RS482 Advanced Chipset Features List

[Jimmy Question]

Due to a lack of documentation of definitions for BIOS settings for the RS482, I have made digital photos of the "Advanced Chipset Features" sub-section of the (BIOS data here), have transcribed them to text and am posting them here in the hopes that others may be able to help define what these settings mean and do. Please cite references if possible, and if you are guessing please mention that as well.

 

Eventually, what I'd like this document to evolve to is a comprehensive list of all the BIOS settings, each one hyperlinked to a "guide" style document.

 

Any suggestions on errors made, or ways to improve the document are welcomed.

 

Jimmy

 

 

Phoenix – AwardBIOS CMOS Setup Utility

Advanced Chipset Features

 

PCIE Reset Delay

Disabled / Enabled

 

PCIE GFX Core Payload Size

16 Bytes

32 Bytes

64 Bytes

 

PCIE GPP Core Payload Size

16 Bytes

32 Bytes

64 Bytes

 

GFX- Link Width - specifies the number of lanes allocated to the PCI-E x16 slot. The slot is physically an x16 slot but may be configured down to any of the above values. The setting is useful if your chipset has, say, a maximum of 20 lanes to divide between two x16 slots but on this motherboard just leave it at x16.

Applies PCIE Video only; Does not apply to On-board Video.

(Need Source.)

X 1

X 2

X 4

X 8

X 16

 

ASPM GPX

Disabled

L0

L1

L0 & L1

 

ASPM GPP

Disabled

L0

L1

L0 & L1

 

ASPM NB – SB

Disabled

L0

L1

L0 & L1

 

ASPM GPP

Disabled

L0

L1

L0 & L1

 

TXCLK Gating

Disabled / Enabled

- setting this to "Enabled" may improve video performance the CFX3200-DR, possibly the RS482 as well.

(from Tony's guide here: post #4)

 

 

PCIE Common Clock

Disabled / Enabled

- setting this to "Enabled" may improve video performance the CFX3200-DR, possibly the RS482 as well.

(from Tony's guide here: post #4)

 

GFX Multi Function Mode

Disabled / Enabled

 

UMA Frame Buffer Size

 

- The following link explains that it means the Onboard Video is accessing System RAM though the Athlon64's Universal Memory Architecture (its memory controller), as opposed to having dedicated RAM (to video only ?) on the motherboard.

 

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2269&p=17

 

(Is more better ? What's a recommended setting or formula (percentage or total RAM, maybe?) for the RS482 ?)

 

32 MB

64 MB

128 MB

 

VGA Aperture Size

- Sometimes referred to as AGP Aperture Size (even on boards with no AGP slot).

(A setting of 128MB is recommended for "all cards with 64 MB to 256 MB Video RAM." (see link below) However, I do not know how (or if) this applies to the RS482's Onboard Video.)

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/...ing/vidcard/43

 

32 MB

64 MB

128 MB

256 MB

512MB

1 GB

2 GB

None

 

Memory Hole

- This must be enabled when using 4GB of RAM or you will not be able to use it all.

(Need Source. Are there any consequences/benefits if this is enabled and you have less than 4GB of RAM ?)

 

Disabled / Enabled

 

System BIOS Cacheable

- Places a copy of the System BIOS in the CPU's L2 cache. Speeds up BIOS access, but this is usually a waste of cache as the BIOS is not accessed often.

http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/Speed_Demonz/BIOS_Guide/BIOS_Guide_02b.htm

 

Disabled / Enabled

 

Init Display First

- Tells the motherboard which video card to use as primary, if you have more than one.

(Does this setting matter if you only have on-board video ?)

 

PCI Slot

Onboard

PCIEx

 

********************* On-Chip VGA Setting **********************

GFX Clock Mode

Sync/Async

 

xAsync GFX Clock

??? Mhz

 

xAsync GFX Clock Source

??.??? Mhz OSC

 

MCLK Spread Spectrum

Enabled/Disabled

 

Boot Display

- (Applies to Onboard Video only) Tells the motherboard which display port to activate. If set to Auto it will attempt to detect attached devices. Useful if you sometimes boot your computer with no display attached, and want to attach one after it's done booting.

(Will setting this to a "manual" setting speed-up boot time ?)

 

Auto

CRT

DFP

TV Only

 

TV Standard

- (applies to Onboard Video only) Specifies your region for TV-out. TVs in different regions use slightly different signals. NTSC is North American, PAL is European, and I have no idea for the rest.

(I would assume "NTSC-JAP" is for Japan.)

 

NTSC

PAL

PAL-N

PAL-60

NTSC-JAP

PAL-CN

PAL-N

SCART_RGB

[Jimmy Question]

This post may be where the hyperlinks for the above list "go to". Can't say for sure yet, but I'd like to leave this post in reserve just in case.

 

09 Dec 06 - I am adding the information (Post #3) from "Poisonsnak" (Thanks!) Any additional help would be much appreciated.

 

09 Dec 06 - Added information (Post #5) from "Poisonsnak" (Thanks!) Any additional help would be much appreciated.

 

Jimmy

 

Sources:

 

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/...ing/vidcard/43

 

http://www.bleedinedgesupport.com/ocz/foru...ead.php?t=20506

 

http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/Speed_Demon...S_Guide_02b.htm

 

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showd...spx?i=2269&p=17

[Poisonsnak]

Well I can see a couple in there that are familiar:

 

(from the top)

 

"GFX Link Width" specifies the number of lanes allocated to the PCI-E x16 slot. The slot is physically an x16 slot but may be configured down to any of the above values. The setting is useful if your chipset has, say, a maximum of 20 lanes to divide between two x16 slots but on this motherboard just leave it at x16.

 

"UMA Frame Buffer Size" - (a bit of a guess, pretty sure though) - Specifies how much system RAM is borrowed for the onboard video

 

"VGA Aperture Size" - Sometimes referred to as AGP Aperture Size (yes even on boards with no AGP slot) - http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/43

 

"Memory Hole" - This must be enabled when using 4GB of RAM or you will not be able to use it all

 

"Init Display First" - tells the motherboard which video card to use as primary if you have more than one

 

"Boot Display" - (applies to onboard video only) tells the motherboard which display port to activate. If set to auto it will attempt to detect attached devices. Useful if you sometimes boot your computer with no display attached and want to attach one after it's done booting.

 

"TV Standard" - (applies to onboard video only) Specifies your region for TV-out. TVs in different regions use slightly different signals. PAL is European, NTSC is North American, and I have no idea for the rest.

[Jimmy Question]

Before I purchased mine, and for about 2 months after I looked for and read several reviews of the RS482, and was not particularly impressed by the level of technical details. However, just now I found a review which looks promising, as it seems to have more technical details (particularly BIOS) than the others I have found.

 

http://sg.vr-zone.com/?i=3213&s=5

[Poisonsnak]

TXCLK Gating and PCIE Common Clock - by setting these to 'enabled' video performance is improved on the CFX3200-DR, possibly the same for the RS482? (from Tony's guide here: http://www.bleedinedgesupport.com/ocz/foru...ead.php?t=20506 post #4)

 

System BIOS Cacheable - Puts a copy of the system BIOS in the CPU's L2 cache. Speeds up BIOS access but usually a waste of cache as the BIOS is not accessed too often

http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/Speed_Demon...S_Guide_02b.htm

 

Also a couple of clarifications to the ones I already mentioned:

GFX Link Width - only applies to PCI-E card not onboard

 

UMA Frame buffer size - as explained in the following link it means the onboard video is accessing system RAM though the Athlon64's Universal Memory Architecture or UMA (its memory controller) as opposed to having dedicated RAM on the motherboard somewhere. http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showd...spx?i=2269&p=17

[GrandSam]

TXCLK Gating and PCIE Common Clock - by setting these to 'enabled' video performance is improved on the CFX3200-DR, possibly the same for the RS482? (from Tony's guide here: http://www.bleedinedgesupport.com/ocz/foru...ead.php?t=20506 post #4)

No improvement here. Gave at 3DMark03 20 points less with these two enabled.