Direct3d performance sucks...

[kebb]

I own a Geforce2 GTS (asus 7700 pure), and performance is superb... exept for when I'm using Direct3d applications.

OPENGL:

Quake 3 performance (HIGH QUALITY (exept 16 bit colors)):
1024x768 62fps (Texture Compression)
1600x1200 55 fps (Texture Compression)

Unreal Tournament (HIGH QUALITY (16 bit colors)):
1600x1200 "beautiful performance" (Texture Compression)

Halflife (HIGH):
1280x960 "strange delays"

DIRECT3D:

Halflife (HIGH):
1280x960 "mouse delay"

Midtown Madness (HIGH or LOW QUALITY - no difference (16 bit colors))
640x480 "acceptable"
800x600 "shitty"
800x600 2x2FSAA "no differince in performance"

It seems there is a bottleneck somewhere in my sys, but I cant locate it... I mean; 7 fps differince in 1024x768 and 1600x1200 cant be normal!

My sys:
PIII/500/128. MSI-noname ATX mainboard. Creative SBLive. Geforce II GTS/Detonator 631. DirectX 8. 5400rpm western digital hdd. blablabla. WinME.

Crimson Skies and Supreme Snowboarder also run like sh*t.

Thanks for taking a look at this!

 

[jpprod]

Perhaps you have Vsync enabled? That could cause the framerate capping. However, turning it off only improves benchmark scores, not your gaming experience.

Halflife: Play it in OpenGL. No reason to play in D3D, it looks uglier and runs worse that way. Mouse delay can caused by Vsync being off (though this contradicts with your Q3 benches), you should enable it.

Some misc. things you might want to check out to improve performance:
- Close all crap from your systray, they might affect by eating up memory. Such software as virus checkers are the worst - some scan files in realtime as they're being opened.
- Enable DMA mode for your hard disk. If you're low on memory in those games, accessing HDD without DMA causes a CPU utilization excess of 90% and therefore games stutter.
- Try games without sound - any improvement? Hardware resource conflicts in sound card drivers can kill performance.

 

[StickHead]

You may have a problem with your video card drivers. Try the 6.18, they have been the fastest for me and I got a good amount of a performance boost with them when I installed DX8. 62fps in 1024x768 in Quake3 on a GTS? I get 80 with an MX!

 

[kebb]

I really dont understand how a PIII/500 with a Geforce II, only get 62 fps in Quake III...

Should I get a new harddisk or what... Some piece of hardware in my computer is causing a bottleneck for sure!

 

[ahfung]

OPENGL:

Quake 3 performance (HIGH QUALITY (exept 16 bit colors)):
1024x768 62fps (Texture Compression)
1600x1200 55 fps (Texture Compression)

Only dropped 7 fps rom 1024x768 to 1600x1200??? Do u own a Celeron or K6-2?

 

[kebb]

No its a PIII/500/128 - There is a bottleneck somewhere in the sys... Take a look at the post at top.

 

[ahfung]

Some games (esp D3D one) like NFSPU and MM2 are more CPU hogging than your P3-500MHz can take.

 

[joshdoe]

My GF2MX@215/196 gets 124fps, Q3A 1024x768@16

 

[kebb]

I installed the detonator 618 driver, and it got a little better... Now the only problem is a mouse delay in all d3d applications. And YES; I did eneble v-sync.

 

[cool]

Maybe a newer mouse-driver could help

What about tweaking/updating the BIOS? New drivers for the SBLive! etc. Update everything you can and then look at the games.

 

[kebb]

Ohh no, noway I'm going to update my bios.
All drivers are updated ect...

 

[pac1085]

Same problem here. Its REALLY pissing me off. Card is a VisionTek GeForce 2 GTS 32MB, my system specs are in my signature. I've tried literaly everything. I get 100 FPS 1024x768 32bit high textures etc in Quake 3, yet in Direct 3d games like diablo 2 and unreal tournament, it runs like SH!T. I havent been able to figure it out. Tried all 6.xx drivers including 6.49. I'm about to give the 7.xx's a try even tho I've heard so many bad things about them.

 

[Warhead]

I know it sounds silly, but did you check that you have Antialiasing off? This would really kick your performance down some notches.

 

[jpprod]

The game itself might still be enabling/disabling vsync as it wishes, to be absolutely sure, set the "render frames ahead" setting as low as possible.

 

[RobsTV]

ICSVortex, since you are using W2K, you have other issues.
So far, it looks like 7.17 and DX8 is the best combo for your system, and will get you a lot closer to what others that are using Win98/ME are getting.

With Win98/ME, the 6.47 and DX7x are working great in every D3D game I can throw at it. UT running OpenGL also flys, and is smooth as silk with the extra 400meg of textures.

Even running NFSPU and Midtown Madness 2 on Wifes K6-III 400 and V3 3k, at 1024x768, there is no slowdown or jerkyness. Runs great, so I think a PIII 500 should be enough.

One problem I did have was NOT reformating after upgrading from V3 to GTS card. Severe slowdowns in games, and instability. Reformatted, and all is well.