3dMark2001 settings

[maxima88]

Hi. I'm getting a message saying that "the 3D accelerator I hav chosen does not support the display setting combination you have chosen. The settings have been downgraded. The default settings for 3dMark2001 are 1024X768 resolution, 32bit colors,
24/32 bit Z-buffer, compressed textures using DXTC formats 1 and 3".
I already am using 1024x768 resolution and 32 bit colors.
I don't understand the rest.
I'm running a 1.2g AMD Tbird w/ 256meg DDR ram on an ECS mobo. some of the tests are skipped and I end up with a 918 score.
Is this the best my system will do or is there a way for me to get the correct settings to get the maximum score my sytem can get?
my video card is a Nvidia TNT2 Model 64 32meg card.
Is my video card a piece of junk?
my fps only goes up to 25 w/ low detail and only up to 13fps w/ high detail tests.

 

[Jon]

You might be able to squeeze a few more points out of it but the video card is definately the bottleneck. While most video cards operate on a 128-bit bus, yours is only transferring data on a 64-bit bus. This is a stranglehold for your system. The M64 wasn't made for gaming.

New card or live with it...about all I can advise.

 

[o770]

i never got the 3dmark downgrading the settings but i think that when it does, it will set them for the best your video card can handle.
its normal that it wont run a bunch of tests because your video card cant really support them.

 

[Lancelot]

I have a Diamond Viper V770 AGP card, the real 128bit TNT2 32Meg version and get the same warning. This chipset just doesn't support things as Hardware Anti Aliasing and Texture & Lightning etc. etc. that's why 3DMark 2001 disables a few benchmarks etc. 3DMark 2000 is more suited for a TNT2's capabilities. Although I don't game a lot, with great new games like Jedi Knight2 etc. coming up I'm considering upgrading to a GF2-MX400.
btw; my max score with 1024x768 32bit color is 1340 (2001)3DMarks and I found out a 32MB aperture size works best. (1xAGP @89Mhz, read my siggy below)

 

[maxima88]

Thanks for the responses.
I kinda suspected that my video card's no good.
Don't really play a lot of games, just wanted to make sure I got the best performance out of what I have.

 

[o770]

you can still use it to test your driver settings. i think you can find out what the 3dmark settings will work for your car, save them and start testing the driver settings using the new custom benchmark when you want.

 

[-=UR=- Ranger]

Your card is definately the bottleneck. I doesnt work with all the new features of 3D Mark 2001. The benchmark is designed Geforce 3 class Cards.