I have just put my new system through the 3d mark 05, and am gutted at the result - it was a measly 6632 on standard settings (from a cover dvd, so could not adjust settings)! How can i set about improving this. My system is as follows; AMD 4400x2 (dual core) Gigabyte K8N Pro SLi nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard GeIL value 1 GB RAM BFG Geforce 7800 GT OC Samsung Spinpoint 200GB SATA II NCQ hard drive NEC 4550 dual layer dvd writer Antec P180 case 4 x 120 mm fans Antec true power 420 watt psu
Update your chipset drivers and video card drivers, especiallyif you used what came on the driver CD's for those products.
Also i have just done a pc mark 05 score and it was 1894, this seems low to me also, particulary as it shows it in comparison to other processors, in particular the identical one to mine and it showed quicker speeds than mine was actually producing, also what temp should be the max for the power/aux? As pc wizard 2005 is showing 70 F and an rpm of 850?!
maximum for your cpu is 65 degrees i belive. have you installed all motherboard drivers? pci express drivers... have you got the extra power connector plugged into the 7800GT?
That 65 is in Celsius, not Farenheit. 70*F isn't exactly too hot in comparison. The power/aux is supposed to be for measuring the power supply fan speed and external temps, but don't rely on the temperature too much as this is calibrated by BIOS engineers. As a result, you can can get various readings due to what offset is given in the particular BIOS release. Without a professional heat sensor, I wouldn't get that worked up over things if it's stable. If it isn't, then you might want to look at the problem.
I have been on the nvidia website and can only find drivers for the 7800 gtx, do i download these instead? Also do i download drivers for the chipset from the gigabyte website (the make of the motherboard), or direct from nvidia's website?!
You were probably mistaking the GeForce 7800 Go GTX for the regular GTX. nVidia's GeForce drivers are universal and cover ALL GeForce cards! You can get them Here And yes, get the motherboard drivers from GigaByte :good:
Will download all the latest drivers tomorrow when i get broadband (still on dial up at the moment:O ). Also on the subject of overclocking, i am presented these options in the BIOS to tweak; CPU Frequency - Now 210 mhz but was 200 mhz Pcie clock - 100 mhz (tried to increase this to 105 mhz but computer kept crashing) K8 cpu clock ratio - default Cpu voltage - Normal Chipset core pcie voltage - normal Ht link - normal DDR - normal CPU - Z is showing the core speed (in each core) at 2316 mhz (2211 originaly) FSB 210.6 mhz Multiplier - x 11.0 Which of the bios options do you reccomend i start tweaking to get me started? Also if i do start major overclocking do i have to increase the air cooling in my case (ANTEC P180), it has the three original 120 mm fans and an additional front mounted asaka 120 mm fan, but are there any others that are more effective coolers (not bothered about noise) and can you reccomend a good 3rd party cpu fan/heatsink?!
Well for really good overclocking, then you'd look into water cooled systems, as adding more fans will only do so much. Don't mess with your PCI-E bus settings, if you're going to overclock stick to FSB/voltage increases. As always be careful and do some research on overclocking your particular CPU without damaging it, ie not increasing core voltage too much. A 200-210MHz increase in FSB isn't a bad oc, with over 100MHz gained in core clock. Apart from that, you might want to try tightening your RAM timings.
If the RAM will allow, yes I recommend timings of either 2.5-3-3-6 or 2.5-4-4-7 for the best results. These have not failed me in the past!
I have just updated drivers and re-tested the computer. Results are as follows; 3d mark 01 - 26, 294 3d mark 03 - 15,044 3d mark 05 - 6941 Aquamark 03 - 82,172
This gives you a good overview, just be careful and don't up the voltage much at all. And though I've said it several times on this forum I'll say it again. Don't get worked up over low benchmarks, I realize it's annoying when you get scores lower than even lesser systems but you have to take 3D and PCmark with a grain of salt. It's often pretty fickle and gives a people a whole slew of results depending on their configuration. Some people may be lowered the resolution, or changed some graphical effects or omitted certain tests etc. And everyones rig is a little different, just because so and so got this score doesn't mean you will or anyone for that matter. I got a terrible score in 3Dmark 03, what most people get in 05 but I just let it go, as I've said games are the only true benchmarks
FutureMark's benchmarks have limited usefulness, and part of the reason we have eliminated FM's benchmarks from our testing (besides one of the company's exec's being a dick when the product was criticized) is that there aren't games based off the 3DMark engine. The sole exception might be the Max Payne engine, but part of the 3DMark '01 incorporated that engine. I'd worry more about low scores in Doom 3, F.E.A.R., Half-Life 2, and FarCry than what any 3DWangMark gives you. The sole thing 3DMark is nice for is beating games to market with the latest version of DirectX implementation, but that's about it.
I have recently replaced my mobo after the other was fried! This is the original mobo http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=212682 this is the new mobo http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=310790&cks=PRL with the orig mobo scores for 3d mark 01 were approx 26,000 and 03 were approx 15,000 however with the new mobo, the scores are 22,000 for 01 and 14,000 for 03, whats going on?
The DFI's are a little bit more 'hands-on' than most motherboards on the market. Electric Bill over at PC Perspective has a nice DFI NF4 Builders Guide over here with a lot of links which include what settings to use to tweak your RAM. Again, don't place too much stock in 3Dmark. It's pretty sensitve to driver changes and system tweaks, so basing the speed of your rig on any 3DMark is a bad idea. It's a benchmark, not an actual, playable game.
I noticed that you tried to change the frequency of your PCIe bus. NEVER EVER change the AGP/PCI/PCIe frequency cause that will :swear: up your comp nasty. Good luck with the rest of your OC though. I know that DFI can OC like mad once you get the hang of them