rec.autos.simulators

Hi all, I'm wondering what CPU speed everyone is using. I'm dying to buy
a 450mhz Pentium to replace my aging 166mhz Pentium. I already own a
Voodoo2 card (which helped me stay away from upgrading before), but now
that I have GPL I can't seem to get more than 10fps no matter what I set
the settings for. That's so totally unacceptable. Anyway, I'm planning on
getting Trespasser and a few other WW II flight sims that are coming out
(wow, this is going to be one expensive quarter!).

What CPU speed would be good for getting perhaps 30fps with GPL with my
Voodoo 2? Do I need to get the 450mhz or can I save money and get the 350mhz?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

nathan

I have >GPL I can't seem to get more than 10fps no >matter what I set the
settings for.

Odd.  I've got a 200mmx Pentium, 32MB EDO ram, 512K 2nd cache, 8mb Voodoo2, & I
get 29-36FPS in training at 800x600 with most graphics on(mirrors on
minimum,no-- crowds, clouds, driver arms, dirt, dust, #of sounds on 3).
Shutting down a bit  more graphics, like object textures, dynamic & specular
lighting, & setting the detail bias to minimum, gets mid to high 20's in a race
with a field of 15cars, about 14/15 at the start line.  Not perfect, but pretty
decent.  Going to 640x480 gets about 1-2FPS more, and setting the sound quality
in the app.ini file to "0", instead of "2", will help a bit more still.  You
should be doing better than that.

If you must upgrade, this seems like the route:

Intel Celeron 300A
Abit BH6 motherboard
64MB PC100 SDRAM

You can get a bundle, with a heatsink & fan for the cpu for about 420-450 from
www.mushkin.com, depending on the memory.  Go for better memory if you think
you might want to run the motherboard at more than 100mhz, but that will give
you stable PII-450 performance at a fraction of the price.  Check out the parts
and info at http://www.anandtech.com/
or anywhere, for that matter.  This appears to be the consensus gamer's choice.
 Good luck.

Steve B.

No question here: get the 450! Yes, the 350 will run GPL and today's other
sims just fine, but then in a year you'll be looking to upgrade to run the
even-newer sims. I've made the mistake before of buying "adequate" instead
of "the best".

  Doug

I don't have a voodoo2, only a voodoo1, and a Celeron 266 running at 400.
With this I get between 25-30fps most of the time, sometimes up to 36 fps,
with most graphics on, but only cars/tracks with no textures in the mirrors.
I think with a voodoo2 you'll get your 30 fps and more most of the time, but
the Hercules thriller with rendition 2200 chip is the best video card for
GPL, according to numerous posts. Check out
http://nh.ultranet.com/~alison/gpl/ for a run down on all things GPL.
To save money have you thought about a Celeron 300A which overclocks easily
and is considerably cheaper than a PII 400.

replace your 166 with a celeron300A. mine is overclocked to 374 and it runs
full blast with everything on. i have run it at 450 but it doesn't need
it.i replaced a200mmx. get an 8 meg thriller too.

Thanks to you and Steve on the great advice. I actually didn't think the
Celeron was good for anything, but since both of you recommended it then
the chip must not be that bad. I'll take a look at the prices of the
chips. To tell you the truth I actually have a 150 Pentium overclocked to
166. Since you have your Celeron overclocked 374 didn't you run into any
problems such as memory errors or anything like that? I remember when I
was overclocking my 150 I got a ton of errors and had to play with my
bios to get it to work properly.

Also, isn't overclocking to 450 a bit much for the chip? Wouldn't it
overheat it too much and cause errors?

Again, thanks!

Nathan

Steve,
Your help has been invaluable. That web site you gave me is amazing! I
think you've just saved me over $700! Wow! Thanks!

Nathan

Hey guys,
I've got a 200mmx, 64mb, Rendition V1000 and I'm planning to upgrade
bigtime,, I was just gonna bite the bullet and buy a PII 450 and
VooDoo II, so as not to regret anything in the future (at least for a
year--ha)... but if the Celeron300A is really a stable alternative, at
least for a games machine,,, would I be stupid to pay the extra money
for the Intel Inside sticker? I can and will overclock,,, but.....

thanks
Rae

      I'm running an AMD K6-266 (oc to 83 x 3.5), a pure3d (thats a 6meg voodoo1)
running at 57, and a few other tweaks, and get around 36fps under normal
conditions. The lowest I've seen it so far is 24fps...

    Just make sure you get a 300A or 333, and not the old crap, cacheless ones!!!

    Use good quality SDRAM and you'll be fine...

    It seems these new celerons don't mind being overclocked to ludicrous
speeds...