Any tweaking suggestions?

pamf

Senior member
Dec 11, 2000
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Ok first off, here's my system specs:

http://users.uniserve.ca/~cygnus/desk/phoenix.html

Now .. I'm trying to squeeze as much performance out of it as I can .. I'm using Q3A v1.29f timedemo as a benchmark .. (1024, max detail) .. So far, overclocking my gf2 has brought me up from 61 fps to 74 fps.. Anyone got any other ideas?

I also have det3 12.41, dx8, via 4in1 4.32, all critical updates from windows update, latest liveware, etc.. I want to get every last frame out of this I can ;)

Since I haven't had any stability problems yet, I'm going to keep taking the video speed up until I hit problems.. Then I'm gonna start on the cpu :p

So .. Any suggestions? :D

 
Jan 12, 2001
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You want video tweaks or general tweaks??
Here's some general tweaks - you may already be using them, but what the hell......

Speed up Internet Explorer

The HTTP 1.1 spec limits the number of simultaneous connections any one browser can make to a given server. This IE tweak turns off IE's built-in compliance with this standard, and lets your copy of IE open far more simultaneous connections with a server. This means your browser can grab many chunks of a web page at one time, speeding load times.


1) Run Regedit
2) Navigate to the following folder:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\InternetSettings]
3) Create the following "DWORD": MaxConnectionsPerServer
4) Set the value to any high number (the default is 2)
5) Creat the following "DWORD": MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server
6) Set the value to any high number as well (the default is 4)

=================

Speed up Modem

For those of you who own a 28,800 (or faster) bps analog modem connected to a
fast 16550AF/16550AN UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter) on
your system, there is a way to maximize your UART internal transfer speed.
There are actually 2 methods to achieve this:
1. One is to right-click on the "My Computer" icon -> then left-click on
Properties -> choose Device Manager -> Ports -> click the "Serial
Communications port" you want to set (the one that your modem is connected
to) -> select the Properties tab for that particular port -> in the "Port
Settings" screen, change the number to show 921600 bps (bits per second) ->
click OK to save your settings -> and you're on!
2. The other method is to open your WIN.INI file (located in your Windows
directory) with Notepad. Scroll down to the [Ports] section. There you'll
find the COM1:, COM2:, COM3: and COM4: lines, each followed by an equal sign,
and by some numbers and letters. Replace those lines with these:

COM1:=921600,n,8,1,p
COM2:=921600,n,8,1,p
COM3:=921600,n,8,1,p
COM4:=921600,n,8,1,p

MEANING:

- COMx: = physical COMmunications port number: x = 1 - 4 on most PCs.
- 921600 = internal COMmunications port speed measured in bits per second
[bps]. Maximum is 921600, depending on the UART type and speed. Default is
9600 bps.
- n = parity bit: n = none (default is e = even).
- 8 = data bits: 8 (maximum 8, default is 7).
- 1 = stop bits: 1 (maximum 2, default is 2).
- p = hardware shaking (default is x = software shaking).

Save your file and then restart Windows for the changes to take effect.
Or if you like, you can set this way only the COM port that has your
modem/fax card connected to (that's the one that is going to take advantage
of this speed improvement anyway). If you have a serial mouse connected to a
COM port, you may want to leave that COM port settings unchanged, since the
mouse baud rate is limited to 1200-2400 (and only in rare cases goes up to
9600 bps).
From now on, you will experience faster transfers when using your ISP (TCP/IP
protocol), Online Service (i.e. AOL), and all your Communications, Internet
and Fax applications/games.

==============

Decrease boot time

In MSDOS.sys (Options)

Dblspace=0
Drvspace=0
Logo=0
Disablelog=1

=============


To gain a small speed improvement, go into the Display applet and then the effects tab. Under visual effects, disable everything except "Show icons using all possible colors." This will speed up menus, moving windows around, and a few other things as well.

===============

Edit your system.ini file in the windows directory - under the [386Enh] heading Add the line ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1 This can significantly reduce Virtual memory use as it makes Windows use (fast) RAM before the (slow) Swapfile. This setting will tell Windows-ME not to use the swap file at all until all of the RAM is used. After all of the RAM is used, the computer will push most of the infrequently used data to the swap file. This is a great tweak. This is particularly beneficial for those with 256MB RAM.

==============

While you are there in the [386Enh] section, you might want to also add another couple of lines; DMABufferSize=64 to tweak DMA performance. This will conserve at least 64KB of memory to DMA (direct memory access) to reinsure that your DMA devices always have enough memory allocated. Note that this tweak should only be used if you have one or more DMA enabled devices on your system.

================


Loads more -too many to mention.
 

pamf

Senior member
Dec 11, 2000
307
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0
I'll try a few of those.. I already had some (like the msdos.sys ones.. cept logo, id rather see the logo than save 0.235 seconds boot time) ..

What I was aiming for was video/system tweaks that would improve game performance.. Everything else is more than fast enough, But I can't stand that my brother has almost the same system as me but gets better framerates in q3a ;)

I gained about 10 fps overclocking my gf2, but black & white kept locking up at 200/200 .. So I'm at 195/195 right now .. seems ok.