[D'Espice]

Is it just me, or is this really low performance? I have a G3/450/1MB with 112MB of RAM and recently purchased a Voodoo3 3000. I've installed the latest drivers, and I'm running OS 9.1

I can't play neither Unreal Tournament nor Quake III Arena perfectly. I guess, they both run with around 15-18fps, sometimes even less. The res is already at 640x480x16 Bit, Texture Detail low... what else can I do to increase performance? Any ideas?

[Leonard]

Originally posted by D'Espice:
<STRONG>Is it just me, or is this really low performance? I have a G3/450/1MB with 112MB of RAM and recently purchased a Voodoo3 3000. I've installed the latest drivers, and I'm running OS 9.1

I can't play neither Unreal Tournament nor Quake III Arena perfectly. I guess, they both run with around 15-18fps, sometimes even less. The res is already at 640x480x16 Bit, Texture Detail low... what else can I do to increase performance? Any ideas?</STRONG>

BUY SOME FREAKIN' RAM ! Your starvin' that poor PowerMac.

Seriously, 112MB is not enough. Running a FPS game like Quake 3 or UT requires at least 256MB of physical RAM. More than 256MB would be better. My B&W G3 400 with 256MB RAM and a Radeon got over 35 FPS at 800x600 in UT. The Voodoo 3 should be okay, especially in UT, which is optimized for Glide.

I assume your machine is a B&W G3 450 and not an upgraded Beige G3 or previous PowerMac.

[rampant]

The ram isn't helping- get more.

Update to the newest openGL extensions.
And you're not going to see good speed with a voodoo 3 in quake 3, as voodoo's suck at anything but glide. (Make sure you're using the glide renderer in UT, and the glide driver in Quake 3 (setup:system).

[D'Espice]

I assume your machine is a B&W G3 450 and not an upgraded Beige G3 or previous PowerMac

Oh, how I wish you were right... but you're not. I'm a student, going to university in Germany. I can't afford anything else, that's why I've upgraded my old PowerMac 7300 with the Sonnet G3/450 processor. I'd love to get more RAM, but I need 5V EDO DIMMs which are very expensive here in Germany. I'd have to pay at least about $90 for 128MB, certainly you'll agree that's not worth the money.
And if you're considering to suggest to sell this computer and get a new one, this is not an option. I need the money I earn to fly back home (Chicago) as often as possible, since my whole family and dozens of friends live there.
I might get some RAM though when I fly back home to Chicago next time, supposedly in september.

OTOH, I'd love to order it at Other world computing right away, they have 128MB for less then $30. Nevertheless I won't do it, since they'd charge me another $30 for S&H to Europe.

[ 05-15-2002: Message edited by: D'Espice ]

[Leonard]

Originally posted by D'Espice:
<STRONG>

Oh, how I wish you were right... but you're not. I'm a student, going to university in Germany. I can't afford anything else, that's why I've upgraded my old PowerMac 7300 with the Sonnet G3/450 processor. I'd love to get more RAM, but I need 5V EDO DIMMs which are very expensive here in Germany. I'd have to pay at least about $90 for 128MB, certainly you'll agree that's not worth the money.
And if you're considering to suggest to sell this computer and get a new one, this is not an option. I need the money I earn to fly back home (Chicago) as often as possible, since my whole family and dozens of friends live there.
I might get some RAM though when I fly back home to Chicago next time, supposedly in september.

OTOH, I'd love to order it at Other world computing right away, they have 128MB for less then $30. Nevertheless I won't do it, since they'd charge me another $30 for S&H to Europe.

[ 05-15-2002: Message edited by: D'Espice ]</STRONG>

The 7300's system bus is also probably holding you back a little as well, it has a 66MHz bus if I'm not mistaken. Compare that to the 100MHz or 133MHz system bus in the newer PowerMacs (the B&W G3's at least had a 100MHz system bus).

The RAM would be the best upgrade for the money, but like you said, I'd wait till you were back in the US in September, if you can hold out that long.

You wouldn't by chance be close to graduation, and expecting a nice new or used G4 as a present soon from a family member, would you?

[ 05-15-2002: Message edited by: Leonard ]

[D'Espice]

You wouldn't by chance be close to graduation, and expecting a nice new or used G4 as a present soon from a family member, would you?

Oh, and again I sooooooooo wish you were right But unfortunately I'm neither close to graduation nor would anyone buy me a new or used G4. Besides, I'm the only Mac-User in my family, everybody else hates Macintosh for some reason. They offered me to buy me a new PC, but I refused to take it so they didn't.

Education in Germany usually takes longer, for instance if you study computer science (There's no Major/Minor - system like in the US, it's the subject you pick, and that's what you're going to study for the next few years) it'll take you at least five years. And as I'm at one of the best universities in Germany, it'll take even longer. I guess I'll have to spend at least another three years here

The RAM would be the best upgrade for the money, but like you said, I'd wait till you were back in the US in September, if you can hold out that long.

Well, seems like I'll have to hold out that long. Thanks for your help, I guess I'll have to wait with playing UT and Q3A 'till late summer...
Oh, and btw, I pretty sure it's only a 50MHz System Bus.

[ 05-15-2002: Message edited by: D'Espice ]

[davechen]

For Quake 3, you can tweak the config file and probably get up to 20 fps. Check out this web page:
http://www.3dspotlight.com/tweaks/quake3/index.shtml

The later parts show you a bunch of things you can turn off by hacking the config file.

[r-0X#Zapchud]

well, even that old machine should be capable of more than just 20 fps even though it has a dog slow system bus.
I've tweaked an iMac 233/RagePro 6MB to 25 fps at timedemo in Q3, and a G3 450/Voodoo3 3000 should be able to make it through the 40 fps barrier.
try using this config:
autoexec

paste everything into a plain text file you'll call autoexec.cfg, save it into baseq3.
but, before you save, be sure to change this in the config:
com_hunkmegs should be 56
com_soundmegs should be 8
com_zonemegs should be 8

good luck

[rampant]

since when is 40 fps any kind of barrier .