If you have a Pre-2.0 GX4 motherboard, check out
this WWW
page for more info.
Read the full e-mail /
News thread I went through to figure out these settings. Full reasoning
for all the settings I choose, full benchmarks of my settings, other user's
GX4 settings, and general other ASUS technical information is in here!
If you have a Pre-2.0 GX4 motherboard, check out
this WWW
page for more info.
Looking for GX4 motherboard settings for an AMD 120Mhz chip, check out
my 120Mhz notes
page for more info.
If you're considering the possibility of upgrading your GX4 board, there are a
few things you will need to do first:
- Look on the motherboard near the CPU socket and find out what
version the board is. I know that v2.0 is upgradable and I've
heard 1.8 is upgradable but I can't confirm this.
- You will want to upgrade the BIOS. The code is freely available
on ASUS's WWW site but you will need:
- A 27C512 eprom [my original is a SGS Thompson
27C512-15XFI which should cost about ~$15. [I wouldn't
recommend to use the original BIOS chip but you can if
you want to.
- Someone who has a EPROM burner that supports the
given EPROM and someone who knows how to use it.
- Memory upgrades: The GX4 is very limited in terms of memory
configurations. How much memory do you have
installed right now? Two 4MB Simms? If so,
you can add two more 4MB SIMMs (~$40 each if
you can find them). If you have two 8MB
simms, that's it.. your stuck there even though
you have two more slots. Sucks huh?
- CPU upgrade: You can get the AMD 133Mhz processor for
something like ~$70. Then you can safely
push it to 160Mhz with some patience and
some systematic testing and tweaking.
- Video upgrade: You can't believe how much of a performance
increase you can get from a newer video card.
I wouldn't spend too much since 486/VLB boards
are pretty much a dead end technology now but
~$50-60 will make a VERY noticeable difference
for Win v3.x and Win95. Check out
cards like a Cirrus Logic 5429 or 5434. There
are also a few STB cards that are supposedly
good. What kind of card do you have now?
Once you get beyond all this, using the ASUS jumper settings from both the GX4
manual and the WWW site might not 't achieve a fast or stable setup. Here
are the best settings I found after days of experimentation for my board.
This is basically CONFIRMING that there are sub-versions to the GX4 v2.0
motherboard. I received one of the very first GX4 boards available and had
to haggle with the jumpers to even get a AMD DX/2 80Mhz ( 5 volt ) to run!
Before you begin, I would recommend the following:
- While your old processor is installed, change all the CMOS
settings to their SLOWEST settings (highest wait states, etc)
This will help you determine if the jumper settings are even close.
If the board comes up with the new settings, run Windows, benchmark
programs, etc to see if the machine is stable. Then you can then
tweak the CMOS settings back to their original settings and beyond
to improve system performance.
- When you first try a new JUMPER setting, have your monitor ON and
warmed up first before you turn on the power to the motherboard.
It only takes a few seconds to know if the motherboard is going
to work vs. fry the new CPU chip. Having the monitor on will
help you quickly determine if the settings are correct vs. wrong.
If they are wrong (no beep or POST), immediately turn off the power
to the motherboard and re-check your jumper settings or try another
jumper setting found in the Full thread at the top of this page.
I would recommend to read the Full thread at the top of this page for
faster CPU settings. Unfortunately, these settings never worked well for
me so I had to develop an alternative setting to work around my DMA problems
and my Adaptec 2842 Bus-mastering SCSI controller. So here are the settings
for an AMD 133Mhz processor pushed to 160Mhz (in-line comments for 133Mhz is
included):
Jumper setting Function of given setting
-------------- --------------------------------------------------------
JP5: 1+2 P24D, P24T, P24CT, AMD(s) X PLUS hardware trap
JP6: 1+2 CPU trap Related
JP11: 2+3 Intel processor compatible
(Note: This is close to a 486DX4 - 2 x clock config)
JP16: 1+2 5+6 CPU setting
JP17: 1+2 5+6 CPU setting
JP18: 1+2 5+6 CPU setting
JP19: 1+2 CPU setting
JP20: 1+2 4x CLOCK
JP21: 2+3 L1 WT cache setting (DMA conflict fix for Floppy drives and
and bus-mastering IDE/SCSI HD controllers)
JP22: 1+2 3+4 CPU setting
JP23: 2+3 40Mhz clock
JP24: 2+3
JP25: 1+2 (Change JP25 to 2+3 for 133Mhz operation)
JP26: 1+2 VLB Delay
-----
BIOS settings:
Note: These are my overclocked settings so mileage will vary.. you
must tweak with these settings until you find both a
fast and stable system.
Auto config : disabled
AT BUS Clock : 1/4 CLKIN (10Mhz AT BUSL2-Write Through
-----
Benchmarks:
Here are my CACHECHECK v4 results (run in plain (no TSRs) DOS v6.22 mode):
Authentic AMD486 clocked at 160.1 Mhz
L1 is 16KB: 164.8MB/s
L2 is 256KB: 74.5 MB/s
Main Memory is 39MB/s
RAM (Read) is 107ns
RAM (Write) is 50ns
CMOS L2-Write Through:
PCBench9: CPU16: 128
Video: 5662
Disk : 224
Norton SI/95: 16.9
WinBench96: CPU16: 129
CPU32: 130
CMOS L2-Write Back:
PCBench9: CPU16: 152
Video: n/a
Disk: n/a
Norton SI/95: n/a
WinBench96: CPU16: 120
CPU32: 116
Video: 5675
Disk: 223
* If you have ANY comments, additions, recommendations, etc please drop me
a note via e-mail at the bottom of this WWW page or directly at
dranch@ecst.csuchico.edu
Last Updated: 2/9/98