Cruddy Performance in Q3 with my GEforce 3 and 1gig T-bird, helllp

[erikiksaz]

this is my system:

tbird 750@1 gig (10x100fsb)
msi k7tpro2a
512 megs of assorted kingsmax/kinston/spectrum pc133
visiontek geforce 3
mx300 sound card
win2k
detonator 12.41 (and 12.91, i've used both, same outcome)
the sound card and video card both share an irq, even though i've moved the sound card.
agp aperature -256 (128 does the same thing)
agp mode -4x
video/system bios shadow -disabled
fast read/write turnaround - disabled
agp driving - auto
overclockers bios B16 i believe

ok, at this point, games run, and i'm happy with that. the problem is that they don't run WELL. in the q3 benchmark, with the 1.27g patch, running demo127, i get 80fps in the timedemo. comparing my score to anandtech's scores, i should be scoring in the upper 150's at the same resolution (640x480 normal setting). anand is using the same cpu as i am too, so i doubt that's the problem. cooling isn't a problem either. i've tried uninstalling my video card drivers, booting into safe mode, deleting all the registry/hard drive leftovers, and installing the via4in1's, then installing video drivers again. none of this seems to change the fact that i'm getting shytty fps. and quake 3 matters a lot to me because that's nearly all i play. i figure that with win2k, it may be ok to sacrifice 10 fps or so, but 50-70 fps cannot be blamed on win2k. someone please help me out here. i don't want to reformat yet AGAIN. if i'm missing information, please tell me so. thanks.

 

[erikiksaz]

i also tried the 10.80 drivers, those didnt work well either. q3 froze a few times with those installed.

 

[RedShirt]

I doubt this helps alot, but I think Anand runs the tests with sound disabled.

 

[Dark4ng3l]

via 4in1 drivers

 

[erikiksaz]

dark, they are already installed. 4.32's to be exact. i don't know though, i doubt sound can make me lose THAT many frames. but, what's the command to test without sound?

 

[Wingznut]

Just turn it down in the options.

I believe Anand was using a Athlon C, which of course uses a 133fsb. Q3 really likes memory bandwidth. So, that can be an answer for some of your loss.

 

[erikiksaz]

but i'm testing this under the "normal" settings. which is medium geometry and medium textures i believe. i also have dynamic light turned off as well. this is at 640x480. my ~80fps stands true for all resolutions up to 1024x768, regardless of FSAA. i know vsynch is off, as is fsaa. this really sucks, i have no clue what i could possibly do.

 

[Wingznut]

At 640x480, the cpu/fsb is more of a bottleneck than the video card.

Btw, which AT article are you referring to, where he gets 150+fps?

 

[erikiksaz]

let me dig it up. http://anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1442&p=4, there's the first page about his setup. the only difference i see is that he has his tbird under the 133 fsb. can that cause THAT much slowdown? even at 1024x768? woops, i messed up with the 150 fps thing, i guess i meant 136.

 

[Phuz]

Im supprised no one has mentioned this..
but by default, your refreshrate is locked with the install of any recent Detonator drivers.

Because of this, your frames can be locked in your games as well.
Get something like COOLBITS and make sure VSYNC is disabled.

 

[erikiksaz]

hmm, let me install nvmax to get the coolbits thing going.

 

[erikiksaz]

yeah, i'm sure it's disabled. when i'm running the timedemo, i do see the fps go up to 120 once in a while.

 

[erikiksaz]

any more help guys? this is sooooo weeeeaaakkkk.

 

[erikiksaz]

^

 

[Maverick]

try disabling vertical sync (advanced Nvidia options under display properties in Control Panel).

 

[erikiksaz]

it's been done.

 

[Smapty]

try any other games?

 

[erikiksaz]

well, right now i can play counter-strike at 99 fps, but that game doesnt stress out the system too much. umm, well, 3dmark likes to cut out on me too. if i don't have this problem fixed, i might try to install win98se, see if things get fixed.

 

[erikiksaz]

3dmark01 is running as slow as crap too. i'm getting like 50fps average in the first car scene, and less than 20 in the second one.

 

[duragezic]

Well do your Q3 scores at 1280x1024 or so (where you'll be playing!) close to his? His are w/o sound as said.

 

[Smapty]

well, you OCed your cpu from 750 to 1ghz so it's not going to run at the exact same speed that a normal 1ghz runs at, plus the 100mhz bus, and win2k, all those added up, your frame rate stil shouldnt be THAT low....i dunno.....

 

[bjc112]

thats good, 20 in the high detail.. i think my Mx gets 6-9..

 

[fawhfe]

The problem isnt q3 specific so its probable some wider setting thats slowing your card down. Honestly though, you won't play at 640*480 and if you get 80 fps at 1024 and are complaining, theres something wrong with you. (i know, we can see higher but from what I know 70 is where it feels good)

 

[loosbrew]

i get 40-60 FPS in serious sam with my kyroII at 10x7x32 with all the goodies turned up, but fsaa at 2x not 4. i think its smoother than warm butter at that rate and cant even notice a difference between that and the ~110 fps i get without fsaa on.

loosbrew

 

[Instigator]

well, you OCed your cpu from 750 to 1ghz so it's not going to run at the exact same speed that a normal 1ghz runs at,

Smapty,
I'm not sure where you heard that, but that is completely incorrect. It will run almost exactly the same (within +/- 1%). If he purchased a 1ghz (200mhz) Athlon and drop it in his motherboard. It will benchmark and run games the same. I've tested that theory along time ago and it's not true.