A guide to increase performance with Dual Core computers

*Note* Theres no over-clocking of components required for these tweaks, and up to a 20% gain in performance can be a result.
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Contains tweaks, which could render your computer un usable if done incorrectly.Remember, always back up

I un-overclocked my video card a couple of weeks ago, after PSU problems, and I havnt got around to overclocking the card again. So, I got researching.

With AA on 4x and AF on 8x, my computer got 4500 points in 3dMark 03, which tests both video, sound, and CPU. As a comparison, my old 7300GS did about 1500 in the test with the same settings wink.gif . This was quite a good score, beating the average 7600GS score by about 300. biggrin.gif That, however, wasn't enough for me 😛

Heres 4 simple steps, ranging from Idiot proof, to registry editing, which helped HEAPS to get my performance up 😀 (taken from various websites)

1.To start, I found this Microsoft Dual Core Hotfix, which helped with my Pentium D dual core processor:
(dead link removed)

2.Next, I added this to my boot.ini
Added /usepmtimer to boot.ini.
Also added (with regedit) Registry key to KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Throttle
Inside Throttle key: add a DWORD called PerfEnablePackageIdle with the value of 1

3.Upgraded Xtreme G modded forceware drivers to Z-Tweaked forceware drivers
(dead link removed)

4. After using numerous tweaks from this tweak guide I manged to get Windows looking nice, and performing faster, while using less system resources (Memory usage sitting at 90MB, while still having Antivirus, firewall, Windows Update, Mozilla, ICQ all running!)
http://tweakhound.com/xp/xptweaks/supertweaks1.htm

From these steps, I managed to change my 3dMark score from 4500 to a whopping 5980! This is about a 20% speed increase, without any overclocking!
drool.gif

Now, its time to tick the "Enable Overclocking" feature in the video cards control panel, and see what this thing can really do! (Hoping to get over 8000)

Cheers
BB