Why does Singularity still give me +10 more FPS?

[NJMike]

I've been a Singularity user for a year or so now as it's always been the most stable and fastest for me. But I wanted to see if any other viewers could run as fast as it. So the other day, I have tried: Firestorm, Dolphin, Exodus, Catznip and Nirans. All of them gave me the exact same FPS as each other compared to Singularity, which was ten-less FPS tha Singularity gave me in the area. My friend has told me his Firestorm and Singulraity get the same FPSes, so I'm wondering if it's my laptop? Here are my specs, too:

 

Singularity Viewer 1.7.3 (3624) Jan 20 2013 04:44:37 (Singularity)

CPU:        Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2430M CPU @ 2.40GHz (2394.58 MHz)
Memory: 4009 MB
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit Service Pack 1 (Build 7601)
Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Graphics Card: GeForce GT 540M/PCIe/SSE2
Windows Graphics Driver Version: 8.15.0010.2291
OpenGL Version: 4.2.0

Viewer SSE Version: SSE2
libcurl Version: libcurl/7.21.1 OpenSSL/1.0.0g zlib/1.2.5 c-ares/1.7.1
J2C Decoder Version: OpenJPEG: 1.5.2
Audio Driver Version: FMOD Ex 4.44.04
Qt Webkit Version: 4.7.1 (version number hard-coded)
Packets Lost: 11/44464 (0.0%)

[Drake1 Nightfire]

your memory is a little low and there is a new driver out from Nvidia..

[NJMike]

I have the new driver I just got it last night.

[leliel Mirihi]

Nvidia's latest driver has this version string "9.18.0013.1407", aka version 314.07 as listed on the download page. Altho you said you were using a laptop so the oem is probably rolling its own driver which uses its own version string.

 

As for why singularity is faster on your machine who knows, tho it may not stay that way. Three months from now firestorm could be faster, and three months after that some other viewer could be faster.

[Peggy Paperdoll]

Are you complaining, making an observation, or attempting to sell Singularity to others?  Singularity is a TPV that is sanctioned by LL for use in SL.  It's one of many different viewers anyone can choose to use.  Some viewers are feature rich, requiring hefty systems to realize the features offered.  Some viewers are stripped down on the features requiring less hefty systems to realize the basics SL has to offer to the users.  Singularity is one of the TPV's that cater to the less than hefty systems.  That means it will run acceptably on a lesser spec'd computer.......it sacrifices some of the features available in order to accomplish that.  That's be beauty of TPV's........if one doesn't run on your computer then another will (unless you are trying to run SL on some really low end computer......nothing's going to make a silk purse out of a pig's ear).  If Singularity works that well for you then, by all means, use Singularity and forget about why it runs 10+ FPS better than the others.

By the way.  The driver has very little to do with Singularity running better than others.  Upgrading your driver will not make the other viewers run better for you if the old driver was doing fine for you before the upgrade.  Drivers are not some magic bullet that fixes the graphics capabilities for a graphics card.......it merely adds features or fixes bugs to the older driver.  The card's architecture and make up determines what the card will do.....no matter what driver is running it.  If you have a driver corruption problem or the wrong driver then updating will fix that but it never will make the card run better than it's designed for.  If Singularity ran better before you updated, I can almost guarantee it still runs better now that you updated.

[NJMike]

I understand. Hmm. I suppose I am just being too picky or observant again, which I tend to be a lot.

[NJMike]

And by the way, I just double-checked through the device manager, I do have that version, Ieliel Mirihi. So I guess it's the OEM thing you mentioned. But not like it's really relevant anymore as Penny has already debunked the driver as affecting the game in anyway.

[Cerise Sorbet]

It's going to be different on every machine, but the first time I tried a recent Singularity, I notice the same higher fps too. But things looked a little odd. That's when I noticed that the default graphics settings it uses leave off some of the features the others leave on. Once I flipped the switches and compared apples to apples, it was a dead heat.

[solstyse]

I believe Singularity is still based on V1, which is inherently faster than v2 and v3 based viewers. but by now, it's only the V1 viewers with the most dedicated developers that still exist.

[Hoshi Kenin]

That is strange. I have used TPV's ever since I first discovered Emerald.   I have tried SIngularity and it is decidedly average. Catznip R7 is the fastest in my - and many other people's - trials, and Nirans is always a ground breaking viewer, closely followed by Exodus.   Of the V1 type viewers, again, I find Cool viewer superior to SIngularity.  

You maybes got a special download meant for our invisible and mute CEO?  :matte-motes-tongue:

 

[Linda Brynner]

Hi NJMike,

I'm an oldie in SL and i can confirm your observation. Like you i am always observing and picky as well.
I've used about all viewers now and on different computers since it depends on where i am in the world.
What i see is that Singularity has always given me +10 Basic FPS indeed under similar circumstances.

What i understood is that Singularity is a hybrid V1/V2/V3 accordiing to the developer.
He wanted to maintain the V1-look, however under the hood it is based on V2/V3. The rendering engine for example is V2/3. Rendering at LL changed since V2 due to license issues, and all TPV's went LL's direction on that matter.

All V2/3-functionality and more options are brought into Singularity so it's not V1-based, it just looks like it.
This is something nobody thought would be possible, but this developer did it.

And no i am not doing any commerce lol. I just prefer the V1-look and its much higher speed. And i can confirm your observation.

 

[NJMike]

Hmm, interesting. I understand now. Makes sense.

[Jadeclaw Denfu]

Same here, Singularity was the fastest - Until LL released SL-Viewer V3.4.5 last week.
At that point, performance was virtually identical.
Firestorm 4.3.1 is considerably slower, as it is based on the previous LL-code and is similar to SL-Vierwer 3.4.4.
Tried the latest Dolphin 3.4.13 and Niran's 2.0.9beta, both are very close to the SL-Vierwer 3.4.5.
I have deinstalled Singularity, I don't need it anymore and I hate the V1-UI.

System: CPU: Phenom II 945 Quadcore @ 3GHz, RAM: 8GB DDR3-1333, GPU: nVidia GTS 650.
Graphics settings: Everything on, except Ambient Occlusion and Depth of field, all sliders max, except sky,
Draw range 192m.

I usually get 20 to 30fps in typical residential settings from the new viewers, Firestorm 4.3.1 delivers less than half of that.

[Baloo Uriza]

Singularity is pretty well full featured, though I believe they've rewritten the renderer.