Author Topic: trying to find the weakest links in system 3d performance (Read 870 times)

Citabria · « **on:** October 09, 2001, 11:54:00 PM »

thanks for any help guys, heres the specs, followed by what i consider the weakest links:

specs:
amd tbird 1400mhz 266fsb
asus a7m266 bios 1004a
512mb pc2100 266mhz ddr ram (generic or genuine micron? 46v16m8-75a ram chips)
visiontek geforce 2 mx400 64mb 21.85 det. drivers
soundblaster live (drivers only, software left uninstalled)
western digital caviar 7200rpm dma100 30gb hd
antec 400w power supply.
windows 98 original edition (ancient crap)
directx 8.1

the weakest links(weakest first) and their replacements

Geforce2mx400, replacement: Visiontek Geforce3 ti500
windows98, replacement: windows xp pro

ive tested my system with 3dmark2001 from http://www.madonion.com/ and the score is quite low. 2371 while a system with a better os, same motherboard,cpu,ram and a geforce3 ti500 got a score of 7140

opinions?

Staga · « **Reply #1 on:** October 10, 2001, 01:23:00 AM »

That MX-card is weakest link in your system. If your "Ancient" 98 is running smoothly and stable I can't see any reason why should you chance to XP if you're using your computer mostly for surfing in web and gameing.
I've used every frigging OS M$ have made since 3.0/3.1 and now I'm using dual-boot WinME/XP-Pro: ME for gameing and surfing and XP for more "serious" work.

straffo · « **Reply #2 on:** October 10, 2001, 01:29:00 AM »

Please Cit can you do the test as in this thread http://www.hitechcreations.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=10&t=001212 ?

Cause lot of us don't use madonion for comparing (in fact I don't care of 364587 3Dmarks point if I've less thant 20 FPS in AH

)

bloom25 · « **Reply #3 on:** October 10, 2001, 01:46:00 AM »

That MX video card would be limited at only about 600 Mhz with an Athlon. After that it's not really getting any faster. With that CPU you should have at least a GF 2 Ultra.

Citabria · « **Reply #4 on:** October 10, 2001, 02:44:00 AM »

gonna splurge and get visiontek gf3 ti500

2Late4U · « **Reply #5 on:** October 10, 2001, 08:46:00 AM »

It's definetly the video card. Even a good GF2 ultra/pro (whatever, Im not to up on Geforce) or Radeon ddr will get you 4k, a GF3 or Radeon 8500 should push 7-8k

SKurj · « **Reply #6 on:** October 10, 2001, 11:15:00 AM »

re Win XP... try a dual boot setup b4 trying Xp on its own..

SKurj

batdog · « **Reply #7 on:** October 10, 2001, 11:23:00 AM »

The user

xBAT

Kratzer · « **Reply #8 on:** October 10, 2001, 12:31:00 PM »

98/ME are, and will continue to be for quite some time, the best gaming OS'.

mason22 · « **Reply #9 on:** October 10, 2001, 02:40:00 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Citabria:
gonna splurge and get visiontek gf3 ti500

'atta boy fester!!! (buy 2, i'll gladly take one off your hands

)

Lephturn · « **Reply #10 on:** October 11, 2001, 08:42:00 AM »

That's not necessarily true Kratzer. You can't make a blanket statement like that, it's just not true. Not all cards, not all drivers, not all games... sometimes 2k/XP is actually faster. Cards with good 2k drivers are normally very close to the 98/ME numbers for the games I've tested, and sometimes even faster. Here is something I was looking at yesterday: http://www.rivastation.com/xp_comp_e.htm

It's a Detonator XP driver comparison. Flip around to the other pages. The odd game shows a decent advantage to 98/ME, but most are very close, and in some cases 2k/XP is slightly faster. I'm not saying 2K is faster overall, I'm just saying it's not as cut and dried as you make it out to be.

If you consider stability and security to be part of the picture, even for your "gaming" OS, Win2kSp2 is the hands down winner in my book. In 6 months XP may take that crown.

[ 10-11-2001: Message edited by: Lephturn ]

~Caligula~ · « **Reply #11 on:** October 12, 2001, 01:57:00 AM »

I use XP ,it works great for gaming.
Once SBLive drivers and sidewinder software are compatible 100% it`ll be perfect.