Back when I was running an Athlon 800 and GeForce 256 DDR, I was torn
between a processor upgrade and a video card upgrade. I went with the video
card upgrade for two reasons. I felt the GeForce 256 DDR was out of steam,
and to upgrade the processor I would also have to buy a new motherboard (I
had a slot-a).
So I bought a Hercules GeForce II GTS Pro card.
I saw a _reasonable_ increase in N4 performance. About 10fps. I was
running around 40fps max.
A month or so later, I decided what the hell. Might as well do the whole
thing.
So, I upgraded the Motherboard to an ASUS A7V133, and put in an Athlon
1.2Ghz DDR processor.
My N4 fps jumped from 40fps max to 75+ fps, tickling 80fps from time to
time.
I run ALL graphics levels at 100%, 32 cars ahead, and I think 16 cars
behind.
Of course, I'm affected by on-screen stuff as much as anyone else,
especially smoke. Smoke is THE big frame rate killer...
-Larry
> CPU load will rise greatly with more cars in front. You're pretty much
> right about the Geforce doing the same work in both cases, but CPU
> load is much lower when you're viewing the replay, because there are
> no AI and physics calculations to be done.
> I can't really comment from my system, because it's very different,
> but you could always try overclocking it a bit and see how you go. And
> obviously try the graphics tweaks mentioned, see how they work out.
> Rafe Mc
> >Does Graphics detail like world detail eat up cpu cycles? The reason
> >I ask is the fact that I get great frame rates in replay when,
> >technically, the work that the Geforce is doing is the same as in the
> >race, but the load on the CPU is much less. Right now, I have world
> >detail set at about 70% I believe. I draw 60% ahead, show all cars
> >ahead and 4 behind. I show some objects for world detail and have car
> >detail set on the highest.
> >I have all ready gone through the tweaks posted by Les Marton (very
> >excellent guide by the way). I moved up from a TNT2 Ultra and was
> >hoping to get much better fps. The only real advantage I have found
> >is that I can run OpenGL (which looks much better) and I can turn up
> >graphics options much higher, but at a certain point, turning down
> >graphic options yields very small fps increases.
> >I keep my system pretty clean so very little is running in the
> >background. My wheel is a USB wheel. I will try upgrading to DX 8a
> >if I dont have it and see if that makes a difference.
> >>> check the main graphic detail slider (can't remember the name of it),
> >>> you might want to try turning it down to around 60% or so - a little
> >>> in either direction can have a major impact.
> >>That's the World Detail slider. It'll have a definite impact on your
> >>framerates. Like the poster says, turn it down to a little over halfway
> >>& check it out. Then adjust to suit.
> >>--
> >>Fester
> >Brian Oster Remove NOSPAM from my email to reply.