I just finished testing SDD 5.3 on my system, and here's the results.
First the system :
P150 overclocked at 166, 32 mb ram, Matrox millenium 2mb bios v2.0. Sound
blaster 16, and Creative CDRom 6X.
I've downloaded and tested the software today, I used Imola as testing ground.
Textures on : curbs, fences, verges, smoke and trackside objects.
In mirror I have only track and smoke.
Trackside objects = All .
Estimated frame rate = 25.6 and I set it at 23.2
Driving with a T2
Method used to check processor occupancy : I used the auto gear and I kept the
< O > key, pressed throughout the circuit.
And also did a few laps without the auto gear just to FEEL the difference.
The facts:
Performance :
From Win95 AND DOS, no improvement in the shown frame rate in the program,
however when entering Tamburello I usualy get around 166% processor occupancy,
and with SDD 5.3 it dropped to 154%. But again it's hard to SEE and FEEL a
real difference. I tested it with the regular command line C:\gp2\gp2 AND with
the C:\gp2\gp2 video:vesa, both ways the video speed in the GP2LOG.TXT went
down I.E. before sdd 5.3 it was 463, and with it it was 459 with the
video:vesa line and 460 with the regular command line. I also compared before
and after SDD 5.3 with Wintune95 and it showed no difference.
Bits and pieces :
I've noticed two things, First, the colors are not as bright as with the
regular matrox driver. Second, with SDD 5.3 my CDROM drawer refused to open,
when I tried to put the NHL 96 CD in it. At first I tought that I did'nt press
the button properly and tried again but no it wouldn't budge, so I uninstalled
it (there is an uninstall function with the program) and bingo the CDROM
drawer was opening again. I'd like to know if someone else had the same
problem or is it just a conflict with something in my rig.
This is in no way a scientific review of this software, I only tested it with
GP2, and I'll do more test with other software, perhaps that it could improve
YOUR display speed, those are only personnal observations of how it perform on
my system.
The SDD 5.3 software package is well done and have a professional look and
feel and IMHO you should try it to see what it could do for you.
John