Poor QuakeIII Performance

[samung]

Ok, I have QuakeIII working in Linux now. Performance is actually very good. I get around 55-60fps at 1024x768 which is pretty good since I only get 65-70fps in windows with similar settings. The problem is that I get the same performance even at 640x480.

I have a Geforce DDR card running the latest drivers from NVidia's site on XFree86 4.0.1. I do have support for different resolutions in my XF86Config file. I can also tell that the resolution is changing (fonts are much larger in the console when I'm at 640x480). But I still get exactly the same performance. 55-60fps is not good enough when I'm playing online and there are like 20 people in the map.

Thanks for any help,
jacob

[ph34r]

Are those numbers from a timedemo? If not, try running a timedemo and see what kind of results you get. Also, you may want to look at Love2Play's tweaks/configs over at www.planetquake.com (http://www.planetquake.com) (look in TechTips).

[A_Lawn_GNOME]

I think the Linux drivers are missing something. I'm remembering this from the Tom's Hardware review. IIRC, the drivers can only use blt'ing (or maybe it was page flipping? I don't know but it was the slower one).

Though what I don't understand is that this is supposed to only affect high res performance.

I just my 3D working (if you want to call it that) so I'm just getting around to tweaking it.

[samung]

Yes, the numbers are from timedemos at 640x480 and 1024x768 resolution.

I usually like to play 1024x768 single player and 640x480 multiplayer. Unfortunately, performance is still exactly the same in both resolutions. I think I may repost this question on the quake3world.com forums.

jacob

[Avatar]

What you are seeing is that your card is out running the CPU/OS in terms of throughput. It is normal to see this sort of thing when you have a high performance card backed by a mid grade CPU. My PII400 & GeForce2 GTS run pretty much the same all the way up to 1024x768 as well. (Same #s as yours actaully.) If I pop the card into my Athlon 700 system, I get an increase on the score, but the scores remain pretty much the same between those resolution.

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Avatar

Linux Editor | www.evil3d.net (http://www.evil3d.net)

[samung]

Ok, that makes sense. But I do have an Athlon 650 w/ 128Mb RAM. In windows on the same machine, there is a large difference in performance between 640x480 and 1024x768.

Oh well, I guess I have to upgrade soon.

jacob

[samung]

Ok, that makes sense. But I do have an Athlon 650 w/ 128Mb RAM. In windows on the same machine, there is a large difference in performance between 640x480 and 1024x768.

Oh well, I guess I have to upgrade soon.

jacob

[roman]

I'm sure you've already taken this into account but a 50 frames per second should be adequate for not dropping frames ever. Your internet connection is more likely the issue for online play. Maybe you see it otherwise but a high ping time is why your dropping frames. If you run 50fps with however many on the demo your not likely to drop frames unless you see all twenty of them in some ridiculously detailed enviroment. You'd drop the frames regardless of online or not if the drivers are the problem.

[ph34r]

Actually, there are some things in the Quake physics that you can only do if you have a sustainable framerate of 125fps or faster - mostly the trick jumps, etc.