So what? Is your PC too slow for you? All the latest emulators are truely getting better and better but they also require some more and more power ... and for the average consumer, it is not much of a fair deal, right? Does that mean that you should go and buy some new elements? Well, try this first! Please note that we will soon publish a complete benchmarking based upon Ultra Hle and Impact and also wellknown benchmarkers.
(All these tools are PUBLIC DOMAIN)
WARNING! A few essential suggestions first! Always remember to check your processor's cooling fan. Use the software temperature, fan and voltage monitor (normally provided with your motherboard). If you decide to overclock your 3d card, try to add a cooling fan if your 3d card doesn't have any (a 486 processor's cooling fan usally perfectly fits on it).Only apply a software overclocker on your 3d card when you are going to run chipset runtime leecher such as Impact. DON'T push those tools and your hardware to their absolute limits! Please note that we are also using those tools and no damaged occured (while, in the same time, we've burnt a few cards / Hd's thru HARDWARE overclocking).
ALL PC OWNERS :
RAMBOOSTER
(version 1.41) : Unlike those old "Stacker" like systems, RAM BOOSTER won't
create some virtual memory but simply free up Ram by forcing Windows to remove all the
data that is not currently needed in the memory (It will also make websurfing faster on
slower machines). When using an emulator (and many other progams).
I suggest you to set the Rambooster to run only if your CPU time is equal or below 5 / 6%.
Set the optimize range to about 60% of your amount of ram if you own 32 megs. 70% for
64megs.
If you own more? You shouldn't even read this text!
UltrHle addicts: if you wish to use the debug mon functions, I suggest you to DISABLE the
auto-run functions.
Tested on P75 32megs ; P133 32megs ; K6-II 350 (tweaked) 64megs. Expect an average 10%
speed increase depending on the configuration / application used.
WCPUID.EXE (version 2.6d) : A complete audit of system main element such as processor's version and frequency, supported option, Agp, L1 or L2 or unified type 3 cache and even more. Including different language translations (english, chinese, french, german, italian..) it is a tool you need to own.
Soft SB (version 1.7) : Soft Sb is offering some interesting options in order to reconfigure your motherboard. English, jap, and other languages are supported in the html help file. Soft SB will recognize several models and firms such as Abit, Chaintech, Asus and many more. A first little step to the hardcore tweaking. Train first at your office or university ...
POWER TWEAK 2 This is an easy way for you to increase your processor. There is no one I know that tried this on a new PIII or Athlon system. I tried myself on a Pentium system and an AMD K6-2: it works fine. Ofcourse, rather play with your motherboard jumpers. But this tool will also allow you to increase some AGP/PCI chipset. And that is something you can't do with onboard jumpers.
Voodoo cards owners :
Tweak-It!
(v4..02) : Ah, Voodoo fx owners, this is THE tool (*requires visual basic 6*). Tweak-iT
allows you to overclock your Voodoo chipset (Voodoo / Voodoo2 / Voodoo 3 / Voodoo Rush /
Voodoo Banshee Chipset Versions!). Tweak-It has also several functions for Monster 3d
owners, Dual Voodoo II, and such. The only matter is that Tweak-it is certainly a bit
complicated to set up. There is NO universal perfect set-up. Depending on your Pc
configuration and needs, it will take you a while before you find the most accurate
configuration settings running Pc games, Ultra Hle and Impact..
Tested on both single and dual Voodoo II systems. Expect an average 10% 3d graphics speed
increase.
Voodoo 2 Tweaker (V1.1) : A Voodoo 2 (only) based tweaker. Very easy to use, V2T won't offer you many configurations. If overclocking programs usually give you some headaches, use that one. If you need a bit more power for your Ultra Hle needs, it is all O.K. Concerning Impact ...
Voodoo Master (V1.0) : Not too complicated, the options you really need, Voodoo Master is a fair deal between Tweak-it and Voodoo 2 tweaker. Concerning pure frequency overclocking, Voodoo master will warn when you're about to set your card to a critical point. Still, with a fair and honest overclocking, we've managed to run some Impact roms (with sound) to a VERY playable level on a K6-II 3dnow and 64 megs (use rambooster!) while tweak-it didn't show us much results. I have personally reached an average and very smooth 25 fps (glide renderer, no sound, but no frame skipping selected) on my K6-II 3dnow.
AMD K6 & K6-2 3DNow owners :
SETK6 : Nothing but THE AMD processors booster. Tried on my one and it is all safe. Expect some 5-6 % improvements.
Also, if you own an ASUS P5A motherboard, I suggest you to update to the latest bios.
To be continued ...
We, at The Company warn you that none of us might be held responsible for any kind of damage that may occure by using these software programs. We strongly suggest you to read those tools documentations first. We have been testing ALL these tools onto different Pc computers using Windows 95/98, Pentium 75Mhz (32 megs of ram, Asus Mb) , Pentium 133Mhz (32 megs of ram, Compaq Mb), Pentium II 450Mhz (Asus P2B Mb), K6-2 350Mhz overclocked (Asus P5a Mb), Trident video card, Virge Dx, voodoo 2 (with and w/o SLi), Ati 3d Rage pro, Ati 128 Rage Fury, Matrox G200.