rec.autos.simulators

by **Paul Jone** » Fri, 07 May 1999 04:00:00

I've been trying to get all the old machines in my house GPL "fit" and
have acheived remarkable results with a Pentium Pro 200MHz. This is, of
course, a far superior beast to the regular Pentium 200 MHz MMX or the
Pentium Overdrive 200 MHz, because of the very fast cache, which runs at
the same speed as the CPU (the same as a Pentium II 400 MHz's cache).
Well, I can only conclude that the cache is used extensively in GPL
because, with a single 12MB Voodoo2 card in the old Pro, it delivers
36fps in 1024x768 everywhere but at the start and in incidents provided
you select the arcade view. The***pit view requires a bit of tweaking
and reduction in graphics detail, but not marked and no reduction in
resolution is necessary. In fact it's really not that far short of a
Pentium II 400 MHz that also has a single 12MB Voodoo2 - at a guess I
say it performs around the speed of a Pentium II 333 MHz. I also tried
to get a Pentium Overdrive 200 MHz with an old fashioned Voodoo1 card to
run GPL. It's a major task to get 36fps with this one. Basically you
have to go for arcade view and turn amost everything off - and that's in
520 resolution. It looks horrible but I guess is just about driveable -
in fact it's a bit like old DOS racing games (GP2, Nascar 1, SODA etc).
In conclusion, don't turn out that old Pentuim Pro just yet. Instead buy
a Voodoo2 for it.
Cheers,
Paul

by **Richard Samuel McConac** » Sat, 08 May 1999 04:00:00

G'day :)

I also have a Pentium Pro box (a GW2k G6-200) which I have set to run
at 233MHz (66 x 3.5). This box also has a 12MB Voodoo II card in it.
I only race in***pit mode with cars only in the mirrors, all mirror
textures off, detail at ~40-50%, skidmarks off, everything else on.
I use the 800x600 resolution (85Hz refresh, sync to refresh off, Voodoo
II card clocked at 96MHz) and find that with the glide2 wrapper which
allows you to reduce the number of mirrors updates (I use refresh every
3 frames) I can get 30-36fps while racing when all is quiet and I'm
only close to one or two cars. When I'm in a larger pack this can drop
into the high or even low 20s though. While sitting at the rear of a
full AI grid at Kyalami at the start it will even dip to about 12fps.

I have a friend with a 300MHz Pentium II. His setup is different in
other ways but it seems to me that his machine handles a large field
of AI cars better. That task seems to be governed by CPU grunt alone.
I can get better framerates that he can when hotlapping (he has a
Matrox G200 using the Matrox beta patch for GPL) but I can never match
his framerate numbers when sitting in a grid. By the end of the straight
at Kyalami though we are roughly even with framerates of around 20 or
just over.

So in short I wouldn't go as far as to match my machine against fast
Pentium II/III or Celeron based machines but much fun can still be had
with setup. It is certainly quicker than my Pentium 233MMX (running
at 3.5x75~=263MHz) with a Voodoo I card (running at 57MHz) with the
rest of the settings as above.

Now a question :) I can avoid the cosmetic menu screen bugs by putting
the glide 2.53 DLL in my GPL directory. But can I have the latest
reference drivers for the Voodoo II, use the glide wrapper program
and still get the 2.53 DLL in at the same time? At present I can't
think of a way so I've stuck with the latest refence drivers and the
glide wrapper program since the cosmetic problems with the menu screen
don't worry me and I like the increased framerate (reducing the mirror
updates seems to be worth something like 2-3fps in general use).

Have fun and happy driving :)

- ricky

by **Peter Gag** » Sun, 09 May 1999 04:00:00

> I've been trying to get all the old machines in my house GPL "fit" and
> have acheived remarkable results with a Pentium Pro 200MHz. This is, of
> course, a far superior beast to the regular Pentium 200 MHz MMX or the
> Pentium Overdrive 200 MHz, because of the very fast cache, which runs at
> the same speed as the CPU (the same as a Pentium II 400 MHz's cache).
> Well, I can only conclude that the cache is used extensively in GPL
> because, with a single 12MB Voodoo2 card in the old Pro, it delivers
> 36fps in 1024x768 everywhere but at the start and in incidents provided
> you select the arcade view. The***pit view requires a bit of tweaking
> and reduction in graphics detail, but not marked and no reduction in
> resolution is necessary. In fact it's really not that far short of a
> Pentium II 400 MHz that also has a single 12MB Voodoo2 - at a guess I
> say it performs around the speed of a Pentium II 333 MHz. I also tried
> to get a Pentium Overdrive 200 MHz with an old fashioned Voodoo1 card to
> run GPL. It's a major task to get 36fps with this one. Basically you
> have to go for arcade view and turn amost everything off - and that's in
> 520 resolution. It looks horrible but I guess is just about driveable -
> in fact it's a bit like old DOS racing games (GP2, Nascar 1, SODA etc).
> In conclusion, don't turn out that old Pentuim Pro just yet. Instead buy
> a Voodoo2 for it.
> Cheers,
> Paul

Hey, Paul, have you tried running the Ppro at 225 instead of 200? (using 3
x 75 busspeed) as that should speed up everything, not just your cpu!!!

8-)

*Peter* 8-)

by **Paul Jone** » Sun, 09 May 1999 04:00:00

I'm always frightened of overclocking. Can I burn up my CPU or is it safe?
Cheers,
Paul

> > I've been trying to get all the old machines in my house GPL "fit" and
> > have acheived remarkable results with a Pentium Pro 200MHz. This is, of
> > course, a far superior beast to the regular Pentium 200 MHz MMX or the
> > Pentium Overdrive 200 MHz, because of the very fast cache, which runs at
> > the same speed as the CPU (the same as a Pentium II 400 MHz's cache).
> > Well, I can only conclude that the cache is used extensively in GPL
> > because, with a single 12MB Voodoo2 card in the old Pro, it delivers
> > 36fps in 1024x768 everywhere but at the start and in incidents provided
> > you select the arcade view. The***pit view requires a bit of tweaking
> > and reduction in graphics detail, but not marked and no reduction in
> > resolution is necessary. In fact it's really not that far short of a
> > Pentium II 400 MHz that also has a single 12MB Voodoo2 - at a guess I
> > say it performs around the speed of a Pentium II 333 MHz. I also tried
> > to get a Pentium Overdrive 200 MHz with an old fashioned Voodoo1 card to
> > run GPL. It's a major task to get 36fps with this one. Basically you
> > have to go for arcade view and turn amost everything off - and that's in
> > 520 resolution. It looks horrible but I guess is just about driveable -
> > in fact it's a bit like old DOS racing games (GP2, Nascar 1, SODA etc).
> > In conclusion, don't turn out that old Pentuim Pro just yet. Instead buy
> > a Voodoo2 for it.
> > Cheers,
> > Paul

> Hey, Paul, have you tried running the Ppro at 225 instead of 200? (using 3
> x 75 busspeed) as that should speed up everything, not just your cpu!!!

> 8-)

> *Peter* 8-)

by **Kolbj?rn S. Br?nnic** » Mon, 10 May 1999 04:00:00

I have to disagree about the PPRO for GPL.

I ran on a PPRO with 128 mb ram and a V2 12 mb CL card. I would estimate
it's speed to that of a hyphotethical PII 200, not a PII333.

the PPRO . (Measured at the back of the grid at Monaco with 19 AI
opponents).

K.S. Br?nnick

by **Peter Gag** » Mon, 10 May 1999 04:00:00

> I'm always frightened of overclocking. Can I burn up my CPU or is it
> safe?

Burning up your cpu is highly unlikely? (You should of course take the
usual static electricity precautions whenever you are working on pc
internal components though! EG: grounding yourself before touching
anything).

The worse that may usually happen is that the pc will just not work.
If this happens you merely reset the pc to its previous settings, and it
will then work again as normal.

Sometimes when overclocking, the pc will not boot, or it will only boot
until a certain point then stop, or it may boot but you get error
messages, or programs will simply not run, or the pc will not be able to
read the hard disk. In extreme cases you may have to reformat the harddisk
and re-install your software, but this is pretty rare.

Generally, if you overclock, then run the pc, and it starts ok, try using
a few different programs straight away, say a win9x utility, a game or
two, a word processor, etc. If they run ok, and you can use the pc for say
an hour or so, then its usually ok and you shouldn't get any further
problems.

The main problem with overclocking is the excess heat from the cpu,
provided you have good ventilation, maybe add an extra fan? then this
should not be a problem. Like I say, if you get past say an hour or twos
use with no problems, then this means the cpu is not getting too hot, and
all should be ok.

Just try one increase at a time and see how it goes, (if there is more
than one possibly increase to make?) don't try and set it as fast as
possible in one go or it will almost certainly not work.

8-)

*Peter* 8-)

by Jo » Mon, 10 May 1999 04:00:00

All you PPro users, just make sure to fix the problem
with the data-transfer to the video adapter.
improves framerate.

Joachim

> I have to disagree about the PPRO for GPL.

> I ran on a PPRO with 128 mb ram and a V2 12 mb CL card. I would estimate
> it's speed to that of a hyphotethical PII 200, not a PII333.

as
> the PPRO . (Measured at the back of the grid at Monaco with 19 AI
> opponents).

> K.S. Br?nnick

by **Paul Jone** » Tue, 11 May 1999 04:00:00

So in your estimation the same speed cache is worth nothing? A PII has a cache
at half CPU speed so a hypothetical PII 200MHz would have a cache at 100MHz -
whereas the PPro 200MHz has a cache running at 200MHz. I believe that the PII
core is essentially the PPro core, so I'm wondering where the hypothetical PII
200MHz is making up the ground. Anyway what ever you maintain I can tell you
that it's faster.
Cheers,
Paul

> I have to disagree about the PPRO for GPL.

> I ran on a PPRO with 128 mb ram and a V2 12 mb CL card. I would estimate
> it's speed to that of a hyphotethical PII 200, not a PII333.

> the PPRO . (Measured at the back of the grid at Monaco with 19 AI
> opponents).

> K.S. Br?nnick

by **Kolbj?rn S. Br?nnic** » Tue, 11 May 1999 04:00:00

>So in your estimation the same speed cache is worth nothing? A PII has a
cache
>at half CPU speed so a hypothetical PII 200MHz would have a cache at
100MHz -
>whereas the PPro 200MHz has a cache running at 200MHz. I believe that the
PII
>core is essentially the PPro core, so I'm wondering where the hypothetical
PII
>200MHz is making up the ground. Anyway what ever you maintain I can tell
you
>that it's faster.
>Cheers,
>Paul

Well, you forget that the L1 cache is only 8kb+8kb for the PPRO vs 16+16 for
the PII. Remember how much a difference this made for the P200MMX over the
P200? Also, the FX chipset using EDO ram for the PPRO has slower RAM access
than the new SDRAM chipsets for the PII.

I don't think a PPRO200 is fast enough for GPL if racing online or against
many AI opponents.

Regards K.S. Br?nnick

rec.autos.simulators

GPL on a Pentium Pro

GPL on a Pentium Pro

GPL on a Pentium Pro

GPL on a Pentium Pro

GPL on a Pentium Pro

GPL on a Pentium Pro

GPL on a Pentium Pro

GPL on a Pentium Pro

GPL on a Pentium Pro

GPL on a Pentium Pro