Drop in 3DMark06

[BiGg RiE]

Ok, my system specs are as follows:

Asus Crosshair MOBO
AMD 6400+ @ 3.3
2GB 1x2 1gb dimm Corsair XMS2 800ghz 5-5-5-12
XP Pro on 20Gig partition of a 120GB WD Sata 2
Programs on other partition of same drive

My problem is that my 3dMark scores droped from 9k to 6200

This happened before my cpu upgrade but after my graphx card upgrade. I went from a 7800GT 256MB to an 8800GTS 320MB

This card does run much hotter than my 7800GT:

7800GT = 60 degrees on full load
8800 GTs = 82 Degrees on full load

I'm thinking that the heat is a big factor.

In addition my original crosshair fried as a result of a voltage tweek when attempting to overclock. When I got my replacement I didn't install XP fresh I just repaired it through the recovery console. This seemed like the easiest way to try to start, and if it didn't work i would fresh install. But it did work and all i needed to do was reinstall some of my programs and games but not all.

Could this be affecting my performance.../

Also, could having 2 graphx cards not running in sli be hindering performance when I was getting the 9k I only had one graphx card in the rig.

[martini161]

down load riva tuner or ntune (riva tuner is better) and after it is installed, click on either of these little boxes


then go to either "low level fan settings" if you clicked on the top one or the fan tab under system settings if you clicked on the second one. change it to "direct fan control. and if you dont mind noise, change it to 100% fixed duty cycle. this lowered my oced 8800gt's temps from 80c to 50c full load.

[DMB2000uk]

The replacement was just a straight motherboard swap for the same model wasn't it?

There shouldn't have been any need to reinstall/repair XP if that was the case, as it would already be running the right drivers for the chipset.


Things you should do;
Uninstall graphics drivers, run driver cleaner pro, reinstall graphics drivers.
Reinstall 3dmark if you haven't already.

See if that makes a difference, could be that one or both of those didn't like windows being repaired.

Dan

[BiGg RiE]

down load riva tuner or ntune (riva tuner is better) and after it is installed, click on either of these little boxes


then go to either "low level fan settings" if you clicked on the top one or the fan tab under system settings if you clicked on the second one. change it to "direct fan control. and if you dont mind noise, change it to 100% fixed duty cycle. this lowered my oced 8800gt's temps from 80c to 50c full load.

I actually have riva installed but didn't try that option. I did it about 2 minutes ago and I have already went from 76 degrees idle to 69 degrees! thanx Man! i'll rerun 3dmark after I see the drop stop and see if that makes a difference.

thanks again

[BiGg RiE]

The replacement was just a straight motherboard swap for the same model wasn't it?

There shouldn't have been any need to reinstall/repair XP if that was the case, as it would already be running the right drivers for the chipset.


Things you should do;
Uninstall graphics drivers, run driver cleaner pro, reinstall graphics drivers.
Reinstall 3dmark if you haven't already.

See if that makes a difference, could be that one or both of those didn't like windows being repaired.

Dan

After I rerun with my new idle temp I'll do this if needed.

Also i wanted to ask would a fresh install fix any of my issues

[kenc51]

The replacement was just a straight motherboard swap for the same model wasn't it?

There shouldn't have been any need to reinstall/repair XP if that was the case, as it would already be running the right drivers for the chipset.


Things you should do;
Uninstall graphics drivers, run driver cleaner pro, reinstall graphics drivers.
Reinstall 3dmark if you haven't already.

See if that makes a difference, could be that one or both of those didn't like windows being repaired.

Dan

After I rerun with my new idle temp I'll do this if needed.

Also i wanted to ask would a fresh install fix any of my issues

Fresh install of the GFX like Dan mentioned. You went from a series 7 to series 8 card. they use different drivers so need to be reinstalled (even if the drivers are in the same installer)

[BiGg RiE]

OK... so I did a removal and fresh install as per the instructions and reinstalled 3D Mark06 and my score dropped to 5303

I did install the latest official drivers so I guess I'll use the old ones and retry

[Zertz]

Also, could having 2 graphx cards not running in sli be hindering performance when I was getting the 9k I only had one graphx card in the rig.

You have both cards installed?

[Methious]

I don't know how the two cards compare directly, I know Apoptosis and LR did a review with both but I have the X2 6400 black edition and XFX 8800gt 512. Running at stock speed on both I run 10978, slightly tweaked at 3.36ghz GPU 650/925 I run 11066, medium tweak 3.45 GHZ 675/950 it runs 11550.

Different Mobo though it's the M3A with PCIE 2.0 thought the comparison scores might be useful. I tried the repair route when I went from the Asus M2N-E to the M3A and the scores stock were 9000. After the reload they went to the current scores.

When you run driver cleaner pro run it in Windows normally first, then boot into safe mode and rerun it in safe mode. Then reinstall the drivers.

Hope this helps.

[Methious]

Sorry almost forgot did you install the processor driver and dual core optimizer from AMD? They made a big difference when I installed them.

[BiGg RiE]

Sorry almost forgot did you install the processor driver and dual core optimizer from AMD? They made a big difference when I installed them.

I don't think so, where can I find that

[BiGg RiE]

Sorry almost forgot did you install the processor driver and dual core optimizer from AMD? They made a big difference when I installed them.

I don't think so, where can I find that

Ok so I think I installed those I went to amd's site and downloaded and installed them and I got 6152. I said I think because there wasn't much confirmation of the install. I basically followed the on screen prompts and that's it... the driver was fine but the optomizer when I double clicked on it nothing really happened

But I'm still stuck on why I'm not getting the 9k anymore.

I'm gonna try taking out the 7800 gt maybe that'll make a difference.

I guess the next step would be to format and fresh install, man i was tryin to avoid that.

I mean am I crazy? I know what scores I was getting but maybe someone can tell me if I'm stretching, with my system specs It doesn't seem to far fetched to want a 9k score in 3dmark06...

.. Please someone tell me If they think that a score of 6200 is respectable with my setup.

I don't think it is... I've got a Toshiba x205 with an 8800GT M with 256 dedicated and upto 768 shared memory and I get 6k scores. I think my desktop rig with a 8800gts 320 is much more powerful and should be killing my Lappy but Crysis runs smoother on my Lappy than on my gaming rig.

I just thought of something... the lcd I game on my desktop with is a 37" 1080p 8ms. I didn't think that this would be a factor since in 3dmark it resets the screen resolution to 1280x1024... am I wrong does the fact that I have such a large screen make a difference?

Thanx.

[DMB2000uk]

You are right in that you should be getting more score. Unfortunately it probably is a driver issue with having both cards installed at once.

I wouldn't have thought it would have been lack of power, which is the only other likely culprit.

Dan

[BiGg RiE]

You are right in that you should be getting more score. Unfortunately it probably is a driver issue with having both cards installed at once.

I wouldn't have thought it would have been lack of power, which is the only other likely culprit.

Dan

I don't think it is a power issue either since i have an ultra 600watt and a thermaltake 250watt 5.25" bay power supply, I'm gonna try taking out the second card and rerunning.

[BiGg RiE]

Well after taking the 2nd grfx card out My score went to 6475... deffinetly moving in the right direction. I guess now I'll start over with thedriver removal and reinstall.

[Methious]

I had a Core Temp conflict with existing software, caused a BSOD, leading to a failure to start at the loading screen. Right after I had benched with 3dmark06, I had just gotten up to 12500. The only way I could get it to load was XP repair, immediately after XP repair I was getting 9000+. I removed all the drivers, booted into safe mode reran driver cleaner, reinstalled every driver on the machine and still 9000+. Ended up having to clean reinstall XP and immediately after reinstall I was back up to 11500 and redoing the tweaking. Stunk but some times it's the only way. If I had given up and reinstalled I'd have saved countless time.

After that I went and got an old 20 gig ide drive and ghosted the fresh install to the 20g took it out and put it in an anti static bag. After spending 6 hours reinstalling stuff it's a pretty good $20 insurance policy.

I'd hazard a guess that mid to high 9000 would be the right range.

[kenc51]

I'd be surprised if you can get <10K with that setup, unless you're overclocking the card a lot.

Just to give you an idea, here's my best result with the 640MB card, a C2D @ 3.88Ghz & RAM clocked to 1166MHz CAS 5-4-4-12

[Reunion island]

hi,

Sorry for my english ^^
The problem could be : the nvidia driver !!!!!!!!
Have recently by your 600w power ?
Have you ever had a screen with : low volter graphic card ?
You can test the 169.44 nvidia driver for this.

With your config (4200+ oc to 2600) , and a sli of 8800 gt the score must be 10 000 + on 3dmark 2006.

you will find my score on futurmak with this proc.

[ibleet]

I had a similar issue with a Crosshair system (5200+, 2g ram, 7900gs), but I never changed video cards or any other hardware for that matter.

Shortly after building the system, I ran 3DMark06 and scored 4800. After a few months and no hardware changes, it consistently scored 3900. To this day I still haven't been able to figure it out. I even reinstalled the OS and all the drivers and never did get it back to 4800, so I sold it.

I had the same problem with Lightsmark, where it scored 90 and later on would not score more than 70.

The crosshair motherboard was highly touted and very expensive, but I would not recommend it to anyone.

[BiGg RiE]

Don't know if anyone is still interested but low and behold nearly a year after my 1st post I've figured out the issue or at least gotten my scores back up to 9464

I just updated my bios from 0802 to the most resent 1207 and walla, 9464 36Mark06 score... go figure... guess now i can overclock and see what i get.

Lataz,

RiE