[gentoo-performance] getting athlon-xp/geforce4 system "on the top"

[eNTi]

hi everyone.

this thread should firstly help my system to get on the top *G*, hopefully provide others to do the same and give some useful information on how to achieve that goal in terms of bios, kernel, xfree, as well as other possible performance settings (hdparm, cflags, USE).

i've got a pretty usual mid-to-high-end system with no extra cooling whatsoever (next of some nice ultrasilent fans), so about no overclocking is possible here.

let's start with the technical details:

AMD AthlonXP 2000+ (1666Mhz / 133[266]FSB)
Epox 8KHAL (VIA KT266A)
786MB Infineon RAM
Asus V8460 Ultra GeForce 4 Ti4600 128MB (nVidia 1.0.4363)
=======================
--- NvClock v0.6.2 ---
=======================

-- General info --
Card:           nVidia Geforce 4 Ti 4600
PCI id:         0x250
GPU speed:      300.375 MHz
Bustype:        AGP

-- Memory info --
Amount:         128 MB
Type:           128 bit DDR
Speed:          702.000 MHz

-- AGP info --
Status:         Enabled
Rate:           4X
AGP rates:      1X 2X 4X 
Fast Writes:    Supported, Disabled
SBA:            Enabled

(as you can see, i've overclocked the the graphics board ram to 700Mhz. this *should* be safe.)

IBM IDE 80GB 7200rpm
Segate IDE 40GB 5400rpm
Creative SBLive! [ALSA 0.93]

*******************************************************

linux 2.4.20-gaming-r2
xfree 4.3.0-r1 / fluxbox 0.1.14
gcc 3.2.2-r2

make.conf:
----------
CFLAGS="-mcpu=athlon-xp -O3 -pipe -m3dnow -msse -mmmx -Wall -fomit-frame-pointer" / CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"

USE="3ds openal mng dvd -maildir gtk2 dga xmms mobx mozilla samba usb xft x86 -apm cups encode gpm jpeg libwww mikmod ncurses png truetype xml2 alsa -gdbm berkdb slang readline -arts -svga -tcltk java -guile X sdl tcpd -pam ssl perl python -esd imlib oggvorbis -gnome gtk qt -kde -motif opengl cdr mmx 3dnow oss libg++ sse -odbc -nls mitshm gif shadow -pda -pcmcia nocardbus avi xmms pic mpeg objprelink crypt xface sasl icms acpi -apache2 wmf pdflib -plotutils quicktime zlib xv spell jikes slp lcms"

XF86Config:
-----------
Section "Device" 
Identifier "NVidia" 
Driver "nvidia" 
VideoRam 131072 
Option "NvAGP" "1" 
Option "RenderAccel" "false" 
Option "PageFlip" "on" 
Option "DigitalVibrance" "3" 
Option "CursorShadow" "true" 
Option "CursorShadowAlpha" "64" 
Option "CursorShadowXOffset" "2" 
Option "CursorShadowYOffset" "2"

env:
----
__GL_FSAA_MODE=0 
__GL_DEFAULT_LOG_ANISO=3 
__GL_SYNC_TO_VBLANK=0 

all my bios settings are "standard" at the moment, because i had some problems with segfaults and stuff in the past. i'll give it another try soon, due to new ram.
the CFLAGS have been updated lately, so pretty few things are compiled with those settings right now. until now, glxgears won't give me any additional frames.

*******************************************************

so far so good, what is glxgears telling me (with some apps enabled, like xmms, sylpheed, xchat. shouldnt make too much a difference).

nt@eNTi-Lair nt $ glxgears
24432 frames in 5.0 seconds = 4886.400 FPS
25123 frames in 5.0 seconds = 5024.600 FPS
25207 frames in 5.0 seconds = 5041.400 FPS
25222 frames in 5.0 seconds = 5044.400 FPS

i know at least one guy who got 5700 FPS (with an athlon-xp 2100+) and some aggressive bios settings. i've heard some people say, that my FPS are much too for my system, but didn't tell me right away what i can do better. i think this needs some tweaking. everyone who can tell me something useful is very welcome. if i need to specify more system details, please tell me too. i'm sure i've forgotten something obvious, but that's all i can think of at the moment.

so long...
----
eNTi 

{- MUH -}

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