I get the general impression that i am getting a rather low framerate in my openGL based games and demos with my nVidia card. I'm wondering what everybody else is getting performance wise. Please post your PC specs and run "glxgears" for a framerate benchmark.

Also, if it turns out my marks are low, what can i do to speed them up? Some people have mentioned that perhaps MESA is overriding OpenGL for some things. What do you put in your X86Config-4 file to tweak your card? Any other tips?

what i'm getting:

GLGEARS:
4222 frames in 5.0 seconds = 844.400 FPS
4192 frames in 5.0 seconds = 838.400 FPS
4321 frames in 5.0 seconds = 864.200 FPS
4193 frames in 5.0 seconds = 838.600 FPS
4010 frames in 5.0 seconds = 802.000 FPS

SYSTEM:
Mandrake 9.1 w/ latest nVidia drivers
FIC AU13 board w/ nForce2 chipset
Athlon 2500+ Barton
2x 256MB DDR
nVidia GeForce4 MX420 64MB

it's brand new but i've seen some others with half the muscle put out twice the framerates. what gives?

That does seem low.

Whats your XFree86-4 config file for your card? and what modules have you got loading?

My results where
19774 frames in 5.0 seconds = 3954.800 FPS
19764 frames in 5.0 seconds = 3952.800 FPS
19737 frames in 5.0 seconds = 3947.400 FPS

Debian SID latest drivers
Athlon Tbird 1Ghz
384Mb (3x128) SDRAM
nVidia Ti4600 128Mb

leiavoia, those FPS readings seems about right. I have the same card. My system's specs are:
ABIT KA7-100 (VIA KX-133)
AMD Athlon 'Classic' 700 MHz
512 MBytes SDRAM KingMax (TinyBGA)
PNY GeForce4 MX 420 /w 64 MBytes

Your video card is limiting your system instead of the processor and memory bus. Keep in mind those readings are estimates.

My FPS readings from glxgears under a user:
My /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 under the Device section:
BTW, my AGP speed is going at 4X instead of 2X and I'm using agpgart.

Here's mine. I've done almost no tweaking, other than the NVIDIA driver install.

System:
AMD 2200+
512M Memory
Chaintech NVidia 5200FX (128M) - cheapest FX on the market
Running 4X Agp
Mandrake 9.0

5746 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1149.200 FPS
5962 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1192.400 FPS
5949 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1189.800 FPS
5963 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1192.600 FPS
5951 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1190.200 FPS

The fps your getting are about right for an MX series card.

Mine are fine for Warcraft III in a 1024x768 window under WineX. No lag and I can still watch TV at the same time.

Cheers

This is a little weird.

My P-III 866 with GeForce4 with Red Hat 8 gets about 1300FPS.
My P-II 400 with GeForce3 with Slackware 9 gets about 1800FPS!

My AMD K6-2 350 with TNT2 and Slackware 9 gets a whopping 300FPS!

thanks for the feedback guys. by all means, don't stop posting. the more the merrier.

here's my XFConfig (relevent parts)

-----------

Section "Module"
Load "dbe" # Double-Buffering Extension
Load "v4l" # Video for Linux
Load "extmod"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx" # 3D layer
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "device1"
VendorName "nVidia Corporation"
BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce4 (generic)"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "DPMS"
Option "NvAGP" "1"
Option "CursorShadowYOffset" "5"
Option "CursorShadow"
Option "CursorShadowXOffset" "4"
Option "NoLogo"
Option "CursorShadowAlpha" "40"
Option "HWCursor"
EndSection

---------------------------

i tried fiddling with the NvAGP option but it makes no difference :-(

the general impression i get here is that there is a big difference between the MX (bargain) series and the regular "stock" GF4's / Ti's. That's OK really since i don't play anything *too* graphics intensive besides BZFlag, but i am learning SDL and OpenGL programming, so it's nice to have a card that can handle some of the nicer home-brewed games and demos out there.

If you are getting low values check if DRI is loaded in /var/log/XFree86.0.log. I have the following error

(II) I810(0): [drm] added 1 reserved context for kernel
(EE) I810(0): [dri] I830DRIScreenInit failed because of a version mismatch.
[dri] i830.o kernel module version is 1.2.0 but version 1.3 or greater is needed.
[dri] Disabling DRI.

after applying a kernel patch to fix some other problems with intel 865g onboard video. This leaves me at about 500FPS (2.4GHz P4/XFree86 4.3.0).

what command/app (using debian woody) to get the scores?

glxgears

Do a locate/whereis to find it if it's not in your $PATH.

Cool

Ok, this must be my problem with that P-III machine (from my previous post back up there). Along with the fact it's a Geforce4 MX 420. I have this in /var/log/XFree86.0.log:

(II) NVIDIA(0): AGP 2X successfully initialized

I looked into this some time ago and never figured out how to get this thing to go the full 4X. I think it is some problem with the VIA chipset and this Tyan S1854 Trinity 400 motherboard.


Or, not!! I just noticed that the P-II machine says the same thing about the 2X. And, also, it's only a GeForce2, but it's a Ti.

OK,OK but it says
huh?
what does that mean?

(cmd run from gui - gnome-enlightment)

pe2338,

Well, I think you'll need to post up your graphics card specs and your graphics driver?

geforce 2mx, with nv
tried the nvidia drivers but couldn't get the x to run with them.
tried last night and this morning the x wouldn't start for normal user

I use an old format config file 'cause the new never worked for me.

I will try to get the nvidia drivers into the kern right now

I have the nvidia drivers now

the fps is *really* dependant on the size of the glxgears frame...
got results from 40fps(large frame) to 1900fps in minimized window

It's not precise, just a guage for you to base performance of your card in different situations.

Cool