I think you're just CPU limited. There was a big FPS drop when you lowered the CPU speed from 1800 to 900 MHz, and the photo of the two laptops shows 1600 MHz (33 FPS) vs. 1800 MHz (37 FPS). This is not far off from an Athlon XP system with 2000 MHz that reaches 35 FPS. And the newer graphics drivers you're using probably eat some CPU, too.
Here's the performance matrix from the magazine I was talking about (PC Games), I thought it's pretty interesting. Their definition of "optimal gameplay" (green) is around 30 FPS, I believe.
https://archive.org/details/pcgames200305/PC- … e/n115/mode/2up
They also mention that enabling "fit textures into video RAM" option in the launcher gave up to a 50% performance boost. I tested this and it had no effect. Might only work for systems that aren't CPU bottlenecked.
I just tried the game on a "period correct" powerful system (Athlon XP 2100 MHz, Geforce 4) on maximum settings. I get 30-40 FPS in most situations, but in open areas with a long line of sight such as the military base, there are some nasty dips down to 15-20 FPS. Lowering the resolution had no effect. Calling this playable is quite a stretch, but I guess the standards were lower back then. I'd say you need an Athlon 64 system to fully enjoy this game.
asdf53 wrote on 2022-09-24, 14:41:I'd say you need an Athlon 64 system to fully enjoy this game.
Can confirm this helps. I'm now playing it on my WinXP box with an Athlon 64 X2 5200+ and GTX275, at 1600x1200. Vsync on, and it's like butter.
GPU use is pretty low, occasionally spiking to 50%. CPU use generally much higher, and I've seen CPU1 hit 90%.
Pierre32 wrote on 2022-09-25, 05:36:asdf53 wrote on 2022-09-24, 14:41:I'd say you need an Athlon 64 system to fully enjoy this game.
Can confirm this helps. I'm now playing it on my WinXP box with an Athlon 64 X2 5200+ and GTX275, at 1600x1200. Vsync on, and it's like butter.
GPU use is pretty low, occasionally spiking to 50%. CPU use generally much higher, and I've seen CPU1 hit 90%.
Very interesting, I need to try that as soon as I get my Athlon 64 machine assembled again. Is it still smooth if you set it to 2000 MHz?
In the meantime I tried something else: My Athlon XP machine was on an ancient board with 133 MHz FSB and SDRAM. I was wondering if it helps to upgrade to a more modern board, so I switched to an Nforce2 board with DDR memory and FSB overclocked to 220, while keeping the CPU speed the same at 2100 MHz. Did the added bandwidth help? No, absolutely nothing. Not even the slightest gain. It's still dipping to 20 FPS in the same places.
