hardware settings

[Seeker]

I'm playing around with some of my settings to try to cut out some of the stutter during heavy activity in Il2. I've got a few questions and am also curious to know what rig you are running.

First of all, here's what I've got at the moment:

Compaq Presario AMD T-bird 1.2Ghz
3 x 128mb SDRAM (384mb)
GeForce 2 MX400 (64mb)
19" Viewsonic CRT
Windows XP Home
Microsoft Sidewinder Precision 2


Basically, my main question is how do you have your System Settings set for your RAM--allocated more for programs or cache? It's set for programs now. I've tried both ways and the only difference I've seen is that programs load slower with it set to cache.

Would more RAM make any difference? Virtual RAM is set for max 1Ghz.

I use OpenGL in-game and have Anti-aliasing off, Antistropic on. With most other Il2 settings to medium or low. Also, sound is running through DirectX. The other option is Sensuara 3D, which I think is slightly inferior sounding.  Could that be slowing the game?

Is there any chance of alleviating some stutter with this GPU, or is my only option to upgrade the vid card? I plan to purchase the GeForce4 eventually, but for now, I'm interested in speed and stabilty over detail. Of course, I could be swayed to get it tomorrow if it's really necessary...

Any tips or settings that seem to work for you, please post. I'm sure we would all like some other feedback as to what works best for you.

TX-Dreggs

 

[TX-Deck]

Hey Dreggs,Not sure where to start, but have you tried to run any benchmarks on the system at this point?  I have an idea of how your system with the current configuration should run, but without actually being there to see the symptoms it is hard to tell.  I run a fairly decent system myself and still see some lag and stutter at times, but haven't had the time to go in headfirst and really tweak it.I could recommend 3dMark2001 as a good benchmark software, you can find it at www.madonion.com.   Its a free download and if you purchase it you get some additional features.   I used to hit around 3300 marks on a 1ghz PIII with a GeForce Ultra 2, maybe you could use that as a comparison.  I would suspect with your rig you should score about the same or possibly higher.  Give it a whirl sometime.On my old machine I didn't think that I was cranking as fast as I should have been, and after looking around some I found out that I didn't have a proprietary Dell driver loaded.   "ACPI to PCI bridge" was the system device looking for a driver, and once I loaded it the video seemed to double in framerate.   Check your system devices by selecting Start/Run and typing in msinfo32.exe in the box.   Once System information launches check under Components/Problem Devices and see if anything is listed.   If something shows up then you know where to start as far as correcting the issue.Zen, come to think of it, if you read this....   check those Dell boxes and see if it was loaded with the OS.   Could be a source of stutter on the servers.Good luck, let me know how it goes..TX-Deck out.P.S.   Here's the specs on our servers....Admin1 -   Dell Precision 4100 PIII 933mhz256mb pc133 ram4.1 gb hd  (old!)Geforce Ultra 2 64mb ddrSome beatnik 10mb network card32x cd-romWindows ME    (ugh!!)Admin2 -Dell Precision 4100 PIII 1 ghz384mb pc133 ram20 gb Western Digital hdGeforce Quadro 2 Pro 64mb ddr3com 10/100 nicWhatever cd-rom I could findWindows XP Professional

[Seeker]

Ok, I ran the benchmark tests. Here's the scores:With AA off: 2766....low detail 45 fps, high detail 23 fpsWith 2xAA:  1432....low detail 21 fps, high detail 13 fps(Didn't even try 4xAA)Obviously, if I want any eye-candy, performance suffers dramatically.  I also checked the devices and no problems were listed.I just downloaded the RivaTuner and may try to tweak it some, but I don't really expect much improvement and am pretty much clueless as to what to tweak.I'm somewhat of a graphics whore, so I'm not entirely pleased with the results. I can't really have any kind of detail without severe performance isssues. I know Il2 could look sooo much better, so I may just bite the bullet and upgrade the card.One more question...Is it possible to change the OEM RAM from 128mb pc100 SDRAM to 256 DDR in each slot? Or am I stuck with what came with it? (Not that's it's bad,  just wondering if the MB will accept it.)TX-Dreggs