Performance
Memory
Unreal Tournament GOTY's performance is highly dependent on the amount of RAM you have in your machine, and the amount of memory that is available. Machines with less memory will access their hard disk more frequently to load data, which causes sporadic pauses in gameplay. Thus, if you have a 32 megabyte (or less) machine, you should make sure that you don't have other unnecessary programs loaded in memory when playing Unreal Tournament GOTY.
How the game will perform under different RAM conditions:
- 32 megabytes or less: Probably unplayable.
- 48 megabytes: Some swapping; use the Preferences/Video "low texture detail" setting to improve this.
- 64 megabytes: Great, with a bit of swapping.
- 128 megabytes: Oh Yes!
CPU Speed
The game is also very sensitive to CPU speed, memory bandwidth, and cache performance. Thus, it runs far better on leading-edge processors such as Pentium II's than it does on older ones such as non-MMX Pentiums.
How Unreal Tournament GOTY will perform on different classes of machines:
- Non-MMX P166 class machines: Slow rendering; large frame rate variations. We recommend playing in 320x200 resolution if available. We recommend setting the sound playback to 11025 Hz.
- P200 MMX: Good rendering speed; some frame rate variations. We recommend running low resolutions like 320x240 or 400x300. We recommend keeping the sound playback at 22050 Hz.
- Pentium II; K6-2 with 3DNow!: Very nice rendering speed; consistent frame rate. Software rendering runs smooth in 512x384, 32-bit color resolution. You might try 44 kHz audio for best sound quality.
Considering upgrading?
For people considering upgrading their machines, here are some tips based on our experience running Unreal Tournament GOTY on a variety of machines:
- The biggest performance gain in Unreal Tournament GOTY comes from having a Pentium II class processor. Pentium II's have dramatically improved cache performance, memory performance, and floating-point performance compared to earlier Pentiums, and that all translates to faster gameplay. The performance improvements in Pentium II's are especially accentuated in Unreal Tournament GOTY, which contains way more content (textures, sounds, animations, level geometry) than other 3D action games.
- The next upgrade that tends to improve Unreal Tournament GOTY performance dramatically is a 3dfx Voodoo or Voodoo2 class 3D accelerator. Especially in conjunction with a Pentium II processor, these accelerators rock!
- Finally, lots of RAM helps. With memory prices continually falling, it's now reasonably affordable to upgrade to 64 or 128 megabytes of memory.
Requirements
Minimum system requirement:
- 233 MHz Pentium MMX or AMD K6 class computer.
- 32 megabytes of RAM.
- 4 megabyte video card.
Typical system:
- 300 MHz Pentium II or AMD K6-3.
- 64 megabytes of RAM.
- 3dfx Voodoo 2 / Riva TNT class 3d accelerator.
Awesome system:
- Pentium III 500 or AMD Athlon 550 or faster PC.
- 128 megabytes of RAM.
- 3dfx Voodoo3 / Riva TNT2 class 3D accelerator.
Getting Better UT Performance
The first thing to do is to increase your minimum desired framerate. UT will try to meet your framerate requirements by subtly dropping detail levels during complex scenes and fire fights. The default MinDesiredFrameRate is dependent on the speed of your computer. If you have hardware acceleration and a 300MHz or better CPU the MinDesiredFrameRate defaults to 30, otherwise it is 20. The higher the framerate, the more aggressive Unreal Tournament GOTY will be in eliminating excess special effects and detailing. To change the value open Advanced Options and click on Display. There will be an edit tab for the MinDesiredFrameRate variable. The change will take place immediately.
If increasing MinDesiredFrameRate doesn't help, try decreasing your texture detail levels in the Preferences window. You can also try lowering your screen resolution.