rec.autos.simulators

GP2 Framerates.

There's been loads of noise in the last few weeks about "best" video
cards, hardware, etc for GP2. Just done an upgrade.....results may be
telling for some people.

Before :-

Pentium 66MHz, 32Mb EDO, Mercury Chipset, PCI Fahrenheit Pro 64 4mb
video card (S3 964 chipset).

With track, kerbs, verges and fences textures infront, nothing in the
mirrors, and all trackside objects on, I was getting about 11 frames per
second.....I found this playable by the way! Each to their own.

Chris's CDBenchmarks.....VGA 75.8 = 45.5 frames per second,
                        SVGA 25.5 = 15.3 frames per second.

After :-

Pentium 166MHz, Triton Hx chipset and 512kb pipeline level 2 cache are
the only significant changes.

Getting 21 frames on my previous track detail, now 17.5 with everything
except sky infront, and track, banks, verges, fences and kerbs in the
mirrors.

Chris's CDBenchmarks.....VGA 146.9 = 88.1 frames per second,
                        SVGA  53.6 = 32.1 frames per second.

To me this further reinforces the notion that "ultimate" video card
performance isn't important - I made a significant boost to the CPU
speed, but equally importantly (I suspect) improved the motherboard with
a better implementation of PCI, EDO handling, etc. And it's made a BIG
difference.

To all those looking for a panacea upgrade - look at your system
carefully and try to think where the bottleneck in data processing is -
you may find a mid-priced motherboard worth FAR more than the most hyped
video card or the highest-Hz CPU!

Cheers!

---
 * RM 1.3 U0414 * I'm a fugitive from the law of averages.

Unfortunately your 3D Benchmark score is less than mine if I knock my
system down to 166Mhz, and the primary difference is in the video card.
I get an SVGA score of 68, and the Herc Dynamite is the main difference.

In general the CPU will make a HUGE difference, the motherboard next
(can be around 20%), and the video card will make about 10-15%. Other
bits like pipe-cache, EDO, SDRAM will be single figure improvements.

By all means save money on the video card, but in any case look for a
GOOD one. There are cheap Ark2000 cards which are fast in DOS, the
Hervules Stingray is pretty cheap, the Diamond Stealth 64 2001 is also
cheap and Ark2000 based. There's no need to spend megabucks on a 8Mb
WRAM Matrox, just avoid a turkey and spend wisely.

My Dynamite probably cost the same or less than your Fahrenheit, and I
get more than 20% faster than you in SVGA. Money well spent?

Cheers!
John

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