[paul_h_amiga]

This is a long message so please bear with me!

I recently upgraded my sister's PC, At the time it was only using a cyrix 333 processor (which we all know is cack), 4MB on board Graphics, a Voodoo2 card, 64MB of EDO Ram, an second hand 6 GB hard drive. The motherboard was based on a SIS chipset (5597/98), and I also had a Sound Blaster 64AWE ISA Card

It all started when I purchased an Nvidia Geforce 2 MX PCI card for the system. Based on my previous goings with the series of cards (I have a Geforce 2 GTS in mine), i decided it would be the best short term solution to the little problem until I could a more perminent solution. Anyway The system was churning through the demos of Quake 3 at around 17fps. But the thing that really got me was the half-life performance. It was really struggling on 640x480 Resoulution DirectX!!!

As a result, I went down to the local computer fair and bought a new motherboard (SIS 5595 chipset) and 128 MB of 133Mz SDRAM. I use a K6-2 300 Processor (one I had lying around), and I brought over all the cards, apart from the ISA Sound Blaster, becuase there was no room in the case. Instead i used the on-board sound system.

I installed Windows ME, and all the latest drivers. I tried Quake 3, and still it came in around 17fps!!! There is a bottleneck in there somewhere, but I am at a loss where!!! No matter what resoultion I try it is always around 17fps, so I don't think it is the graphics. I am wondering whether of not it is the hard drive, as it does make quite a noise when accessing data, and when watching the demo sequence from Typing of the dead.

Anything else you guys can think of because I am almost out of options.

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Bob The Builder

http://www.thtproductions.co.uk/

[DosFreak]

Latest via drivers?

Upgrading from the POS Cyrix 333 to the K6-300 was a good choice!

DIE CYRIX DIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

[paul_h_amiga]

What does VIA have to do with the SIS chipsets? Are they the same company or something?

I have to get rid off the Cyrix. It was driving me sister up the wall!!! But unfortunatly I can't tell the difference till I sort this problem out mate....

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Bob The Builder

http://www.thtproductions.co.uk/

[DavidNewbould]

I think the bottleneck is with the CPU - the upgrade from the Cyrix to the K6-2 isnt a huge one, the AMD chip has no L2 cache, which kills games performance.
Im not too sure how good the chipset it also, doubt it's any good.

My advice = upgrade CPU+mobo

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In the year of our Lord 1314, patriots of Scotland,
starving and outnumbered, charged the fields at Bannockburn. They fought
like warrior poets. They fought like Scotsmen. And won their freedom.

[DosFreak]

You could try to find drivers here for that crappy mobo http://www.sis.com.tw/support/download/driver1.htm


SIS is a really bad company to buy mobo's from. The IDE drivers on this site are 2 yrs old so the IDE drivers that come with Windows are probably better. I agree with the above. Get a better mobo. My personal favorite is the Soyo SY5EMA+ or a mobo that supports K+ processors.....but you already bought this mobo so you probably want to fix it.

[paul_h_amiga]

I upgraded the K6-300 to 500, and there was a 5 fps increase in Q3 (22 fps instead of 17)

I overclocked the PCI card to 180HZ on both setting things in Powerstrip and the system has got a little bit faster but not much.

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Bob The Builder

http://www.thtproductions.co.uk/

[Damien]

I think there must be a bottleneck, because on an old TNT2 with a K62 400 I could get more than 17fps - around 30 I think at 800 * 600 but don't quote me on that. Dos freak is right, if the SIS board uses a Via chipset make sure you have the latest 4 in 1 drivers.