Comparing gaming speed

[vash]

I'm new around here, but not to computing. Here goes..

My second computer at home is a "classic" Athlon 700, 256 megs of PC100 ram and a Voodoo5 5500 AGP card. Its currently running Windows 98SE, but I have my Ghost image saved of Win2k.

Under games such as Half-Life, I feel that the framerate should be higher for the system than it currently is (1024x768 @ 16-bit color). When there isn't any around, the speed is quite fast, but when there is a lot of fighting, the frame rate drops below 60fps (25-40fps range). With the latest released drivers, the frame rate difference between non-AA and 2X-aa is minimal at best.

In this same system, the frame rate would almost never drop below 60fps when I had a Geforce2 GTS in it (even with 2X-AA enabled).

My main computer (running Win2k) is a 1Ghz "Thunderbird", with 384 megs of PC133 ram and a Geforce2 GTS. This system screams when it comes to the same game, running with nearly the same exact configuration files. I limit the FPS to 100 and it sticks at that nearly all day long -- even with 2X AA (Nvidia's 1.5x1.5).

I have installed the WickedGL drivers for Half-Life and verified they are working (notice the logo in the upper right of the screen when loading), but they aren't the "swift kick in the pants" like I would hope they'd be.

Can a few other V5 users out here post your approx framerates while playing games such as Half-Life (mainly Counter-Strike)? I just want to get a better gauge of this systems performance versus other people's machines, so I know if I'm missing something on the machine, or I'm just stuck where it is
On a side note, can someone tell me why text is incredibly blurry when I enable 2X AA? I can barely read any text at all.

Here are the complete set of specs:
Athlon "classic" 700Mhz
Epox SlotA mobo
256 Megs of PC100 ram (2x 128 meg sticks)
Voodoo 5 5500 AGP (running 1024x768 @ 16bit color in most games)
SBLive! Value
Netgear NIC
Adaptec 2940UW
Plextor 32X reader
Plextor 8x writer
USB Keyboard
USB Mouse

Thanks for reading and I hope I receive a few replies.
vash

 

[Tates]

The frame rates you are experiencing in Half Life sound about right. It's not the speed demon when compared to the nVidia GeForce cards. FSAA causes a performance hit when in use.

(My V5 5500 recently bit the dust, and now I'm running with a GTS2 Ultra, thus I cannot give you my V5 FPS scores)

As for the text blurring, that's a by-product of 3dfx's implementation of FSAA. You'll have to get used to it.

 

[vash]

Thanks for the reply. I went over to my brothers place yesterday and he has a Voodoo5 5500 on a Duron 700 (not a classic, but close enough) and he has about the same framerate. Argh!

I guess I'll leave as-is and pop in a better CPU for it. Ths V5 was a good deal at $100.. Too bad the drivers aren't more updated.

vash