nvidia cards and fast write

[bitgod]

I was reading a thread somewhere where someone was having freezing issues in HL2 and BFG had him disable his fast writes. I've been away from nvidia for a few years, past 2 cards were ATI, but I kinda remember having to mess with fast writes back in my GF3 days, am I being overly paranoid or is this a common issue? Certainly had less hassles dealing with ATI cards, it's just that nvidia seems like better HW in this generation and if I were to get a new ATI, that means getting a new system to go with it since I'd have to go PCI-E.

 

[pxc]

I always had FW enabled on my nvidia AGP cards without problems. There can be problems due to 1) chipset (non-Intel have more problems), 2) buggy 3rd party AGP GART or 3) newer unsupported chipset http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hwtest/search/details.aspx?Type=Err&ID=1044

 

[Matlok]

I used to have fast-writes enabled on my GPU and never had a problem. I disabled the option when someone suggested it would help improve my framerate, it didn't do any miracles, but didn't give me any problems when disabled either.

 

[Moloch]

Fast writes is worthless, no major speed gains, and it can cause instabilities.

 

[karl76]

No problem with fastwrites here, Nforce2 and 6800nu. Actually I´m surprised how good that card is, works perfectly, its unlockable and a nice overclocker (mine came with a nice all copper heatsink), no shimmering or stuttering issues, and much faster than my old 4200. Definitly worth the money I paid (250€).

 

[pxc]

Fast writes is worthless, no major speed gains, and it can cause instabilities.

1-2%, and junk chipsets have stability problems. FW is part of the AGP spec. Too bad some chipsets makers (and graphics chip makers) can't get it right.