noshutdown wrote:i tried the 5.32 driver(last version in 5 series anyway), but the result is abysmal. cpu is k6-2+550, just compare with my previ […]
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i tried the 5.32 driver(last version in 5 series anyway), but the result is abysmal. cpu is k6-2+550, just compare with my previous results:
3dmark2000: 1420pts
3dmark01: 590pts
winquake: 48fps
quake2: 70fps
quake3: 6.1fps
now i wonder if you still have the rig and can post a screenshot of k6-3-450 and gf2mx scoring 3000pts, or that you have taken 3dmark99 score as 3dmark2000. 😈
i put up another platform: vp3 motherboard(512kb onboard cache disabled because it can only cache for 128mb anyways), 256mb sdram, k6-2+ running at 366, and geforce2mx. i installed win98se and tested 4 driver versions: 5.32, 8.05, 23.11 and 30.82.
in 3dmark2000, 23.11 and 30.82 both scored around 1350pts, which is inline with win2000 30.82 performance(k6-2+550 at 1980). 5.32 and 8.05 are indeed very fast, and both scored over 1900pts, so it seemed that k6-3-450 getting around 3000pts is reasonable.
I can't believe it's been so long, but I finally have my old super socket 7 system back together, and I've been doing some benchmarking with it.
I think I've basically recreated the setup I had back then. It's not technically the same video card - my card back then was a Hercules with faster RAM, but what I tested here is a standard MX.
I don't remember what version of the AGP driver I had back then, so I made a best guess.
Tyan S1590 (MVP3 chipset, 1MB cache)
K6-3 450MHz
256MB PC100 CL2
Geforce2 MX AGP (default clocks: 175MHz core, 166MHz 128-bit SDRAM)
Win98 SE
VIA AGP driver 4.17 installed in "normal" mode (which I believe just means it stays in AGP1X, not 2X)
nVidia driver 5.32
3DMark 2000 v1.1 default benchmark (1024x768x16, hardware T&L)
The attachment k63-450 GF2MX 1024x768x16 AGP1X VIA4.17 nv5.32.png is no longer available
2873 points
My card in those days had faster RAM, but this is a standard model and it comes close.
I remember that back in the day, the score tanked by about 500pts if I installed a later driver, so I stayed with 5.32.
5.32 had some graphical glitchiness at first - the solution for that was to install the VIA AGP driver in "normal" mode. That option was only offered in older VIA drivers, so that's why I used an old VIA driver along with the old nVidia driver.
Later nVidia drivers would fix the graphical glitches, but they also slowed down the card significantly so I preferred to get it working with 5.32.
That info is from a long time ago, I haven't tried experimenting with driver versions on the current build. I might still experiment. Interesting that you had good results with 8.05, I might try that out.
I'm suspicious that maybe nVidia 5.32 was optimized better for the K6, and then they changed something shortly after that when they didn't care about the K6 anymore. Or another possibility - maybe K6 optimization has nothing to do with it and it's an issue with how they addressed the glitchiness of VIA AGP.