Testing Video card performance...

[AndyM]

What's the best way to test a video card performance, as in frames-per-second statistics I often see given in articles about video cards? I'd like to see how well I'm doing with my Matrox G400. It bugs me when CS Bots kill me before I even see them. And my eyesight isn't bad! Might be time for a Geforce.......
Any suggestions on how I can benchmark my system?

[DrZaius]

Hi AndyM,

Check out 3D Mark 2001. Install the program and run the benchmark, it will give you a number that you can use to compare with other systems. Hope that helps.

[Tiretool]

Also... if you're getting killed before you see your opponent, you're most likely source of this problem is your internet connection. If you're on a 56k line with a high ping, that is 99.9% of your trouble.
Get cable or DSL.

[fade2black]

There is usually a "timedemo" option built in to a game. For example in Quake III, after bringing down the console (press ~) you type, "timedemo 1", and press enter. Then you can type, "demo demo001.dm3", press enter and it will run that demo as fast as possible. After it is finished, you bring the console down again and you will see your results. This is the best way to benchmark your performance in games. There are many websites out there that can show you how to do this for a particular game.

[AndyM]

No, I quit the online gaming until I get cable. Just too frustrating to die 9 out of 10 times.
What I'm talking about is when I play against the Realbots. Sometimes I'll get creamed if I round a corner and there they are...I get one visual frame and I'm dead before I pull the trigger. Makes me think it's my fps... but it could be poor technique

[fade2black]

If the bots have a high skill they will seem to be able to se around corners and even long distnces. This happens to me as well on occasion. It coul also be your framerate. If you want to see your current FPS in Counter Strike, then bring down the console (press ~) and then type, "cl_showfps 1", and then press enter. This will display an active FPS display in the upper left hand corner of your screen. You should also know that your FPS is limited by the "fps_max" variable. Yet, this is set to 72 FPS by default so this doesn't really "limit" your framerate. However, setting this varialble to a little more than your avarage FPS, you can avoid large changes in your framerate that can make playing seem choppy and slugish even without lag. To set the varible to 30 FPS for example, just type, "fps_max 30" in the console and press enter. Happy hunting!

[AndyM]

Thanks a lot for the suggestions. The console fps is what I was looking for: I'm running anywhere from 8 to 24 fps depending on how many of the 16 players are alive at the time. How does this match up to the rest of you players? Specifically in CS?

[fade2black]

I have limited my framerate to 50 FPS, but I have seen it dip as low as the 20's in large areas with a lot of action. I am using a 64MB Radeon, Celeron @550 MHz, 256 MB RAM. I run CS at 800x600 in OpenGL mode.

[AndyM]

I'm using a Matrox G400 32MB with 256k RAM on a PIII 700 (was at 933, but I dropped it back to install NIC for the cable modem). Best FPS I have gotten at 800X600 in OpenGL is about 48. Averages 18 to 24 until most bots are dead. Lows are 8-10 with lots of action. What kind of rates are you other players getting?
Just kind of a survey here. Thanks for all responses.

[HAL9000]

Ran the Quake3 demo and got 66fps at 1024x768 with an All-in-Wonder RADEON 32Mb DDR, PIII 800E, 320Mb RAM.

[AndyM]

Do you play CS HAL? If so would you lemme know your fps there?
Thanks