This is a monster upgrade. An XP2600+ AND a GeForce 4 Ti4400. Ouch ! The wallet has felt the heat, let's see what the PC makes of it.
Obviously, switching from a 1600+ to a 2600+ makes for a motherboard change. Given that the 2600+ allows for DDR333, and given that DDR333 is currently the hottest in the performance area, it would be a shame to not get the corresponding modules. So add 2 DIMMS in the package, along with an ASUS A7V8X mainboard.
Now, I know the experts will look at the frequency and spot something wrong. Yes, my mainboard is running a 2600+ at 2Ghz, and not 2.13Ghz which is the standard. The reason is that I have not yet tweaked the standard settings to get 133x16, like it should be. I'll have to look into that.
With all this, Sharok is now upgraded to this :
| Elements | Sharok |
| CPU | AMD XP 2600+ (2,0Ghz) |
| Bus speed | 333Mhz DDR |
| Video Card | GeForce 4 Ti4400 (128Mb) |
| RAM | 512Mb PC2700 |
With a DDR333 mainboard, I found that Win98SE has finally given up. The install process failed twice, so I had to install WinXP Pro. Of course, drivers are all up to date, DirectX is v8.1 and card drivers are Detonator 41-class.
The settings for 3DMark were as follows :
| Element | Setting | Element | Setting |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resolution | 1024x768 | Color Depth | 32 bit color |
| Texture Format | Compressed | Z-Buffer Depth | 24 bit |
| Frame Buffer | Double | Rendering Pipeline | D3D Hardware T&L |
| FSAA | Not Enabled | CPU Speed | 2034 Mhz |
For Quake III, I used High detail, max texture and filter on bilinear. Video is at 32-bit setting.
| Demo file | FPS at 1024x768 | FPS at 1280x1024 | FPS at 1600x1200 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Demo001 | 206.2 | 173.7 | 133.2 |
| DEMO002 | 211.6 | 183.6 | 141.4 |
| Tier1_1 | 248.8 | 217.3 | 172.8 |
| Tier1_2 | 255.3 | 218.3 | 164.9 |
| Tier1_3 | 216.5 | 202.4 | 168.4 |
| Tier1_4 | 232.9 | 207.4 | 157.4 |
| Tier3_1 | 225.3 | 207.0 | 169.5 |
| Tier3_3 | 202.1 | 183.3 | 148.4 |
| Tier3_4 | 223.2 | 203.0 | 161.8 |
| Real3 | 137.5 | 121.8 | 101.2 |
| Silver1 | 185.7 | 163.3 | 133.6 |
| CRUSHER | 119.4 | 96.1 | 71.6 |
| TORTURE1 | 113.3 | 79.2 | 55.9 |
| AVERAGE | 198.3 | 173.6 | 136.9 |
Well, as far as improvement goes, this is one efficient upgrade. At least 34% improvement in all categories, with a 47% improvement in 1600x1200. I like those scores.
Now, let's see what AA does in Quincunx mode.