Try this, maybe it helps your K6-III cpu a bit.
Central Tweaking Unit - https://www.philscomputerlab.com/uploads/3/7/ … 7231621/ctu.zip
More info and other tools to try out. https://www.philscomputerlab.com/k6-2-2-3-resources.html

You can tweak Quake2 to improve performance, but it helps other systems also, not only for Voodoo.
Copy modified Autoexec.cfg Quake2\BASEQ2 - http://www.3dgw.com/Articles/v1tweak/autoexec.cfg
More info http://www.3dgw.com/Articles/v1tweak/index.htm

Does this system have a usb card installed? If so, test again with it removed.

marxveix wrote on 2023-07-09, 08:39:

Try this, maybe it helps your K6-III cpu a bit. Central Tweaking Unit - https://www.philscomputerlab.com/uploads/3/7/ … 7231621/ […]
Show full quote

Try this, maybe it helps your K6-III cpu a bit.
Central Tweaking Unit - https://www.philscomputerlab.com/uploads/3/7/ … 7231621/ctu.zip
More info and other tools to try out. https://www.philscomputerlab.com/k6-2-2-3-resources.html

You can tweak Quake2 to improve performance, but it helps other systems also, not only for Voodoo.
Copy modified Autoexec.cfg Quake2\BASEQ2 - http://www.3dgw.com/Articles/v1tweak/autoexec.cfg
More info http://www.3dgw.com/Articles/v1tweak/index.htm

Thanks, I did tweak the CPU with CTU already. Not sure what is optimal MTRR setting.
I am not interested in changing Quake2 settings.

Sphere478 wrote on 2023-07-09, 09:50:

Does this system have a usb card installed? If so, test again with it removed.

That is an interesting tip. Yes, there was the card, but nothing improved after removal.

Savage3D is not a particularly fast card. I also get ~30fps in Quake 2 on a K6-III/450. Furthermore, I get these numbers even on an 800MHz Athlon system. Seems like this is the cards' performance after all...

Darn. Have seen some usb 2.0 cards slow systems down by as much as 1/3

pyrogx wrote on 2023-07-09, 12:30:

Savage3D is not a particularly fast card. I also get ~30fps in Quake 2 on a K6-III/450. Furthermore, I get these numbers even on an 800MHz Athlon system. Seems like this is the cards' performance after all...

Quake2 30+fps with AMD K6-2+ 400 and Rage XL AGP 8MB without overlock and without Quake2 tweaks (disabled OpenGL bilinear filtering only)
and same system GLQuake 40+fps, i have not used Savage 3D, but it should be faster than Rage3 cards.

Sphere478 wrote on 2023-07-09, 14:51:

Darn. Have seen some usb 2.0 cards slow systems down by as much as 1/3

Wasn't it on 486s? In particular on cache and memory jittery performance loss?
I saw it somewhere but I can't remember.

I think they affect any older system. I saw the 1/3 slow down on k6-3+

Sphere478 wrote on 2023-07-09, 17:57:

I think they affect any older system. I saw the 1/3 slow down on k6-3+

This is interesting. I guess because of bug in the chipset?
I'll dig it, 1/3 is absolute desaster!

pyrogx wrote on 2023-07-09, 12:30:

Savage3D is not a particularly fast card. I also get ~30fps in Quake 2 on a K6-III/450. Furthermore, I get these numbers even on an 800MHz Athlon system. Seems like this is the cards' performance after all...

Thanks for sharing.
Perhaps game like Quake 2 is not good for a comparison, because reviewers at the time might not have the minigl settings under control.
But there is more. When I compare Incoming to https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/3d-chips,83-6.html I can match the Celeron 266, but the Pentium II 400 results are much higher. And I think a system such as mine could do better.

Nexxen wrote on 2023-07-09, 18:38:

Sphere478 wrote on 2023-07-09, 17:57:

I think they affect any older system. I saw the 1/3 slow down on k6-3+

This is interesting. I guess because of bug in the chipset?
I'll dig it, 1/3 is absolute desaster!

Which USB 2.0 cards for old motherboards

I think this thread may have more info,

Sphere478 wrote on 2023-07-09, 18:55:

Which USB 2.0 cards for old motherboards

I think this thread may have more info,

Slow AMD K6-2+ 550 MHz performance?

Putas wrote on 2023-07-09, 06:21:

I tried 3DNow! patch of Quake 2, no improvement.

To enable 3DNow! technology optimization, select one of the 3DNow! technology
options from the Quake II video driver menu as follows:
[3DNow! 3DfxGL ] ... optimized for a Voodoo2 based graphics adapter
[3DNow! OpenGL ] ... optimized for adapters with OpenGL ICD drivers
[3DNow! software] ... optimized software only rendering

Do you have these extra options in your Quake2 Video settings, are you using 3DNow! OpenGL option, do not use default OpenGL named one.
Maybe it helps, maybe not, probably real diffrence it makes if you try other chipset and videocard drivers, opengl versions , change settings.

marxveix wrote on 2023-07-11, 00:09:

Putas wrote on 2023-07-09, 06:21:

I tried 3DNow! patch of Quake 2, no improvement.

Do you have these extra options in your Quake2 Video settings, are you using 3DNow! OpenGL option, do not use default OpenGL named one.
Maybe it helps, maybe not, probably real diffrence it makes if you try other chipset and videocard drivers, opengl versions , change settings.

It helps only slightly, which is probably easily explained by S3 not making 3DNow drivers for the Savage 3D.

Putas wrote on 2023-07-09, 18:51:

Thanks for sharing.
Perhaps game like Quake 2 is not good for a comparison, because reviewers at the time might not have the minigl settings under control.
But there is more. When I compare Incoming to https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/3d-chips,83-6.html I can match the Celeron 266, but the Pentium II 400 results are much higher. And I think a system such as mine could do better.

Strange. I really don't know how they got these results 25yrs ago...
Here's another one which matches my experience much better: https://3dfx-banshee.de/articles/benchmark-3d … 1E_S3_Savage_3D
There are also driver issues, older drivers seem to be (a bit) faster. Somehow I have the impression that, for OpenGL, V-Sync cannot be disabled properly on the Savage3D.

pyrogx wrote on 2023-07-12, 17:56:

Strange. I really don't know how they got these results 25yrs ago... Here's another one which matches my experience much better: […]
Show full quote

Putas wrote on 2023-07-09, 18:51:

Thanks for sharing.
Perhaps game like Quake 2 is not good for a comparison, because reviewers at the time might not have the minigl settings under control.
But there is more. When I compare Incoming to https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/3d-chips,83-6.html I can match the Celeron 266, but the Pentium II 400 results are much higher. And I think a system such as mine could do better.

Strange. I really don't know how they got these results 25yrs ago...
Here's another one which matches my experience much better: https://3dfx-banshee.de/articles/benchmark-3d … 1E_S3_Savage_3D
There are also driver issues, older drivers seem to be (a bit) faster. Somehow I have the impression that, for OpenGL, V-Sync cannot be disabled properly on the Savage3D.

It is a mystery indeed.
What a nice review. Seems like my numbers are correct after all.
I observed the framerates and vsync does not come into play.