Is it me, or is this slow?

[0Akira0]

was comparing my Quake III Demo 4 as per the settings in the Anandtech GF3 Titanium Review

"...the video options set to the default High Quality settings. The resolution was adjusted <1024x768> and demo 'four' was run in timedemo 1 mode..."

...and found that my machine only does ~120 FPS in comparison. This is with no FSAA, and VSync off. Compare this to the >200 FPS of the GF3 in the Anandtech Review. Now, I've gotten the impression that the P4 and Q3 get on better than the Athlon, but still, at 1024x768, I though the CPU would have a lesser influence...

This might seem laughable that I'm 'only' getting 120 FPS, but when I turn on the FSAA, the FPS drops <60. I'm not going to start about Max Payne performance! Point being, is there something wrong with my machine, or my expectations?! I notice the GF3 display properties talk about Fast Writes not being enabled, and I see no option for it in the BIOS settings. Could this be it? Or is it my Ali chipset driven motherboard in general?!

In addition, overclocking the GF3 to 240/500 doesn't seem to do anything.

Enough typing already! Thanks for any replies!

 

[m2super]

Run 3dmark 2001 with your card at the defaults then do it overclocked im sure you will find a difference! I get 7481 on the def 2k1 bench with a 1.33@1.5(150fsb) and a vtek gf3 at 240/530 on a Iwill kk266 I would imagine you should be close to my score!
Did you disable sound? Most benchmarks for Q3A I have seen they disable sound and considering your onboard sounds eats more cpu cycles than a sblive does that aint helping!
Also from what I remember the herc gf3 used slower ram than the rest of the gf3 cards that came out!4ns as opposed to 3.8 that may make a small difference!

Are you using the latest AMD agp driver? Reinstalled DX8a? Maybe time for a rebuild!

 

[0Akira0]

I just checked the Anandtech July round-up, and it appears to use 3.8ns RAM. That Hercules 3D tweaker sets my card into 'lock up' mode, whilst overclocking with the Display Properties doesn't. Any comment on that would also be appreaciated. I've used the 21.xx latest drivers for the GF3 aswell...

Good thinking on that on-board sound card - it may well be a performance drain.

I was semi thinking my MS optical mouse my eat up cycles aswell. If I open up System Monitor, and watch the CPU usage, I find something near 50% usage. When I move the mouse, it drops to ~3% or something. My 233 never used >1% just sitting idle!

The AGP Fast Writes seem to be enabled via a jumper...I'll check that again...