Trying to get into 3d... can someone point me in the right direction re. efficiency/tweaks?

[nnimrod]

I'm starting with nvidia 7 series, and 3DMark06, currently on XP x64. Changing LOD/mipmap bias in rivatuner doesn't seem to do anything...

 

Kinda getting the feeling that efficiency doesn't matter as much in 3d as it does in, say, 32m, because you can just use a current gen CPU. I still need to get at least the basics for efficiency tho. Any good forum threads? I wasn't able to turn hardly anything up via google.

 

thx

[Noxinite]

Which 7 series - 700 or 7000?

[nnimrod]

30 minutes ago, Noxinite said:

Which 7 series - 700 or 7000?

7000, I have a few of them

[Noxinite]

Have you explored the shader clock \ delta clock \ integer overflow bios mod to see if the secondary clock is holding back the core?

Also, I think that LOD should work fine - did you try in 03 or 05? There's a trick to getting it working with 06 on some cards.

[Leeghoofd]

Réname 3dmark06.exe to 3dmark05.exe

[nnimrod]

6 hours ago, Noxinite said:

Have you explored the shader clock \ delta clock \ integer overflow bios mod to see if the secondary clock is holding back the core?

Also, I think that LOD should work fine - did you try in 03 or 05? There's a trick to getting it working with 06 on some cards.

I have no idea re. the first thing. I tried it in 05, and if there's an effect, it's within margin of error.

stock clocks 3D05
0	1261	1258	Best half average	Best half range
1	1261	1258	1262.4	4.0
2	1263	1259
3	1261	1259
4	1259	1260
5	1258	1261
6	1265	1261
7	1261	1261
8	1261	1261
9	1260	1261
10	1263	1261
11	1258	1261
12	1261	1263
13	1261	1263
14	1264	1264
15	1259	1265

 

First run with LOD +1.5 was 1259, inside margin of error. Not sure if you need it to be a small amount, or almost the whole slider, and whether the effect is going to be very small, or multiple percentage points. Is this the right way to set LOD bias? https://drive.google.com/file/d/1enyxWK1r0gXmStYlHrZHxG31DqIPODSp/view?usp=share_linkusp=share_link https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ev8hNfM8vhhVbziuidMrrqNRhPM412JE/view?usp=share_link 

Edited May 27, 2023 by nnimrod

[TerraRaptor]

Geforce 7xxx prefer +15 lod through the whole series of 3dmark except nature of 01 (needs adjusting somewhere in +3-5 range).

Riva will be able to correctly adjust lod with drivers up to 197.45 (maybe up to some early 25x.xx). Younger drivers are better tweaked with inspector.

Edited May 27, 2023 by TerraRaptor

[Noxinite]

On 5/27/2023 at 3:54 AM, nnimrod said:

I have no idea re. the first thing.

~ SNIP ~

Hmm, I can't actually find a link to a guide for this and it has been a while since I've done it myself.

Here's a thread that I found on a quick search discussing it: https://forums.guru3d.com/threads/im-thinking-to-write-my-7800gs-bios-again-should-i-enable-delta-clock.181785/

I believe that the delta clock register accepts 0-255, and at >127 an integer overflow occurs and the delta clock becomes negative (IIRC).

Edited May 28, 2023 by Noxinite

[nnimrod]

On 5/27/2023 at 1:25 AM, TerraRaptor said:

Geforce 7xxx prefer +15 lod through the whole series of 3dmark except nature of 01 (needs adjusting somewhere in +3-5 range).

Riva will be able to correctly adjust lod with drivers up to 197.45 (maybe up to some early 25x.xx). Younger drivers are better tweaked with inspector.

Rivatuner shows me a range of +/- 3.0, does the program you're using have a different range for LOD values? I've been using older drivers, at latest 169.21.

 

I thought perhaps the 101.09 driver that I was using might be the reason why LOD adjustments weren't doing anything, so I tried 169.21. The LOD adjustments are immediately obvious, because the picture is blurry, including loading screens. However the score is no different. In 101.09 the LOD adjustments didn't visibly change the picture at all.

169.21 Control	raw	sorted
0	1300	1294	Best half average	Best half range
1	1297	1295	1298.0	3.0
2	1295	1295
3	1297	1296
4	1297	1296
5	1299	1296
6	1297	1296
7	1296	1297
8	1296	1297
9	1299	1297
10	1295	1297
11	1297	1297
12	1294	1298
13	1298	1299
14	1296	1299
15	1296	1300

Clamp negative LOD bias, and +1.5
0	1297	1295	Best half average	Best half range
1	1299	1296	1298.6	1.0
2	1296	1296
3	1297	1296
4	1296	1297
5	1299	1297
6	1299	1297
7	1295	1297
8	1296	1298
9	1298	1298
10	1298	1298
11	1297	1299
12	1299	1299
13	1297	1299
14	1298	1299
15	1299	1299

Then I tried checking the "Color mipmaps" option in 3DMar05 settings, as well as setting LOD bias to +2.5 in Rivatuner, and that resulted in a significant improvement in score, but the benchmark is rendered not sampling the color textures, but solid colors representing the LOD mipmaps or something. Is that tweak allowed?

 

[Noxinite]

Changing default benchmark settings? Ummm.... no.

[nnimrod]

11 minutes ago, Noxinite said:

Changing default benchmark settings? Ummm.... no.

Ok, I legit didn't know. No intention of cheating.

[Noxinite]

As for LOD, I remember there was a setting you had to change in Riva to expand the allowable LOD range? It also only worked on some drivers IIRC.

[TerraRaptor]

Go to PowerUser tab in riva's main window and search for lod bias range entry. Set it FF

Edited May 29, 2023 by TerraRaptor

[nnimrod]

20 hours ago, TerraRaptor said:

Go to PowerUser tab in riva's main window and search for lod bias range entry. Set it FF

That was the ticket. LOD now works as intended