So, to turn on D3D HyperZ on an LE card, these are the keys needed:

"DisableHyperZ"="0"
"FastZClearEnabled"="1"

"DisableHierarchicalZ" is up to you.

The "ZFormats" are Z buffer options that are set through the normal ATI display settings.

If you dont feel comforable with regedit, get a tweaker. This is a GUI tool that will set the options for you. Here is a good one.

 

[WaldoTFC]

Question, will the drivers for the Radeon LE be upgraded and can you use the ATI ones for the LE? From what I hear the LE is not made my ATI and I am worried the furture driver support might not be there?

Thanks

 

[Aihyah]

to my knowledge there are no specialized drivers for different radeon lines. i use the ones from ati's site

 

[Auric]

It's the same chip so there ain't nuthin to worry about. Remember, independent board makers do not write core drivers and in this case they don't even bother to brand them -not that anyone in their right mind wouldn't use a chip maker's driver release since they are always the latest and greatest. Why wait for a logo or some cheesy bloat to be added by a board maker anyway?

Anandtech's Radeon 9x/NT driver comparision was interesting, though unsurprising. Pity. Some people lately have been claiming the performance gap had closed to being insignificant but maybe all they play is Quake. It's really sad that not one company can make a decent all around (fast and quality) card at any price. I guess we will have to wait for S3 Graphics to get back in the game.

 

[AtriumBruin]

i'm getting horrible fps in Unreal Tournament. Of course, I am switching over from a V3 2000, which supported glide, which UT runs very well with. I'm currently running a celeron 366@550. think that's my bottleneck?

 

[Zucchini]

blame epic, they built a glide game and then haxored it to use direct 3d.. very badly It does however scale with cpu ..

 

[AtriumBruin]

on a celeron 366@550

Running at: 148/148
----------------------
3dMark2000
only 2920 marks!!!

i hacked the registry and updated to ATI's newest drivers.

CPU limited? or is that so bad that i'm doing something wrong?

hmm, this is on 1024x768 16bit color, 16 bit z buffer, triple frame buffer, d3d hardware T&L

I later tried 32 bit color, 32 bit buffer, triple frame buffer
got 2820 marks

how sad!

Running at 183/183
-------------------

16 bit color, 16 bit z buffer, triple frame buffer, scored 3098
32 bit color, 32 bit buffer, triple frame buffer, i got a score of 2962


edit:

i tried unhacking it back so that disable z is 1, enableFastSwap is 0, and the hierarchal Z is also 0. i get the same scores... i believe i'm doing something wrong, or my processor is just crappy.

do i need to restart for the changes in the registry to take affect?

 

[kimber]

my buddys system with hyperz left unabled and core and mem set at 170 runs awesome at 1024x768 with all options maxed on unreal tourn..though this is with a 750 tbird running 933(7x133).we also get around 60 fps at mdk2 at 1024 with all options maxed.he pulls about the same numbers i do with the retail ddr on the machine listed bellow.not bad for a 90 dollar card.

 

[AtriumBruin]

really.. hmm.. well i guess i'll wait til my processor arrives..