53 fps in Quake 3 High Quality with a Geforce 2, something's wrong

[erikiksaz]

my system :

cel 550
soyo 6vba 133
128 megs of ram
visiontek geforce 2 32 ddr
mx300

Ok, i know that i should be getting more than 50 fps in high quality. What's holding me back? Is it the cpu? Or is it the motherboard, since i've heard that the older via chips really kill gameplay.

 

[Rakkis]

It's never a bad idea to check for new video drivers

 

[RGN]

Yes, the CPU is some of the bottleneck, but the VIA chipset is the real killer. Make sure you have the latest 4 in 1 drivers installed. The MX300 is also a real CPU hog, it will lower the frame rates too.

 

[Intol]

only if a3d 2.0 is enabled

 

[erikiksaz]

well so far i have the newest nvidia video drivers. the newest 4 in 1's are installed as well. a3d isn't turned on either.

 

[Mule]

it's definately the celeron 550.

I upgraded my PIII 450 which had a voodoo banshee to a Radeon 32MB DDR and I saw a 7 fps increase in Unreal. Until I got a new 1.1 ghz thunderbird system which doubled the fps.

For anything under PIII 500 or Cel 600, a TNT2 ultra is good enough, unless you want to play above 1024x768.

A Geforce2 on that system is overkill.

 

[BFG10K]

You should be getting more than that. My Celeron 500 with a GF2 MX was getting ~65 FPS at 640 x 480 x 32 in Quake 3.

Mule:

For anything under PIII 500 or Cel 600, a TNT2 ultra is good enough, unless you want to play above 1024x768.

T&L cards will boost performance in CPU limited situations. A GF based board is much better than a TNT2 Ultra in almost any low-end system.

 

[ArchAngel777]

And how many games make use of T&L? very few and they suck, thus making his point valid. The celeron is the bottleneck, you who have a celly 500 and got higher, I bet you disabled sound huh? Yeah I bet so... and I also bet your quality is not set to high, prob on fast. Nothing is wrong with your system dude, just upgrade the CPU if you wan't it to scale... to prove to you it is the CPU do this for a test


1. Disable sound card and see if performance goes up 10-15% If it does I have just proved to you your CPU is the bottleneck.

2. If I proved my point correct, then you owe me 50$, I accept paypal

 

[BigToque]

As ArchAngel's manager I get 10% profit