rec.autos.simulators

by **Tracey A Mille** » Tue, 21 Sep 1999 04:00:00

All you've done is overclock the card. The card specific drivers run at a
faster clock rate then the reference drivers.

Paul Eigsti wrote

by **Paul Eigst** » Wed, 22 Sep 1999 04:00:00

I purchased N3 late last week, and have been somewhat unhappy with my
framerate using Glide on my STB Blackmagic VooDoo2 12 meg card. (full
system specs at bottom of message, for the curious).

I followed the "living with the jiggies" message thread, but was quite
unhappy with the sims appearance when running without anti-aliasing.

My settings are: 800-600, anti-aliasing ON, all graphic options on, full
field, opponents drawn ahead 25, behind 3, track drawn 4, 16 bit sound.

I used the frame rate counter (ALT-F) in N3, and my "test zone" is a pace
lap at California (without qualifying). I found that on the back straight I
took the biggest frame rate hits.

After much (I mean a *TON*) of tinkering, I found a way to gain an average
of 7 FPS during the "heavy load" times, when the frame rate is at it's
lowest.

I had been utilizing the latest reference drivers for my V2, from
www.3dfx.com (file named rkv2dx6.exe)

I completely removed those drivers, and all related files. I installed my
cards original drivers (from November 1998!!).

My frame rates went up by about 5FPS in my "test zone". Then I decided to
see what would happen if I copied the latest glide files to my Windows
directories, but WITHOUT installing the rest of the reference drivers.
....I gained another 2 FPS!

So, in my case, I was able to gain 7 FPS by going back to the "card
specific" drivers for my V2, and using Glide 2.56.

My worst frame rates before changing drivers was averaging 17, afterwards
it's 25 (minimum). The frame rate counter spends MUCH more time maxed out
now. :-)

Of course, YMMV!!

If anyone would like detailed instructions on changing back to older
drivers, feel free to e-mail me. Of course, just because this worked for me
DOES NOT mean that's certain to improve YOUR frame rates.

System specs:
Dell P2-450
128 meg Ram
NVidea Riva TNT 16 meg video
STB BlackMagic 12 meg VooDoo2 video
Sound Blaster Live!

--
-Paul

My reply address is false.
Please post replies to this news group.
If you need to e-mail me, it's
scan-man at home dot com

by **Paul Eigst** » Wed, 22 Sep 1999 04:00:00

I have to disagree, as Powerstrip showed my "VooDoo clock" at 90MHz with the
reference drivers, as well as the BlackMagic ones.

--
-Paul

My reply address is false.
Please post replies to this news group.
If you need to e-mail me, it's
scan-man at home dot com

by **Extract** » Wed, 22 Sep 1999 04:00:00

So I used a utility and it stated the voodoo 2 reference drivers ran
the card at 90 MHz. What do you think STB ran the card at to cause
Paul to get a 7 fps increase?

Ex

On Mon, 20 Sep 1999 22:29:54 -0500, "Tracey A Miller"

>All you've done is overclock the card. The card specific drivers run at a
>faster clock rate then the reference drivers.

>Paul Eigsti wrote
>>After much (I mean a *TON*) of tinkering, I found a way to gain an average
>>of 7 FPS during the "heavy load" times, when the frame rate is at it's
>>lowest.

by **Extract** » Wed, 22 Sep 1999 04:00:00

Are you sure Tracey? Sounds pretty bad if the 3dfx 1000 PCI is just a
reboxed STB Blackmagic 2 and if the reference drivers 3dfx uses slow
down their own video card.

Ex

On Mon, 20 Sep 1999 22:29:54 -0500, "Tracey A Miller"

>All you've done is overclock the card. The card specific drivers run at a
>faster clock rate then the reference drivers.

>Paul Eigsti wrote
>>After much (I mean a *TON*) of tinkering, I found a way to gain an average
>>of 7 FPS during the "heavy load" times, when the frame rate is at it's
>>lowest.

by **Tracey A Mille** » Wed, 22 Sep 1999 04:00:00

Ed Bain wrote

Sure they do. The reference drivers default to 85mhz. Diamonds drivers
default to 95, with a slider to adjust up to 105. Every card manufacturer
tries to boost the performance from the reference board in order to look
better on review benchmarks.

by **Tracey A Mille** » Wed, 22 Sep 1999 04:00:00

The reference drivers are meant to be generic, so they run stable on any
card with or without cooling. Some manufacturers will put heat sinks on,
change the ram layout, or even put a fan on the card in order to run at
faster clock speeds.

But yes, all Voodoo 2 cards are basically the same. I run one Monster 2 with
a V1000 in SLI, the Monster ran stable at 95mhz, but when I added the V1000
I had to drop down to 90 to keep from locking up.

Extractor wrote

by **Tracey A Mille** » Wed, 22 Sep 1999 04:00:00

Ed Bain wrote

Wrong again Ed. The clock rate is set by the driver (although 3rd party
utilities can change the driver's default speed). Higher clock speeds equal
higher temperatures. If a card manufacturer wants to set the default rate
higher, they will engineer ways to dissipate that heat.

by **Tracey A Mille** » Wed, 22 Sep 1999 04:00:00

Ed Bain wrote

Incorrect again. Niether the Reference drivers nor the V1000 drivers come
with the ability to set the clock rate. Only a few manufacturers allow the
user to set the clock rate, since you can damage the board by going too
high.

That's true, but usually it's the newer drivers that are faster rather than
an older version. It is possible though that the older 3DFX drivers are
faster than the new ones, and Paul was the first person to discover this. Or
maybe they are just faster in the case of N3. I'll stick with the latest
version though unless more people confirm his findings.

by **Extract** » Fri, 24 Sep 1999 04:00:00

I followed Tracey's instructions and it seems to do as he claimed. I
did it a little more simple, by removing the card in the properties
menu, removing the driver from the add/remove section, deleted the
voodoo2 .inf file from the c:\windows\inf\other and then copied the
new glide drivers to over the old glide drivers using the set of
drivers available via STB in a temporary directory, then rebooted the
system. After installing the new drivers I reinstalled dx6.1. On the
back stretch at Talladega I was getting 17 fps at 800x600 with
everything on and anti aliasing on. After the "old" driver was
installed I was getting 24->25 fps. Then not satisfied yet I did a
little tweaking by installing PowerStrip and enabling "don't sync
buffer swaps to refresh rate" and increasing the voodoo clock to from
90 to 100. The frame rate increased to 28->29 fps. Finally I shut
off, "infield textures, no infield vehicles, no billboards, and no
fence". This allows me to get 30->31 fps on the backstretch at
Talladega with 16 cars drawn ahead, 4 behind, high quality sounds and
all sounds on, at 800x600.

I don't know if its something with drivers, but I do know in the
3dfx.products.voodoo2 there had been posts in the past of how the beta
reference drivers for q3test slowed down their other games.

Ex

On Tue, 21 Sep 1999 02:44:03 -0500, "Tracey A Miller"

>Ed Bain wrote
>>Uhhh... drivers have ZERO to do with heat. Heat is a function of
>>clock speed and other factors, not the driver software.

>Wrong again Ed. The clock rate is set by the driver (although 3rd party
>utilities can change the driver's default speed). Higher clock speeds equal
>higher temperatures. If a card manufacturer wants to set the default rate
>higher, they will engineer ways to dissipate that heat.

rec.autos.simulators

N3 & VooDoo2 - how I gained 7 FPS :-)

N3 & VooDoo2 - how I gained 7 FPS :-)

N3 & VooDoo2 - how I gained 7 FPS :-)

N3 & VooDoo2 - how I gained 7 FPS :-)

N3 & VooDoo2 - how I gained 7 FPS :-)

N3 & VooDoo2 - how I gained 7 FPS :-)

N3 & VooDoo2 - how I gained 7 FPS :-)

N3 & VooDoo2 - how I gained 7 FPS :-)

N3 & VooDoo2 - how I gained 7 FPS :-)

N3 & VooDoo2 - how I gained 7 FPS :-)

N3 & VooDoo2 - how I gained 7 FPS :-)