Quake 3 performance issues

[gerbil]

I've seen a lot of benchmarks in Quake 3, but there are still some performance issues that bug me that I haven't heard discussed. I can play most levels in Quake 3 at decent framerates (60+ fps for the most part) at 1024x768x32 on my Voodoo5 5500 (and my Athlon 850), but certain levels absolutely kill my card. For instance, q3tourney4 has sub-par performance for the most part (usually drops down to 30fps) and has a particularly hard time in the center secion of the map near the rail gun. If I go to the top where the rail gun sits and then face toward the center of the room, my framerate usually drops to somewhere between 25 and 30fps. I can't hit anything with the rail gun at 25fps, this is unacceptable to me. My roomate has a Duron 850@950 and a GeForce 2MX and he has the same problem (usually about the same framerates). Maps with lots of shiny stuff like q3tourney4, q3dm18, and q3dm19 seem to really kill performance. What I'm really wanting to know is what kind of framerates do you guys get in these sorts of maps with different cards (like Radeons, GF2s/Pros/Ultras, etc...)? Can I buy a video card that makes these maps playable at 1024x768x32 or do I have something incorrectly configured on my current system (do other V5 owners not have this kind of performance drop)?

 

[Compellor]

Is texture compression enabled? To check, go into your q3aconfig file and look for this: seta r_ext_compressed_textures "1"

If the value is "0" set it to"1"

Generally, you shouldn't have to use S3TC on 64 MB video cards, but try this to see if it helps.

In my case, I use S3TC as well as playing the game in 16 bit color/32 bit textures (slider maxed). Plays smooth on all levels. 32 bit color slows things down a bit when playing online.

 

[gerbil]

Yup, texture compression is enabled. Basically, I'm trying to figure out if a new GF2 is going to be more playable than my Voodoo5 in these types of maps at 1024x768x32. I'm wondering if it'll have the same problem (if it's memory bandwidth related) and die in those levels but give me excessive fps in the levels that already play smoothly at that resolution. But, if you say your card plays smoothly, then that's the answer I was looking for.

 

[Compellor]

If you go with a GeForce 2 GTS, get a 64 MB version.