Video Upgrade from GeForce2 to 6600GT
Ari Rankum
Tonight I did a card swap from an ASUS GeForce2/MX400 card to an XFX
6600GT. The nVidia website claims the same driver should support both.
I updated /etc/X11/xorg.conf on my IA32 box running 2.6.12-1.1376_FC3
to reflect a BoardName of "NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT".
After rebooting, X came up just fine. I decided to run Unreal
Tournament 2004, just to see how much more I could turn on in the way of
visual effects with the 6600GT, compared to the GeForce2. That
experiment had to be delayed, as the performance was *DOG* slow with the
original settings used for the GeForce2 card. Likewise, running gl-117,
I used to get 25-30 fps with the original configuration on the GeForce2.
Running that configuration on the 6600GT yielded 5 fps.
Lastly, X is chewing up about 25% of the CPU while rendering a few
windows and a couple of monitor applets. The old X load with the
GeForce2 was a few percent, steady-state.
Clearly, something is wrong.
I'm thinking software/admin configuration error vice hardware problem.
Any ideas or related experience?
Here's some system output that may be helpful:
[root@moog ~]# uname -a
Linux moog 2.6.12-1.1376_FC3 #1 Fri Aug 26 23:27:26 EDT 2005 i686 athlon
i386 GNU/Linux
[root@moog ~]# cat /proc/driver/nvidia/version
NVRM version: NVIDIA Linux x86 NVIDIA Kernel Module 1.0-7676 Fri Jul
29 12:58:54 PDT 2005
GCC version: gcc version 3.4.4 20050721 (Red Hat 3.4.4-2)
[root@moog ~]# cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/host-bridge
Host Bridge: PCI device 10de:01e0
Fast Writes: Supported
SBA: Supported
AGP Rates: 8x 4x
Registers: 0x1f00421b:0x00000302
[root@moog ~]# cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/status
Status: Enabled
Driver: AGPGART
AGP Rate: 8x
Fast Writes: Disabled
SBA: Enabled
[root@moog ~]# cat /proc/driver/nvidia/cards/0
Model: GeForce 6600 GT
IRQ: 11
Video BIOS: 05.43.02.57.00
Card Type: AGP
Some of the links I have found suggest library conflicts for libGL and
libGLCore may be the issue. I've checked the libraries and the symlinks
to them, and that's not what's going on here.
Below is the contents of my xorg.conf file.
[root@moog ~]# cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf
# Xorg configuration created by system-config-display
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "single head configuration"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection
Section "Files"
# RgbPath is the location of the RGB database. Note, this is the name
of the
# file minus the extension (like ".txt" or ".db"). There is normally
# no need to change the default.
# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)
# By default, Red Hat 6.0 and later now use a font server independent of
# the X server to render fonts.
RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
FontPath "unix/:7100"
EndSection
Section "Module"
# Load "dri"
# Load "dri"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "fbdevhw"
Load "glx"
Load "record"
Load "freetype"
Load "type1"
# Load "dri"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# Specify which keyboard LEDs can be user-controlled (eg, with xset(1))
# Option "Xleds" "1 2 3"
# To disable the XKEYBOARD extension, uncomment XkbDisable.
# Option "XkbDisable"
# To customise the XKB settings to suit your keyboard, modify the
# lines below (which are the defaults). For example, for a non-U.S.
# keyboard, you will probably want to use:
# Option "XkbModel" "pc102"
# If you have a US Microsoft Natural keyboard, you can use:
# Option "XkbModel" "microsoft"
#
# Then to change the language, change the Layout setting.
# For example, a german layout can be obtained with:
# Option "XkbLayout" "de"
# or:
# Option "XkbLayout" "de"
# Option "XkbVariant" "nodeadkeys"
#
# If you'd like to switch the positions of your capslock and
# control keys, use:
# Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:swapcaps"
# Or if you just want both to be control, use:
# Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:nocaps"
#
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "yes"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "SL 70"
DisplaySize 340 270
HorizSync 30.0 - 83.0
VertRefresh 56.0 - 75.0
Option "dpms"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "NoPowerConnectorCheck"
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 16
Modes "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768"
"800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection
Section "DRI"
Group 0
Mode 0666
EndSection
[root@moog ~]#
*Any ideas?*
Regards,
Ari Rankum
> Hey,
>
> Tonight I did a card swap from an ASUS GeForce2/MX400 card to an XFX
> 6600GT. The nVidia website claims the same driver should support both.
> I updated /etc/X11/xorg.conf on my IA32 box running 2.6.12-1.1376_FC3
> to reflect a BoardName of "NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT".
-snip-
I found a link that suggests the card requires a 450 watt power supply.
Without such, the card apparently scales back performance. I'll try a
beefier supply as soon as I can pick one up.