> I can't compare my PC with others, 'cos I can't afford three top notch
> PC's. But my PPro200 runs GP2 very well, it's doesn't do full detail, but
> I hear that there isn't a PC that does full detail and smooth graphics....
> so either wait longer for quicker PCs or just go for it.
> My spec is
> Pro200
> 32meg RAM
> 4 meg Millenium graphics
> 12x CDROM
I agree with James. I've had my P6200/256 for over a year
and I think it's great. I choose to have my details maxed, with
nothing in the mirrors but the cars floating on a field of blue.
And no sky. I run my FPS at about 21 or 22 for most tracks. To
me, this looks like "The movies" as far as smooth goes. For
Monaco I need to turn it down to 18 or 19, which does show, but
I find it very playable. When I spin and smoke covers the screen,
the P6 goes to it's knees, perhaps 2 frames a second, but when
I'm driving right, I'm very happy. With the frame rates mentioned,
the Processor Occupancy does sometimes spike over 150%, but it's
in the 60-100% range most of the time. I am talking SVGA, of
course.
I'm using fastvid to optimize my P6 and support chips. Someday
I expect that it's magic will be part of every P6 BIOS. It's free,
so if you get a P6, check it out. It's NOT a TSR, it runs at boot
time and turns on some performance features that I don't understand.
Remember, the P6 is optimized for 32 bit code, rather than DOS
with it's small segments that require the segment registers be
changed all the time. The racing sims and the flight sims we talk
about here are DOS4GW programs. DOS is 16 bit code, but DOS4GW
presents our sims with a nice "flat memory model" 32 bit environment
in which to run. So the P6 should have an advantage.
Like James, I can't afford a top end Pentium just to compare GP2
on. I keep hearing people settling for lower frame rates on their
Pentiums, but it's hard to know what detail level they demand, or
what Processor Occupancy rates they will tolerate.
Larry
