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Contrasting performance

Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 1:47 pm
by samo79
Since I installed the update 4 I noticed some strange performance degradation between Update 3 and 4 that can occur under certain circumstances, of course the system is actually much faster than before (even compared to the Update 3, and this doesn't seems only a placebo effect!) but using AmigaOS a little bit (even browsing the web for 10 minutes) and then launching some 3D games (such Quake 3 or even ADoom) i can note some general speed issues that instead are not visible at all if i launch that games after a reboot without opening anythings else before

For example if i reboot my Amiga and then browsing the web with MUI OWB, then --> start Quake 3 i get:

At 640*480 i get 12.3 FPS

That are the Quake 3 settings i use:
GL extension: ON
Video mode: 640x480
Color Depth: 32bit
Fullscreen: ON
Lighting: Lightmap
Geometric: Detail HIGH
Texture Detail: Max level
Texture Quality: 32bit
Texture Filter: Trilinear
Convesely if i reboot my Amiga and then start Quake 3 only (and with the same Quake 3 settings for the TimeDemo) i get:

At 640*480 i get 20.3 FPS

8 FPS of difference !

(note that i use a special Quake 3 version from m3x not yet released)

I note the same problems with ADoom 1.4 taked from Aminet, so it's not a Quake 3 fault, or it seems not ...

Checking the Update 4 archive i note only that new version of Picasso96API.library (version 2.359), did you know if that strange problem can be caused by that updated library ?

I did all that test on my Sam440ep Flex 800 Mhz with Radeon 9250

Re: Contrasting performance

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 9:55 pm
by Hans
That's strange behaviour. Possibly the slow-down occurs because your VRAM is filled up and fragmented by the other apps that you have run. Why this behaviour would only occur in update 4 is anyone's guess though. The changes to Picasso96API.library are pretty simple, and I wouldn't expect those to cause this.

What frame-rate did you get with Quake 3 (exactly the same version) with AmigaOS 4.1 update 3?

Hans

Re: Contrasting performance

Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 8:54 am
by samo79
Hans wrote:That's strange behaviour. Possibly the slow-down occurs because your VRAM is filled up and fragmented by the other apps that you have run. Why this behaviour would only occur in update 4 is anyone's guess though. The changes to Picasso96API.library are pretty simple, and I wouldn't expect those to cause this.

What frame-rate did you get with Quake 3 (exactly the same version) with AmigaOS 4.1 update 3?

Hans
Hello Hans thanks for reply :)

With update 3 i got exactly the same FPS in general but indeed since update 4 it seems that if i start an application before starting Quake 3 or even ADoom (that don't use Warp3D at all) i got this huge slowdown like somethings still continue to use my CPU (or VRAM?) in background

For example if i start MUI OWB for browse the net for a while, then close it --> and start Quake 3 --> i get --> 12 FPS at 640*480 on timedemo

Then i reboot my Amiga and i start again Quake 3 without starting anythings else before --> now i get 20 FPS on the same test

Similar contrasting result with ADoom as i said ...

Maybe MUI still using video memory in background even if not open at all (or already closed) ?

I will retry the same test with some big not-MUI app (like Reaction OWB) so atleast we can say if problem is caused by MUI apps or not :?

Re: Contrasting performance

Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 8:57 pm
by Hans
samo79 wrote: With update 3 i got exactly the same FPS in general but indeed since update 4 it seems that if i start an application before starting Quake 3 or even ADoom (that don't use Warp3D at all) i got this huge slowdown like somethings still continue to use my CPU (or VRAM?) in background
Again, what FPS under update 3? The same as 20? Or the same as 12?

Hans

Re: Contrasting performance

Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 11:30 pm
by samo79
I get 20.3 FPS on Update 3 (in every system state)