Old Beta ICD is the BEST!

[Casper99]

Hello,
I have been benchmarking my SH G400 32 Meg card and have come across some interesting findings! I have noticed since the 5.20 drivers a decrease in my OGL performance. So i have done some benchmarks and some driver reconfiguring and have noticed the following!

I have used Wintune to do the testing with!...(I know its not the best but it is easy to use)

Here is what i have done!

I used drivers 5.20 with the Beta OGL dated: 9/15/99. I replaced the OGL driver with this one and this is what i have gotten in the benches:

5.20 drivers and beta OGL. Overclocked to 119%.
D3D = 198.75 MPixels/s
OpenGL = 127.21 MPixels/s

5.20 drivers and beta OGL. Overclocked to 122%.
D3D = 202.56 MPixels/s
OpenGL = 129.23 MPixels/s

5.30 drivers and its own OGL driver. Overclocked to 122%.
D3D = 203.88 MPixels/s
OpenGL = 119.34 MPixels/s

5.30 drivers and the beta OGL driver. Overclocked to 122%.
D3D = 203.63 MPixels/s
OpenGL = 127.25 MPixels/s

5.30 drivers and the beta OGL driver. Overclocked to 118%.
D3D = 195.91 MPixels/s
OpenGL = 126.96 MPixels/s

5.41 drivers with its own OGL driver. Overclocked to 122%.
D3D = 202.48 MPixels/s
OpenGL = 119.40 MPixels/s

5.41 drivers with beta OGL driver. Overclocked to 122%.
D3D = 202.75 MPixels/s
OpenGL = 129.26 MPixels/s

5.41 drivers with beta OGL driver. Overclocked to 118%.
D3d = 195.75 MPixels/s
OpenGl = 127.27 MPixels/s

5.52 drivers with its own OGL driver. Overclocked to 122%.
D3D = 201.95 MPixels/s
OpenGl = 110.72 Mpixels/s

5.52 drivers with beta OGL driver. Overclocked to 122%.
D3D = 202.09 MPixels/s
OpenGl = 129.22 MPixels/s

5.52 drivers with beta OGL driver. Overclocked to 118%.
D3D = 195.78 MPixels/s
OpenGl = 124.72 MPixels/s

It is evident that the Beta OGL driver that is no longer available was the fastest OpenGl driver to date. I suggest using the 5.20 / 5.41 drivers and the Beta Opengl overclocking the G400 vanilla to 118%/119% for the best quality and speed! ( I have a fan on my card)

To all that want the beta driver just email me i will be glad to give it to you!

All i did was dump the beta driver into the system folder and replace the one that is there. Make a back up if you wish.

All this was performed with a P5A bios 1007a, 500MHz K6-2, Wintune 98 newest release.

Cheers!

[Joel]

What resolution did you run your test?

Joel

[Joel]

Here is a run I just did using the latest version of Wintune98.

Summary
AMD K6-2 with MultiMedia Extensions
(1) 502 MHz
Windows 98 4.10.1998
Standard PCI Graphics Adapter (VGA)
800x600@32bits/pixel
1075±0(0%) MIPS (Integer operations)
666±0(0%) MFLOPS (Floating point operations)
100±0.37(0.36%) (Integer application simulation)
63±0.057(0.09%) (Floating point application simulation)
99±0.1(0.1%) (MMX application simulation)
41±1(2.5%) Video MPixels/s
91±1.7(1.9%) OpenGL MPixels/s
189±0.81(0.43%) Direct3D MPixels/s
129±1(0.79%) Direct3D Null driver score
63±0.71(1.1%) Direct3D Primary driver score
648±272(42%) RAM MB/s
80±0(0%) cached disk MB/s
3.6±0.043(1.2%) uncached disk MB/s

Notice how it identified the G400.

Joel

------------------
System Specs

<A HREF="http://members.home.net/gilchrist.joel/index.htm" TARGET=_blank> </A>


[This message has been edited by Joel (edited 04 March 2000).]

[Rik]

The only drawback to using the old beta ICD is that it is not as 'complete' as more recent ICD versions, and will work badly with other OpenGL Apps such as screensavers. Another way of using it is to dump the file 'G400ICD.dll' into the relevant folder for the game you wish to use it for (don't rename it). It will then be used by the game in question rather than the version in \Windows\System.

[Casper99]

Joel,

I used 1024x768.
Rik i have used the Beta ICd and it outperforms anything else in any app!....i would hardly say it is "incomplete" and "will work bad in other apps"...have you tried?...and if so with what i challenge to know please!

Cheers!

[Rik]

Yes I have tried!!!
I used to always use the beta ICD with Quake-engine games as it did indeed give better performance. HOWEVER, I found that trying to use it with some of the Open GL screensavers and demo proggies (like that brilliant stuff from Hypermatter) gave poor performance and instability. To that end I always kept the current ICD version in \windows\system and put the beta ICD in the folder of whatever I wished to use it for.
As for it's lack of 'completeness' - just compare it to the latest ICD which supports more OpenGL extensions such as the one for enabling V-Sync in Quake-engine games.

I hope this elaborates.