by Bubba "Masterfung" Wolford

Test1: P3 450 MHZ - Voodoo3 3000

Papa Doc benchmark: 17.554 FPS

Test2: Dual P2 400
(Win98SE- only one processor running)

Papa Doc benchmark: 17.875 FPS

It is clear to see that clock rate and memory speed are very important in F4! Even though I dropped back 50 MHz in CPU speed, I still gained almost a .5 frame in video speed! Knowing how CPU limited Falcon 4.0 is, that is an amazing feat!

Test3: Dual Processor P2 400
(Windows 2000 Server- Both CPUs)

Papa Doc benchmark: 21.508 FPS

Falcon 4.0 is not optimized for dual threads yet. We know that because fellow COMBATSIM.COM™ writer and Falcon 4.0 Senior Instructor Pilot Mark Doran and I have both spent some time with Falcon 4.0 running Dual Processors. Each processor is only being utilized up to 50%. Each processor SHOULD be running at 90-100%, which would yield much higher framerates than we are seeing now.

Of course, as you can see from the benchmark, 21.508 FPS is the highest recorded yet. So even though the processors are not being properly utilized yet, the efficiency of both along with the fastest 3D card made add up to a pretty sweet setup! This Papa Doc benchmark is a real FPS killer!

3DMark 99 MAX is a great benchmark program, which has really become a standard in the industry. I ran four tests, one simulating a V3 3000 (clock speed was 166MHz while clocking my processor between 400 and 448 MHz.) For the other tests I ran the V3 3500-TV at its shipped clock rate of 183MHz while again running my CPU's from 400 to 448Mhz. Above and right are the scores from 3DMark 99 MAX.

Click to continue

V3 3000 166MHz

Click for full chart.

V3 3500 TV AGP at 183MHz

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GO to Part IV: Interpretation and Summary