The model from Swifts demo, do you mean beethoven? That thing is near 5000 polys! It would hit the frame rate in most shadow volume systems out there.
On another note, it's NOT a suitable mesh to test with as it's isn't a closed mesh. This causes rendering errors which is a bad idea when you're trying to code stencil shadow routines, you'll be blaming your code and searching for bugs that may not exist! :)
Muahahaha! That's what you get for stealing my model which I stole from a website with free 3D models and duplicating my demo exactly!
Actually I don't care. I'm more bemused than anything.
And I would like to point out that MY system handles boned vertex-animated B3D meshes, AND beethovens! :-)