Acer Ferrari 3200 review (just a few pics/couple benches) - Page 34

Audio Issues

Ok guys, so I have my ferrari hooked up to my 5.1 surround sound at school (through the auxilliary input in the dvd player). However, why I try ot run music off of the computer, I can only utilize one satelite and the sub. I know the ferraris sound card doesnt support 5.1 surround sound, but shouldnt I be getting more than one satellite? Is there anything I can do to get the rest of my speakers to work? Would buying a decent external sound card be worthwhile? Thanks.

Snorre: could you give me a link to your published 3dmark03 score, I'm trying to do a compare but I can't find your score in the orb.

snorre: I have done everything possible to replicate your benchmark scores and can't come close. Using your exact same hardware, drivers, etc, the best I can get is around 10.3k 3dmark2001 and 27.3k aquamarks. My cpu is overclocked to 1853, memory is tweaked to 2T enabled, video card is overclocked to 490/251. All of the benchmarks were run with a clean system (nothing installed or running in background).

How in the world are you clocking in such high benchmarks?

Sorry, but the results weren't published since I wasn't connected to the internet at the time I ran these benchmarks.

FelonyFA: Weird, several users have matched my scores without much trouble and some have even exceeded them by a good margin AFAIK. I even got better scores than you when I tested the stock Ferrari:

3DMark2001 Second Edition (Build 330):
10896

3DMark03 (Build 340):
3036

AquaMark3:
26163 (3162/7579 GFX/CPU)

Something must be holding you back, either the drivers, settings or something else is slowing down your notebook. I suggest you try re-installing the VIA Hyperion 4in1 chipset drivers and after rebooting check the Advanced SmartGart Options in the Radeon Omega Drivers start menu and see if at least AGP/PCI read are both ENABLED, if all of them are enabled, the better. If that doesn't work, try to uninstall the Omega Drivers (run Driver Cleaner Omega Edition in the Radeon Omega Drivers start menu) and re-install them.

I previously posted that I was having a problem where my trackpad seemed to be involuntarily left-clicking....in other words, I'll be moving the cursor around with my finger on the trackpad, and without touching the left click button, the cursor will select something as if I had.....someone responded that this was a feature...if so, how do I turn it off?

also, regarding the screen distortion issue, what's the latest owrd on that? Should I remove Omega drivers and re-install ATI drivers?

snorre my friend, you suggested that same thing to another user and I have done just that. I have used older 4in1 drivers as well as omega drivers. I have tried not installing the AGP driver in the 4in1 setup, etc.

Do you have any other suggestion? My machine is low on both the CPU score in Aquamark (8.3k @ 1853) and (3.3k @ 490/250). I'm going crazy here, as I have installed and reinstalled countless times following your steps exactly. If I need to send the laptop back, i'd like to know whats wrong so I can have a reason to exchange it other than poor benchmark scores and bad framerates.

Help me obi won.

FelonyFA, low CPU scores usually means a lack of AGP support. You have to install AGP drivers to get AGP support.

One quick way to test for AGP support is to run 'dxdiag' from the command prompt. Click on the 'Display' tab and make sure 'AGP Texture Acceleration' is set to 'Enabled'.

Hope this helps.

The solution is to uninstall Radlinker that comes included with the Omega Drivers, or simply by deselecting it upon installation of the latest Omega Drivers.

Just got my 3200 back from Acer. The worksheet says they replaced the mainboard this time.

Just out of curiosity, fellow users, how long does it take for your Ferrari to recognize your wireless router? My Acer TravelMate does it almost instantaneously when you awaken it from sleep. Ditto a Dell and a Toshiba.

The Ferrari typically takes its own good time, as in several minutes to make a connection. For example, it's now been ten minutes and the Ferrari still hasn't recognized my wireless network.

Anyone else had this problem? I'm getting a little frustrated here.

Bootz

Dani

Dani: This was something I hadn't thought of, but when I checked, it was enabled. Do you by chance have any other ideas I can check into?

Thanks

FelonyFA: Try this:

1. Select "Start Menu->Radeon Omega Drivers->Advanced SmartGart Options" and make sure that all options are set to "On".

2. You can check this with PowerStrip by selecting "PowerStrip menu->Options...->Adapter information..." and have a look under "AGP system configuration".

I also suggest that you install the latest version of the VIA Hyperion 4in1 chipset drivers *completely* (choose quick install), and if that dosen't help uninstall the Omega Drivers and re-install them again.

snorre: In step 1 everything is "on". I don't use powerstrip, but I will download it now in order to confirm this. I have been overclocking via radlinker.

I have installed "completely" the latest 4in1s which are 4.53. I guess I will confirm via powerstip the settings you want me to and then reinstall the damn omegas for the millionth time.

My question is, even if I get 3dmark2001 to 12k+ marks and aquamark to 29k, how will all of the above steps affect my lower cpu mark score (8.3k @ 1853) in aquamark?

Ok Guys

snorre:

This may be a pain, but I am pasting my diagnostic report from powerstrip. The only thing that stood out to me was my inability to enable fastwrites. Take a look and see if you see anything amiss. I very much appreciate the help:

Diagnostic report - generated on 9/14/2004
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PowerStrip build - 460
Windows build - v.5.1.2600.2.Service Pack 2
DirectX build - v.5.03.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)
OpenGL renderer - MOBILITY RADEON 9700 x86/MMX/3DNow!/SSE2, v.1.5.4579 WinXP Release

System board
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CPU speed - 1840 MHz
Type - VIA
AGP aperture - 256 MB
AGP transfer mechanism - DMA
AGP non-local memory - 123.6 MB
AGP revision - 3.05
AGP transfer rates supported - 4x, 8x
Current AGP transfer rate - 8x
Sideband addressing - Enabled
Fast write protocol - (n/a)
AGP texturing - Enabled

Graphics card #1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Identity - Acer Display controller
Memory clock - 250.71 MHz
Engine clock - 487.93 MHz
IRQ - 16, not shared
AGP revision - 3.00
AGP transfer rates supported - 4x, 8x
Current AGP transfer rate - 8x
Sideband addressing - Enabled
Display driver - ati2dvag.dll, v.6.14.10.6467
DirectX driver - ati2dvag.dll, v.6.14.10.6467
Attached monitor - MS_0000 (Plug and Play Monitor)
Monitor caps (1) - 1672x944, 59kHz, 70Hz

Device enumeration
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Acer Display controller (4E501002h) - using IRQ16
VIA CPU-to-PCI/AGP bridge (31881106h)
VIA PCI-to-PCI/AGP bridge (B1881106h)
Texas Instruments PCI-to-CardBus bridge (AC44104Ch) - using IRQ17
Acer Firewire bus (8029104Ch) - using IRQ18
Broadcom Network controller (432014E4h) - using IRQ19
Acer Ethernet controller (169C14E4h) - using IRQ17
Acer Universal serial bus (USB) (30381106h) - using IRQ21
Acer Universal serial bus (USB) (30381106h) - using IRQ21
Acer Universal serial bus (USB) (30381106h) - using IRQ21
Acer Universal serial bus (USB) (31041106h) - using IRQ21
Acer PCI-to-ISA bridge (31771106h)
Acer IDE controller (05711106h)
Acer Audio device (30591106h) - using IRQ22
Acer Communication device (30681106h) - using IRQ11
AMD CPU-to-PCI/AGP bridge (11001022h)
AMD CPU-to-PCI/AGP bridge (11011022h)
AMD CPU-to-PCI/AGP bridge (11021022h)
AMD CPU-to-PCI/AGP bridge (11031022h)

OpenGL extensions
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GL_ARB_multitexture
GL_EXT_texture_env_add
GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array
GL_S3_s3tc
GL_ARB_depth_texture
GL_ARB_fragment_program
GL_ARB_fragment_program_shadow
GL_ARB_fragment_shader
GL_ARB_multisample
GL_ARB_occlusion_query
GL_ARB_point_parameters
GL_ARB_shader_objects
GL_ARB_shading_language_100
GL_ARB_shadow
GL_ARB_shadow_ambient
GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp
GL_ARB_texture_compression
GL_ARB_texture_cube_map
GL_ARB_texture_env_add
GL_ARB_texture_env_combine
GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar
GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3
GL_ARB_texture_mirrored_repeat
GL_ARB_transpose_matrix
GL_ARB_vertex_blend
GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object
GL_ARB_vertex_program
GL_ARB_vertex_shader
GL_ARB_window_pos
GL_ATI_draw_buffers
GL_ATI_element_array
GL_ATI_envmap_bumpmap
GL_ATI_fragment_shader
GL_ATI_map_object_buffer
GL_ATI_separate_stencil
GL_ATI_texture_env_combine3
GL_ATI_texture_float
GL_ATI_texture_mirror_once
GL_ATI_vertex_array_object
GL_ATI_vertex_attrib_array_object
GL_ATI_vertex_streams
GL_ATIX_texture_env_combine3
GL_ATIX_texture_env_route
GL_ATIX_vertex_shader_output_point_size
GL_EXT_abgr
GL_EXT_bgra
GL_EXT_blend_color
GL_EXT_blend_func_separate
GL_EXT_blend_minmax
GL_EXT_blend_subtract
GL_EXT_clip_volume_hint
GL_EXT_draw_range_elements
GL_EXT_fog_coord
GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays
GL_EXT_packed_pixels
GL_EXT_point_parameters
GL_EXT_rescale_normal
GL_EXT_secondary_color
GL_EXT_separate_specular_color
GL_EXT_shadow_funcs
GL_EXT_stencil_wrap
GL_EXT_texgen_reflection
GL_EXT_texture3D
GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc
GL_EXT_texture_cube_map
GL_EXT_texture_edge_clamp
GL_EXT_texture_env_combine
GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3
GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic
GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias
GL_EXT_texture_mirror_clamp
GL_EXT_texture_object
GL_EXT_texture_rectangle
GL_EXT_vertex_array
GL_EXT_vertex_shader
GL_HP_occlusion_test
GL_NV_texgen_reflection
GL_NV_blend_square
GL_NV_occlusion_query
GL_ARB_point_sprite
GL_SGI_color_matrix
GL_SGIS_texture_edge_clamp
GL_SGIS_texture_border_clamp
GL_SGIS_texture_lod
GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap
GL_SGIS_multitexture
GL_SUN_multi_draw_arrays
GL_WIN_swap_hint
WGL_EXT_extensions_string
WGL_EXT_swap_control

Thanks

Well, apparently, the 3200 won't connect to a wireless network at all now.

At least I can't get it to.

Bootz

FelonyFA: It seems ok, except perhaps that I don't have a OpenGL renderer installed. When I ran these benchmarks I also didn't have SP2 installed, and I used the Omega Drivers 2.5.58. Actually, I did a clean install of Windows XP Pro SP1 (not the Acer provided version) on NTFS with all the latest patches, and installed the latest AMD Athlon 64 processor drivers & VIA Hyperion chipset drivers and disabled all power saving features and set the Direct3D & OpenGL settings in the display properties to optimal performance. Did you try to reinstall too, just in case your Windows installation is messed up?

Bootz: Did you install SP2?

*sigh*

snorre: Believe it or not, that was one of the first suggestions you gave me (complete reinstall, non-acer version). I tried it with sp1 and sp2 with all of the options you suggested. Do you have sp2 installed now? Do you mind running current benchmarks with sp2 with everything stock so I can compare?

Again I really appreciate yours and everyone else's help on trying to pinpoint my problem.

Yes, I've SP2 installed now and the Omega Drivers 2.5.67. I'll run 3DMark01, 3DMark03 & Aquamark3 tomorrow with GPU & CPU/RAM at stock clocks, ok?

FANTASTIC!!

Thanks snorre!