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Showing results for tags 'vcs tweaks'.
Found 17 results
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I've noticed a couple of times the VCS skips here and there, and it tends to take a longer than expected time to load certain games... although it could be that it was because I tried playing them immediately after buying, downloading, and installing them. I bought mine with the backer kit, so I THINK mine has 8 gigs of ram? I didn't check. What is the maximum ram that I can install that will actually be used by the games? I heard someone said that 16 gigs is the maximum that actually does anything, but the system supports 32 gigs. Why would 16 gigs be the maximum? It's a 64-bit system so it should be able to effectively use more of the ram, correct? Second, if I upgrade the storage, will it wipe / ruin AtariOs that's already installed on the existing MMC SSD? I want to upgrade it to the fastest MMC I can possibly find... and I think 256gb is probably all that I'll need. If I do this, what do I need to do to get AtariOS back on, and all my games re-installed? Thanks!
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Can anyone post a link to something they have purchased that fits properly? Please and thank you. This is just going to come up over and over and over again and it would be a huge help. I bought a set of screws on ebay and none of the worked...some fit but the bases were too tall. Would really be nice to just have a "go-to" solution for this that doesn't involve random screws around your house or scavenging parts from other machines.
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Did anyone know the VCS Default BIOS Password for changing the UEFI security settings? I get access to the BIOS, but booting from an USB-CD-Drive is actually blocked/prohibited... Thx, andY
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ATARI VCS apu upgrade Do not try this yourself as a disclaimer, I had mine done by a professional who does it for a living. I had my Atari VCS professionally reballed and had an a Ryzen 3 3300U soldered into it and it won't work, Witch i was prepared and knew it might not, after dumping 470 $into the project. The fans just spin so the board gets power but it seems there is no firmware on the board. Help!!! anyone out there think they could get me a generic bios on my Atari VCS and get it working for me. With the new APU installed. Confirm Ryzen 3 3300U FT5 BGA 1140 ball 4 cores 4 threads vega 6 graphics, did not work for apu upgrade. If anyone has done this with success leave a post. The best reballer in town did it to who does custom apus for xbox and ps4 and ps3 all the time so i know the bga solder rework is good. I can either buy another Atari VCS or have it reballed and put the old apu back in , both cost about the same. Labor for hand reball without stencil is 300 $ or so. Witch is fine. Anyone else try this with another APU, Maybe having success. Anyone know why the ryzen 3 3300U would not work as a replacement pinout is the same. Its on my board right now. So confirmed if not already the atari vcs is a amd FT5 bga 1140 ball unless they did something special to there apu to make it not work with another other apu. Atari VCS Engineers please chime in and explain if you would why the other apu would not work with the same pinout similiar specs. Thanks in advanced for replies Anyone think about trying this and going bigger think again it might not work. What core is used in the atari vcs. The 3300u uses a picasso core zen + according to cpu world.
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I have read that the Atari VCS OS is now running on other hardware. As a non-expert, I have to ask is there any practical purpose in doing so? Is it anything more than Linux (with some small customizations)?
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When running Windows 10, my GPU regularly runs in the mid to high 90s, and often spiking as high as 105. Atari to does not seem to think it is a problem. I turn off core boost in the bios as suggested to me, but this had no impact. Suggestions and comments are appreciated.
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It looks very beta, when someone has to enter the BIOS to boot any non-Atari-OS. The Atari team should at least install a boot manager like rEFInd. I just tried and on my system it works very well. You can configure it, but the standard configuration is that it boots the OS from last time...after 10 seconds or so. Download the rEFInd usb image from here https://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.12.0/refind-flashdrive-0.12.0.zip/download Copy it to a usb stick (in Linux Mint right-click on the img-file...there is an option "create bootable usb" or similar). Reboot the VCS. It boots from the rEFInd stick. It takes a while until the boot options are displayed (it scans all drives). Check if you can boot the AtariOS and your other OSs. If it works, in the rEFInd GUI there is an option "install to disk" or similar. Now...this is important...choose the EFI-A partition. This is the boot partition of the AtariOS. Reboot...remove the USB stick. Now you dont need the ESC and BIOS procedure anymore to boot from the OS of your choice. There is just one unsolved problem. You can do lots of configurations in the refind.conf file. The problem is that you cannot do it from the refind-GUI...and in another Linux OS the partition EFI-A is locked. Maybe it works in Windows. I havent figured that out yet. Just thought I let you know... https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/configfile.html EDIT: Important!!! If you want to undo it, you need an Atari USB flash stick! ?
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When I first added memory and the SSD to my VCS, I follow this video: My first question is whether these are still good settings to use. Second question: what tools should I use to verify the settings too hold? I changed the UMA frame buffer size to 4G which I thought was supposed to dedicate 4 GB RAM to the internal Vega 3 graphics as referenced at about 9:13 in the video. When looking at the system performance in Windows 10, I'm not sure if I did it correctly. Any input is appreciate.
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What is suppose to be the default TDP of the VCS? I thought it was 25W. Looking at ETA Prime's VCS teardown, his was set at 35W and he upgraded it to 54W. Mine was set to 45W as default and heat is a bit of an issue. I was benchmarking Hitman III in pc mode and it was crashing to desktop randomly when the resolution was set to 1080p. When I moved the TDP to 35W, the crashes stopped. I didn't lose much performance either. 5% max. I'm planning taking it apart and putting on new and better thermal paste and seeing if that helps the thermals any but that's a project for another day. For the record, Hitman III at 720p and everything else set to low or off, I got just over 27 fps on the Dubai level.
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Is there any real benefit to changing the video memory size (UMA Frame buffer) from auto to 4 gigs? Especially if you have upgraded to 16 or 32 gigs of memory? Either in native or pc mode.
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I Also had the soldered on board storage upgraded to 60GB and it worked and read in the bios using a Kingston 512gb endurance witch is 60gb tlc storage chip and it worked and read in bios. However Atari vcs will no longer install after doing so and my best guess is the installer does a disc check of some king and won't install to the larger on board chip. This is prior to the APU upgrade attempt So that can be upgraded. I was looking to find a 32gb FCBGA 153 ball slc chip witch is must faster and last longer but i couldn't find one. Or 128 gb or 64 gb slc. Kingston doesn't make an slc only mlc or tlc but. I realling wanted to find a 512gb MLC soldered on board chip but the only one kingston had is obsolete and i can't figure out what device it goes in or went in.
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Would a laptop cooling fan work on the VCS? When playing games like Doom, Cyberpunk 2077, and Fortnite it can reach temperatures in the 90 to 100 c range? Would that work, or would something blowing air from the back be better?
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I've installed 32GB ram. Been digging in the bios trying to set increased amount of dedicated video ram. Can not figure out how to do it. Where is that setting? Also, is increasing vram beneficial?
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There are a couple of games where it pulls to the left. Someone mentioned there was a way to calibrate them, but for the life of me, I cannot find that post... thanks!
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I'm mildly interested in it as a media/streaming/emulation box, using the OtherOS capability. But I can't find any information on actual benchmarks. Has anyone loaded another OS on this thing yet and run 3dMark/Passmark/etc? The closest thing I can find is this but this is another SBC using the same APU.
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The dual functions of the new VCS as console and PC is something which sets it apart from other consoles. The newest PS5 and Xbox consoles have much more raw power, but they cannot be used as a general PC. For me, this USP is a big win, and there are many markets where most people don't own console OR a PC. How this works is a big question for many people. This page describes the feature. https://shop.atarivcs.com/pc-mode There is a section on the Atari VCS support web-site also, on how to do it. https://atari.gamecentergroup.com/index.php?/VCS/Knowledgebase/List/Index/150 By now, lots of people are using either another Linux, Windows, or even SteamOS (and trying for GameOS) to run on the VCS. It seems already many people upgraded the RAM to 32GB, and added M.2 drives also, for their PC-Mode installs, instead of just installing on an external USB drive. I want to try Android-X86 too! This page shows a first board back in 2019, when a spring 2020 launch was expected, pre-Covid19. ? https://hothardware.com/news/atari-vcs-pre-production-commences-ryzen-apu How to install Windows on bootable USB drive (Atari doc) https://shop.atarivcs.com/content/PC-Mode-Create-Windows-Boot-Drive.pdf How to install Linux on bootable USB drive (Atari doc) https://shop.atarivcs.com/content/Linux-Install-Guide.pdf How to install an internal M.2 SSD drive. (Atari video guide) I think a thread to share our experiences and hints and tips is much easier than searching in 20 places. If YOU do not like my extra threads, just hover over my username below, and click on "x Ignore User".
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Apparently you can up the Video RAM and memory speed. I just wasn't brave enough to dig deeper into the bios settings.
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