I want to know if it is possible that my cpu is an bottleneck for my V5 5500? This because some older games are still shocking/low framerate.. :s

Quite logicakl , a Voodoo5 5500 get it's full advatage with CPU rate : AMD AthlonXP 2000+ or Intel Pentium4 A 2000 Mhz or higher. The P3 667 is just to slow to cope propperly with the Voodoo5's speed.

Really depends on how complex the Games are.

Very old ones scale even beyond AthlonXP 2000+ levels, while very complex ones (that quicky bring the Voodoo5 to its limits) are already leveling off far below that.

The setup of the Voodoo5 (e.g. Antialiasing and Resolution/Color depth) also have a drastic effect on how far it will scale; 4xFSAA in High Resoltuions and 32bit will naturally hog it down much quicker than 800x600 16bit and no FSAA.

But generally, users are quite happy with above mentioned CPU power levels. Normally, increasing CPU power beyond this point has only minimal effects.

So with a Pentium 3 666MHz, you could certainly upgrade the CPU quite a bit and see the Voodoo5 scale along to a good extend :)

Ok thnx..

I havent got enough money to buy me an high end system.. Would it help when I upgrade my cpu from 667Mhz to 1Ghz? The newest game I want to play = BF1942..

I only play WWII games and sometimes Star Wars games.. Most are older games..  :)

I wouldn't do that.

Pentium 3's from 1GHz to 1,4GHz still cost a lot.
With the money one of these babies costs, you could also buy an AMD AthlonXP + motherboard which gives you more performance.

Secondhand you might get an AthlonXP 2200+ with a motherboard that supports SDR-SDRAM for the same amount of money as the P3 1GHz.

You should feel the upgrade directly (+30%), although I don't know how well the Voodoo5 handles BF1942 by now.

That might impose a certain scalability limitation, you'll have to find out.

A cheap SocketA Motherboard should be easy to  aquire (e.g. Asrock K7S8X or an ECS K7VTA3).
The AhtlonXP 2200+ sure would be a whole lot faster than the P3 1GHz, but the SD-RAM will always limit it.

Still, faster than the P3 any day, so I would go for that Option.

Yeah, but you can also buy a motherboard which supports both SDR and DDR SDRAM. That way there's always the option to upgrade again.

For instance, you could upgrade quickly within two years (depending on your financial situation) in this way:

1.
• Buy an AthlonXP (1800+ to 2200+)
  
• Buy a SocketA motherboard that support both SDR-SDRAM and DDR-SDRAM

2.
• Sell your current motherboard plus Pentium 3

3.
• Buy DDR-SDRAM

4.
• Sell your SDR-SDRAM

5.
• Buy a new SocketA motherboard which only supports DDR-SDRAM and the fastest AthlonXP processors.

6.
• Sell your SocketA  SDR-SDRAM/DDR-SDRAM motherboard

7.
• Buy a new (the fastest your motherboard can handle) AthlonXP processor or a Sempron

8.
• Sell your old AMD AthlonXP

Off course, this is not counting the fact that you have a V5 AGP. If you take that into account you just have to find a good motherboard which supports an AGP2x card and a fast as possible AthlonXP :)

Hey, i play bf1942 also, it can improve past the 2500 barton, also same with call of duty which really gets boost,  both these games got better frames when i went from the 2500 to o/c 2800 speed.

The Abit Kt7A Raid is a good choice if you want to use SDRAM, it's also got a nive Soft MenuIII for over clocking, it supports with the newest Bios up to AXP 2600+

wrote on 16.02.05 at 22:18:01:

The Abit Kt7A Raid is a good choice if you want to use SDRAM, it's also got a nive Soft MenuIII for over clocking, it supports with the newest Bios up to AXP 2600+

Excellent board just make sure you get a Ver 1.3 I had a 1.0 and it doesn't do XP chips "Offically" I took mine there if you remove power from the MB, Black screen on the first boot "RST" and it boots fine from then on until you remove power again.

Took that board from a 750 Duron to a 2400+ @2600+ speed 143 FSB. Yeah Baby!! I reget selling that one :(

HHmm.. Thnx for the replys..

I cant find any cheap Kt133 mainboard.. And the Amd 2000+ costs min. 45,- here in Holland...  :-X

I'am just a student, it cant cost 2 much..  ;) And the change is that the stuff I buy doesnt work well.. The stuff I got now is working...  I hink that a P3 1Ghz @ this moment the best option for me is.. Mayby i could overclock it a littlebit..  ;)

Well you could always go for a Duron at first.
You should be able to get a Duron 1600MHz for 25 euro's; http://www.tweakers.net/aanbod/advertentie/2452

That way you'll always be able to upgrade to a better AthlonXP or Sempron processor :)

(ps; Holland roeleert de pan uit! :P)

I read at www.3dfxzone.it that BF1942 runs good on V5 cards with the SFFT drivers and the latest game update.

wrote on 17.02.05 at 16:03:07:

Well you could always go for a Duron at first. You should be able to get a Duron 1600MHz for 25 euro's; http://www.tweakers.net/aanbod/advertentie/2452 That way you'll always be able to upgrade to a better AthlonXP or Sempron processor :) (ps; Holland roeleert de pan uit! :P)

Runs a duron 1600 @ 133mhz? And i know for sure that the Sempron runs @ 333Mhz.. So that's not an option for me at the moment...

(Holland roeleert zekes te weten.. ;))


@ Rolo1.. I will have a look at 3dfzone.it.. ;)

A Duron has a 133MHz DDR bus (266MHz) the Sempron has a 166MHz DDR bus (333MHz).

@liquid-x,

Here's a link to BF1942 running on my 5500 system :

http://www.3dfxzone.it/enboard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1129&whichpage=24

Your going to have to have a fairly fast cpu though  ;)

Thnx for teh link... What kind of system did you played it with and was it playable?

@liquid-x,

Athlon 2400/Win 2000 with SP4/512 mb ram/SFFT d3d driver.

Most maps were quite playable, but a few were slow in some situations (15-20 fps).

Not sure if trying to play the game with a 666 mhz or a 1ghz cpu is going create much more than a slide show though, all T&L data required by the game is going to have to be done by the cpu as the voodoo does not have this feature.

lol, found an PIII 933Mhz for 15,-.. Bought it.. I was reading some reviews about this cpu and it seems to be exact the same core as the 1Ghz.. I could probarly run it easily @ 1Ghz.. and more (?)  ;D Cheap 1Ghz cpu..   :)

@liquid-x,

I also have a pentium 3 1ghz, it will only overclock to 1066 mhz (stock cooling) before becoming unstable.

With a little luck and good cooling you should be able to get to 1000 mhz, maybe more, be cautious though as these are quite high speeds for a coppermine  ;)

if it's an Coppermine EB cPU it may fo as far as 1170Mhz as for my Dual P3/EB 1GHz did on my ABiT VP6 :) But that was a very long time ago, that VP6 had the good ol Soft MenuIII always enjoyed use'n that :D

Bought the 933Mhz for only 15,- euro.. I looks not-used..  ;D.. Now running with it and I can feel the difference..  8)

I became crazy of all the drivers I had 2 use for my V5.. So I uninstalled the V5 en reinstalled my Ati radeon 7200 64MB... But Obi-Wan Kenobi conviced me that if I use Win 98se, it will work great..  So I borrowd an windows 98se cd from a mate and will install win 98se or tonight or tomorrow..   :)