GPL (Banshee vs. V3-3000)

AMD K6-2 400 Micronics C200 Motherboard 64 MB V3 3000 AGP (latest beta driver and/or latest qualified driver) Monster Sound M80 Win98 (se version) DirectX 7a gpl 1.2 using the glide2x patch resolution of 1024 x 768 Microsoft FF Sidewinder Wheel I just upgraded from a Creative 3d Blaster Banshee video card to the Voodoo3 3000 card with the only reason being to get better fps in gpl. The specs on the two cards are: V3 3000: 100 billion operations per second 350 mhz ramdec 7 million poly per second 16 meg ram Banshee: 36 billion operations per second 250 mhz ramdec 3 million poly per second 16 meg ram vsync off for both cards I was expecting a minimum of, say 25% increase in frame rate and got nothing. I am comparing frame rate by sitting at the back of a standard field of 12 cars at the start of a race at Monza and at Rouen. I have tested with the details slider at 4 different positions from - to + and again I get no improvement. ~ 16 fps at full details at monza ~ 30 fps at minimum details at monza and about 2 fps less at rouen. Both cards get up to the max of 36 fps once the field spreads out and stay there for most of the laps. Front stright at monza drops to ~ 32. Again the banshee ran fine, I was just trying to get those extra 5 or 6 fps in gpl when the cars were packed close togeather. Mid pack at the hairpin at Rouen is my worst spot. If I was faster, through that complex, there wouldn't be a train in the mirrors, and I wouldn't need a video upgrade, but I'm not, so I do!! Any ideas??

"Tom Robinson" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:38fb03f3$0$[email hidden]... <snipped tail of woe> > Any ideas?? Tom, The limiting factor on your systems is the k6-2 processor. I know - I've got the same one myself, and get very similar frane rates with a 12MB Voodoo2. The situations where you wanted a frame rate boost are the ones where the k6-2 is having to work its hardest. The extra speed of the V3 is "wasted", becuase the k6-2 can't feed it data quickly enough to keep it busy. The only way you're goping to get extra speed is with a procerssor upgrade. Going to a k6-2 550 will give you a little boost, but not a lot. A k6-iii 450 would be better, if you can find one (no longer made). Neither of these options are going to be wonderful, though. If you really want significantly better franme rates, you're going to have to change the motherboard as well, and go to a celeron, Pentium II or III, or Athlon processor. Ian Ian Riches Bedford, UK

Tom Robinson <[email hidden]> wrote: : I just upgraded from a Creative 3d Blaster Banshee video card to : the Voodoo3 3000 card with the only reason being to get better : fps in gpl. : I was expecting a minimum of, say 25% increase in frame rate : and got nothing. : Any ideas?? Nothing except to say that I had a similar experience with a Celeron O/C'd to about 450 MHz. There simply wasn't that much difference with the voodoo3 - my guess is that the GPL graphics code simply isn't well written to take advantage of optimisation features. There are a few BIOS things that you could fiddle with - for example I found that my AGP clock was set to only run at a fraction of the normal bus clock. This helped marginally. Overall, however, going from a Banshee to a Voodoo3 3000 did almost nothing for GPL though it did help a lot of other games. I was a little disappointed because I specifically asked about the issue here and several people reported that the V3 really helped. -- Richard G. Clegg Only the mind is waving Networks and Non-Linear Dynamics Group Dept. of Mathematics, Uni. of York UPDATED WWW: http://manor.york.ac.uk/

NO Improvement with the Detail slider adjustment..........??????????????? U maybe running into a brick wall otherwise knows as your CPU also, u have no need of the glide2x patch with the V3, and u will see better frame rates without it. All these frame rate problems are mute once u race online. Your system never has to draw anymore than 5 cars ahead of u. Frame rates in GPL are actually better online than offline. And who wants to race drones anyways. Md Tom Robinson wrote:

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> > AMD K6-2 400 > Micronics C200 Motherboard > 64 MB > V3 3000 AGP (latest beta driver and/or latest qualified driver) > Monster Sound M80 > Win98 (se version) > DirectX 7a > > gpl 1.2 > using the glide2x patch > resolution of 1024 x 768 > Microsoft FF Sidewinder Wheel > > I just upgraded from a Creative 3d Blaster Banshee video card to > the Voodoo3 3000 card with the only reason being to get better > fps in gpl. > > The specs on the two cards are: > > V3 3000: > 100 billion operations per second > 350 mhz ramdec > 7 million poly per second > 16 meg ram > > Banshee: > 36 billion operations per second > 250 mhz ramdec > 3 million poly per second > 16 meg ram > > vsync off for both cards > > I was expecting a minimum of, say 25% increase in frame rate > and got nothing. > > I am comparing frame rate by sitting at the back of a standard > field of 12 cars at the start of a race at Monza and at Rouen. > I have tested with the details slider at 4 different positions > from - to + and again I get no improvement. > > ~ 16 fps at full details at monza > ~ 30 fps at minimum details at monza > and about 2 fps less at rouen. > > Both cards get up to the max of 36 fps once the field spreads out > and stay there for most of the laps. Front stright at monza > drops to ~ 32. > > Again the banshee ran fine, I was just trying to get those extra > 5 or 6 fps in gpl when the cars were packed close togeather. > Mid pack at the hairpin at Rouen is my worst spot. If I was faster, > through that complex, there wouldn't be a train in the mirrors, and > I wouldn't need a video upgrade, but I'm not, so I do!! > > Any ideas??

In article <8df1ht$7ii1m$[email hidden]>, Ian Riches <[email hidden]> writes

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>"Tom Robinson" <[email hidden]> wrote in message >news:38fb03f3$0$[email hidden]... ><snipped tail of woe> > >> Any ideas?? > >Tom, > >The limiting factor on your systems is the k6-2 processor. I know - I've >got the same one myself, and get very similar frane rates with a 12MB >Voodoo2. The situations where you wanted a frame rate boost are the ones >where the k6-2 is having to work its hardest. The extra speed of the V3 is >"wasted", becuase the k6-2 can't feed it data quickly enough to keep it >busy. > >The only way you're goping to get extra speed is with a procerssor upgrade. >Going to a k6-2 550 will give you a little boost, but not a lot. A k6-iii >450 would be better, if you can find one (no longer made). Neither of these >options are going to be wonderful, though. >

The max cpu my board can manage is a k6-2 550. I've currently got a k6-2 450, which is the current bottleneck, and was wondering what kind of framerate improvements I would see with a k6-2 550 or a k6-3 450 over my current cpu. I need a cheapish upgrade for now you see, as opposed to upgrading the whole shebang. Mind you Ian, like you say, I'm not sure how easy getting hold of k6-3s are at the mo. -- Peter Ives - (AKA Ivington) No person's opinions can be said to be more correct than another's, because each is the sole judge of his or her own experience.