This week TechARP discusses the No Mask of SBA FE BIOS setting, you can learn about it over here.
This BIOS feature controls the masking of the signal used to calibrate the SBA (Sideband Address) port. It is used to fix compatibility issues with certain graphics cards.
When enabled, the chipset will mask (hide) the SBA calibration signal so that the graphics chip will not initiate the SBA calibration cycle. Since the SBA port is never recalibrated, the issue of graphics card hanging due to SBA recalibration is avoided.
When disabled, the graphics chip is allowed to initiate the SBA calibration cycle right after the AGP bus calibration cycle.
Users of ATI R300-based graphics cards (i.e. Radeon 9700 Pro, Radeon 9800) are advised to enable this BIOS feature if the graphic card hangs or crashes during 3D benchmarking or gaming.
Users of other unaffected graphics cards are advised to disable this feature so that the chipset can dynamically calibrate the SBA port.
