AGP Read Synchronization

Common Options : Enabled, Disabled

Quick Review

This BIOS feature ensures proper synchronization of data transferred on the AGP bus.

When enabled, the chipset will wait until all writes in the Global Write Buffer are completely written to the system memory before it initiates any writes to the AGP graphics card.

When disabled, the chipset will allow data from the system memory to be written to the AGP graphics card, even if the Global Write Buffer has not completed its data transfers to the system memory.

While it may seem that AGP Read Synchronization should be enabled, this is actually not true. To avoid data synchronization problems, the chipset actually allows the Global Write Buffer to be snooped. If the data is found in the Global Write Buffer, it is read directly from the buffer and then the buffer is flushed.

However, it is not possible for both methods to be enabled simultaneously. One of these two methods must be enabled for proper synchronization of data, but not both at the same time.

For performance reasons alone, AGP Read Synchronization should be disabled. In addition, many motherboard BIOS setup utilities do not allow you to disable the snooping of the Global Write Buffer. Therefore, if you enable AGP Read Synchronization, you will experience problems with your graphics card, especially when data is written to the AGP aperture.

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