Asus Digimatrix Bios and Video...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bill Pelka
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Bill Pelka

Greetings all,

I have a digimatrix. AND I have 2 questions.

1. Does anyone know where I can find the version of my BIOS without having
to look at the reboot screen? Maybe some software or a utility that might
show this...

2. I have purchased DOOM3 and am trying to run this. The Built in Video
board seems to be causing a slow, choppy presentation. Has anyone found a
"work around" for this?

Thanks...
Bill Pelka
 
Bill,

For the BIOS version, I suggest the free version of SiSoft SANDRA
(http://www.sisoftware.net/). Everest Home (www.lavalys.com) is smaller, but
it may not give the complete BIOS version. (It will give the date, which is
sufficient for seeing whether a newer version is available.) The latest BIOS
version available for download is 1006, dated Sept. 29, 2004.

I'm not familiar with the onboard graphics in the Digimatrix, but onboard
graphics are not known for performance in 3D games. Try reducing the
resolution/quality settings in Doom 3 until you get acceptable smoothness.
(There are no guarantees that the performance will be adequate at any
setting.) I'd suggest an add-on graphics card, but the Digimatrix has no
AGP slot for one.

As regards a question from another post: the machine seems to support only
400 and 533 MHz FSB (front side bus) CPUs. (See
http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx?SLanguage=en-us; search
under barebone, Socket 478, Digimatrix.) It does not support the Socket 478
"Prescott" CPUs. If memory serves, the only 533 MHz CPU that supported
hyperthreading was the 3.06 GHz version. (That's not on the support list for
the Digimatrix.) Even if the mainboard supported that, you don't have one.
The 2.66 GHz "Northwood" (533 MHz FSB) is listed as the fastest officially
supported.

Also, the FAQ for the Digimatrix
(http://support.asus.com/faq/faq.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=DiGiMatrix)
claims that CPUs faster than 2.66 MHz are not supported due to "a thermal
concern".

I hope that you're not trying to add a 2.8 GHz CPU with an 800 MHz FSB CPU.
Its multiplier is locked at 14 (14X200 MHz = 2.8 GHz). (The bus frequency is
200 MHz; it is "quad pumped" to give 800 MHz.) If it ran in your system
(unlikely), you'd get 14X133 = 1.86 GHz.

Sorry that I can't be more encouraging.

Also, posting an unmodified email address on a Usenet newsgroup may cause
you to receive lots of spam.

Regards,

Bob Knowlden

Address may be scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.
 
Bill Pelka said:
Greetings all,

I have a digimatrix. AND I have 2 questions.

1. Does anyone know where I can find the version of my BIOS without having
to look at the reboot screen? Maybe some software or a utility that might
show this...

2. I have purchased DOOM3 and am trying to run this. The Built in Video
board seems to be causing a slow, choppy presentation. Has anyone found a
"work around" for this?

Thanks...
Bill Pelka
Click to expand...

1. There are undoubtedly tons of utilities that can list the
string stored inside the BIOS. The problem is, the info stored
inside the BIOS is not always correct or updated properly, so
while your utility might be convenient, it likely won't be
accurate.

If you use the flasher utility intended for your barebones,
it may have an option to make a backup copy of the current
BIOS. It is possible that utility will do a better job, as
it uses a different field in the BIOS. The reason for this,
is the info that the flasher uses is much more likely to be
updated properly by Asus - some static text string that is
only used by a Windows utility will only receive cursory
attention by the BIOS staff. (And the reason I say this, is
it appears BIOS updates are done by different kinds of staff
at Asus - early BIOS seem to be done by first tier engineering
staff, whereas BIOS updates done later in the life of a product
seem to be done by junior people, judging by the errors made,
and the fact that later BIOS releases suck worse than the
intermediate ones.)

The most reliable method might be to look at the paper
label they sometimes stick to the top of the flash chip.

2. You're pulling our leg :-)
Doom on an SIS built-in graphics core ?

http://www.doom3.com/sysreq.asp

Your system has very little expansion capability, so I doubt
you'll be able to upgrade your system to be smooth with Doom.
(An AGP slot, or a PCI-E x16 slot would help you do that.)
I have a system here with a low end (FX5200) card, and tried
the Doom3 demo on it, and it lagged like hell. You'll have
to set your gaming sights a little lower. If you already
own Quake 3 Arena, give that a try.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2427&p=2

HTH,
Paul
 
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