How to turn off Turbocache in XP
Here's what you need:
-A video card with Turbocache (duh). It pays to get a card with more onboard memory, like 256MB
-The latest nVidia drivers. You might already have these. I use Forceware 93.81, but I think the latest stable will work too.
-Rivatuner
Now, down to business:
First, install your video drivers. You've probably already done this, but if you want to make sure that you have something recent, do the following:
-Right-click your desktop and click Properties
-Go to the Settings tab
-Click the advanced button
-Go to the Adapter tab (note the Memory Size under Adapter Information)
-Click on Properties button
-Go to the Driver tab
-Check the Driver Date and Driver Version to see if it's at least November 2006 and/or 93.71
-Close the dialogs.
-If your version isn't up-to-date, then download and install the latest nVidia Driver.
Install Rivatuner
-Just download it from here: http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=163
-Run the installer
Hey, that was easy, right? Now comes the important part:
-Disable Turbocache
-Open Rivatuner
-Go to the Power Users tab
-Click on the Open Matched Database button. It's one of the little ones on the bottom.
-Find and expand the nVidia...System entry in the list
-Find RMDisableRenderToSysMem and set the value to 1
-Close Rivatuner
-Reboot the computer
Double-check to see that your card is "normal" and not using system memory anymore. Repeat the "Verify your driver" steps to view the properties of your video card and see if the memory listed is only what's onboard (up to step 4).
And that should be it! I noticed a performance gain on my system. Probably because it wasn't paging to the system memory. Probably just one less thing the CPU had to keep track of.
If this makes matters worse for you (which I can't imagine that it would), the just go back in and delete the 1 value for the entry in Rivatuner, and you'll be back to the way you were. Just remember my standard disclaimer: you did it, it's your fault!
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