Do use the gridwars 2 patch I created in the past (Im are NOT the original author of Grid Wars, I just modifed the source to became a more cab freindly patch)?
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=80123.0I mean this slowless is due the desktop is set to 16bit, but should set that to 32bit. A Another user have that problem and fixed after changing his desktop to 32bit.
Remember to update all drivers as well.
Grid Wars is a OpenGL application, not DirectX since BLitzmax DirectX drivers is much slowere than OpenGL.
Both games is single threaded applcation, and your CPU is a a HyperThreading CPU, hence Windows see your processor as 2 seperate CPU's. Hence 50%.