MS Flight Sim 2000

[Grant]

Got a Max and FS 2000 for Christmas.

Love the Max, plays Unreal 225f very well!!

FS 2000 is another story.
the program is great, beautiful graphics
but it runs sooo slow, best 20fps, often 10 fps.

I run it at the maximum graphics detail, running with less graphics does not seem to speed it up much.

I loaded the MS patch that does address some of the speed issues.(the fps's I quoted are after loading the patch)

Apparently, the CPU is overloaded with the combination of the simulation calculations and 'doing' the graphics support for the MAX.

Question:
I have a P2 450,
What CPU upgrade would make best use of the Max and run MS2000 'smoothly'

[MoleDK]

It runs pretty smooth on my G200

The secret is to download the "performance"
patch from Microsoft.



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Cya,
J.

"Unix can be a cynical Operating System for a person whos mind is limited to a Windows user interface"

System specs:
AMD Athlon 600mhz, 256MB RAM, Matrox Millenium G200 (PD5.41), Nothing O/C.
Running Windows 98SE & Redhat Linux 6.1

[Grant]

Hi

Thnaks for your suggestion, but I already applied the performance patch.

I think that your good experience is due to your very fast CPU a (600 mhz)and that helps FS2000 alot. Clearly your Athalon 600/G200 is a better setup for FS2000 than my p2 450/G400 Max.

What graphic quality and screen settings are you using? I have quality set to 6 and screen at 1024 x768 32 bit.

Grant

[gobrob]

I think fs2000 is crap.I can run UT 1024x768 32bit and get 40fps,fs2000 800x600 16bit runs about 15fps.UT looks to me alot harder to draw for the card than a 2d cockpit with some terrain that looks like crap under it.
just my 2cents.
gobrob
celeron300@450,128 megs pc100 g400 16meg sh

[Grant]

Hi Gobrob

I understand that the flight simulation calculations (apart from the graphics generation) take a considerable amount of CPU power.

The actual graphics for FS2000 apparently are not that demanding, see MoleDK comment above that the g200 keeps up pretty well.

A simulation type of 'game' puts the g400 card at a disadvantage because Matrox uses the CPU for a lot of the graphics calculations rather than having the video card to all of the graphics work.

This approach has some advantages. It allows the g400 to scale well with faster processors.

However, It does create a processing 'bottle neck' in FS2000 with "slower" CPU's like the p2 450.

I noticed in the 3dMark2000 thread, that a p3 500 has 50% higher 3dMarks than a p2 450. This is mostly due to the P3's SSE instructions.

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Dell Intel 440bx, P2 450, 128 megs ram, IBM 13g hard drive, G400 Max, 256k AGP aperture, Win 98 SE, DirectX 7.0 (not a),TBS Montego Audio, Dell D1226H monitor at 1280x1024x32, 3com XL10/100



[This message has been edited by Grant (edited 30 December 1999).]

[kjliew]

This is a feedback from an MGATweak user on G200 regarding FS2000.

---------------------------------------------
I have used your MGATweak program, I have a Mystique G200 with 8 MB
SDRAM.
I followed your suggestions about setting all the SDRAM optimisations to
the lowest values, and WOW. just doing that made my FPS in MS Flightsim
2000 jump 10-15 frames. WOW.
I have a P-II 450, 128mb RAM, DX7, I have not overclocked the card, just
optimised the RAM.

Thanks for a great product.

Regards.
Michael Kratz
Whyalla, Australia
---------------------------------------------

You can try to get a fillrate boost from MGATweak, and see whether that helps to improve the framerate. However, overclocking may not provide the same result for everyone. This is just for your reference that how proper optimization can make a difference.

[Johnny Ray]

Hey Grant,

Aren't those 800 MHz Coppermines coming out in a couple of weeks?

If you search these forums, you'll find several of us MURCers and mini-MURCers were lamenting the attrocious frame rates for FS2000 a few months back. I and several others resolved to uninstall it until a "performance" patch was released. Sounds like one was, but from you results, it's still to slow. Too bad.

John

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PIII450 => 504 MHz, Asus P2B, G400MAX, PowerDesk 5.41, Aureal SQ 2500 (Vortex2), Klipsch Promedia V2.400 speakers, DirectX 7.0A, Adaptec AHA-2940U2W and Fireport40 Dual UW SCSI controllers, Quantum Atlas 10K and WD Enterprise HDs, Plextor UtraPlex Wide, Plexwriter 8/20 CDR, the last ISA modem, etc.

[Plmr]

Grant ,To your origanal Question It seems most P3450's go 600 with decent cooling "mine does 620 "they are only about $ 150.00 US now.. Matt

[Grant]

Hi Johnny Ray and Plmr

Thanks for the advice on a CPU upgrade.

Here in the Seattle area, the P3 450's and the P3 500's are almost the same price, approx $250.

The P3 600's are $500.
Big difference in price!!

Question:
I have an Intel SE440BX mother board.
Can I use a coppermine CPU?
Does this require a bios upgrade?
What is the fastest CPU I can use on this board?

Thanks

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Dell Intel 440bx, P2 450, 128 megs ram, IBM 13g hard drive, G400 Max, 256k AGP aperture, Win 98 SE, DirectX 7.0 (not a),TBS Montego Audio, Dell D1226H 19 inch monitor at 1280x1024x32, 3com XL10/100

[jeepman]

I am about to load Win2K RTM. I have a dual Celery, I wonder if FS2000 runs, would I see any benefit from the second CPU. I realize FS2000 is not SMP optimized, but, I am still wondering.

The game is about $50US at my local Costco, and I don't think I would use it that often. If I would see the low performance others are seeing, than it would probably not be worth it.

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ABIT BP6, 192MB PC100 RAM, dual 366 Celerons oc'd to 550MHz, 3DFXCool GlobalWin FEP32 'Lil Mofo' h/s fans. G400 DH, 3COM 905B NIC, Buslogic FlashPoint LW Ultra-Wide SCSI, SBLive PCI 1024 (OEM SBLive Real Player). Segate Medalist PRO 9.1 GB UW SCSI 7200RPM, Maxtor 20.4GB ATA66 7200RPM 2MB Cache, 8GB tape b/u, IDE 32x CDROM, SCSI 4xwrite/8xread Panasonic CD writer, 4 more various 2GB SCSI drives.

[Plmr]

Grant ,Check dells website for bios and upgrade info.You might get lucky.

Jeepman , I dont think smp works with win 98 at all..Are you runnin win2k yet? I cant get it up on my Abit bf6 setup I think its the promise raid controller.Guess ill have to wait till final release..

[jeepman]

Plmr,

Go to www.bp6.com for good instructions on how to load W2K with third party controllers. I believe you could probably infer the correct process for the Promise controller by following the instructions for the the Highpoint HPT366 that the ABIT BP6 has.

And yes, I do have W2K as one of my available OS'es. I am hoping I can start running even games under W2K so I can Zip my Win98 directory.

[Plmr]

Thanks ill try that. I switch my boot drive in the promise bios and I have a safe place to play..

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Abit BF6, P3 450 AT 620, G400 32meg Dh ,Promise fasttrack striping 2 Quantum ka 18gig's + 2 10gig IBM's ,Sb-live platinum ,Cambridge Fps2000 speakers ,Onstream 30gig tape ,Sony cdrw ,toshiba dvd, Lotsa fans,cables ,noise....

[Grant]

Hi Plmr

Thanks, I did check the Dell web site.
It did have a bios update dated 10/1/1999.

No info on what the update, updated,
I assume that it is for the new P3 .18 factor processors.