Shared video RAM? Uh... I'm not 100% sure, but doesn't that mean it uses some of the main system memory for video ram? Perhaps this is slowing things down. Just a guess. Thoughts anyone?
Cheers, Gareth On Monday 28 October 2002 22:54, Helmut Walle wrote: > Hi CLUG members, > > Here is one that would have been nice for the troubleshooting night, > but I did not yet have it at that time... > > When I got an Asus P/I-P55SP4V board with Cyrix 6x86 some days ago, I > thought this would be a nice upgrade as compared to my old 486... So I > disassembled everything and reassembled it with the "new" motherboard. > My old Miro VLB graphics card does not fit in any more, but since the > Asus board has an on-board VGA controller, this should be no problem - > I thought. > > New config: > - Asus P/I-P55SP4V motherboard / Cyrix 6x86-P150+ @ 120 MHz (rated f) > - On-board SiS 5596 chip with 2 MB shared video RAM > - 96 MB in four SIMMs > - Adaptec 2940 SCSI controller (PCI) > - One SCSI disk > - One IDE disk as master on IDE 1 > - HP CD-writer as slave on IDE 1 / hdb=ide-scsi > - Logitech Waveman audio (EISA) > > All equipment except the motherboard has been used for a long time > before in the old 486 without any problems. > > What did I do? > > - Set the shared video RAM in the BIOS to maximum (2 MB) > - Looked up the graphics chipset with lspci > - Configured X 3.3.6 accordingly using the XF86_SVGA as the doc says > for this controller (newer X does not support the chip) > > Result: X is running, but incredibly slooooowwww! And not only that, > but the whole machine goes like with brakes on. For instance, top > requires 15 % CPU (in text mode it takes only 4 %, and that should not > change much only because X is running). All processes need more CPU > time to complete a certain given task than they did before! > > I am running the same 2.2.19 kernel as before, only recompiled it for > the CPU change. > > I have a vague feeling that this thing might have something to do with > interrupts, but I do not know where to look further. I searched the > net for known problems with that motherboard and Linux, but there is > not much about that board at all. The doc for that chipset and X is > almost non-existing. > > To be able to work, I now put in an Avance Logic VGA card that is > supported by the same XF86_SVGA, and it is _much_ faster and does not > give the impression everything slows down. > > Anyone here with pointers or experience? I would be grateful for > comments on this. > > Regards, > > Helmut. > > +----------------+ > > | Helmut Walle | > | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | > > +----------------+
