The Service Pack 3 Effect...

[carrot1401]

Since Windows XP SP3 is now available to download (fileshack link to 317mb file here) I'd thought I'd see if it really does improve games. So just before I installed it, I fired up Trackmania United Forever, Company Of Heroes and the Crysis demo to see what the framerates were like before and after SP3.

The test rig used was all at stock:

Intel Core 2 Duo e8400 @ 3ghz
Gecube ATi 3870xt (factory overclocked at 810/1226)
4gb OCZ PC6400 ram (read as 3.5gb due to 32-bit Windows XP)

The screenies I upload are available here but as they're quite small I decided to just throw in the important numbers:

First up, COH at higest DX9 settings at 1280x1024 with 8xAA:

SP2: Average 63.2, Highest 77 and lowest 16fps
SP3: Average 61.9, Highest 79 and lowest 15

Next, its the amazing game that is Trackmania United Forever on the higest settings at 1280x1024 bar shadows (due to odd corruptions on very high and complex) and 8xAA:

SP2: 43.8fps
SP3: 43fps

Finally, I used the crysis demo benchmarks, both the gpu and cpu versions, all high at 1280x1024 but with no AA:

CPU SP2: 30.195fps
CPU SP3: 29.745fps

GPU SP2: 33.985fps
GPU SP3: 33.215

So there you have it, a slight DECREASE from SP2....for now at least

 

[carrot1401]

Just thought some people would like to know the facts and figures. a lot of sites were saying that it is suppose to improve results by a fair bit, hence why I have tried it now. However, its not as interesting as it was made out to be

 

[carrot1401]

Didn't notice that he was scaremongering

Neither did I lol Just thought I'd post up to anyway and everyone that was interested as to whether there was any performance increases (again, I'll state that I heard this was the case, hence me benchmarking)

 

[carrot1401]

Funny thing is I tried dual booting with vista ultimate 64 bit and I just couldnt get use to it. Took a big hit on my pc back then framerate wise (P4 3.4ghz with 4gb ram and a x1950pro on call of duty 4 went from 40fps to 30fps)

May go back to it after exams. But can anyone link me on how to slipstream vista sp1 (and I mean an idiots guide)

And its 2 i's bled

 

[carrot1401]

About to hijack my own thread, thats excellent.
How do I know if my version of vista ultimate requires x64 SP1 or x86 SP1?

 

[carrot1401]

I think some people are missing the point of this thread; he's not moaning about a reduction in gaming performance post-SP3, he's just showing that (for him at least) some of the ludicrous claims towards the end of last year about SP3 giving massive performance boosts have been shown to be false.

Thank you, someone that finally understands me

What tends to happen is they benchmark a game at say 1900x1200 get 10FPS then apply SP3 and get 11/12FPS and make wild claims of 10-20% performance increase. Something along the lines of that anyway.

I'm not doing that, I tried them at my default resolution

Bloody hell don't shot the messenger

 

[carrot1401]

32bit is x86
64bit is x64

Thank-ken-you