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PeteyBoy23
Gerbil
Topic Author
Posts: 56
Joined: Thu Dec 05, 2002 10:37 pm

Why is my 3dmark 2001 score so bad?

Thu Dec 05, 2002 10:41 pm

All,
I did a comparison to other people using the same CPU and video card I have, and my score is much lower. My current score is 13066, and people are getting scores over 15,000 with similar hardware. Also, doing a CPU comparison, the listing for 2.7ghz is 18% higher than my CPU, yet I am at 2.72ghz. I'm confused as to where the problem lies.

Pentium 4 2.26 @ 2.72 (17*160)
512mb Corsair XMS DDR3200 Set to 4:5, 2/2/5/2, and Enhance Performance
Radeon 9700 Pro (not overclocked - Yes I know I'd get a slightly better score if I did)
Abit BG7 motherboard - newest BIOS
Newest Intel application accelerator, ATI Drivers, and Intel chipset drivers.

Some of my Sandra scores:

Memory Bandwidth: 3117
3121
CPU Multi-Media: 10744
13458
CPU Arithmetic: 5259
1425/3328

I've tried both manually setting the sliders towards performance in the ATI display applet, and also leaving it set to "application preference" regarding FSAA, and the like. I would appreciate any feedback you guys could offer. Thank you.
 
Freon
Gerbil Elite
Posts: 811
Joined: Wed Dec 26, 2001 7:00 pm
Location: Indiana

Fri Dec 06, 2002 12:00 am

Ehhh.. Try turning off that "application accelerator." I'm guessing it is more of a harddrive optimizer that isn't going to help tests being run from RAM.

Turn off everything else you don't need, too. Antivirus software, realplayer junk, chipset feature crap, winamp agent, etc. They can pile up over time.

You might try reseting your BIOS to default or optimized default to see if you have anything inadvertently set wrong.

Just to doublecheck, turn your clockspeed down to something more reasonable, too. Pentium 4's will downclock themselves if they think they're overheating before any crash or artifact. They can switch quite quickly, too. It may be choking hard on one scene and flipping down for a few moments.
 
PeteyBoy23
Gerbil
Topic Author
Posts: 56
Joined: Thu Dec 05, 2002 10:37 pm

Fri Dec 06, 2002 6:44 pm

I've personally tried it both ways. One with the Intel Application Accelerator installed, and one not. I found that it was not a bad thing to have, and didn't effect scores negatively. Also, I'm a seasoned (or somewhat seasoned) pro at this. So, of course I don't do the newbie stuff of running a bazillion apps in the systray. The temperature isn't a factor, as I'm running at 45C under full load. P4's don't start throttling until like 65C I believe?

Only thing I can try from what you mentioned is resetting items to default. I think, however, that I will just pour over the bios to check each setting. Thanks for the reply.
 
NeXus 6
Minister of Gerbil Affairs
Posts: 2566
Joined: Thu Dec 27, 2001 7:00 pm

Fri Dec 06, 2002 7:17 pm

You've probably already done this but make sure Vsync is turned off and that AF is set to the lowest setting. And of course, turn off FSAA completely. Another thing you can try to increase your 3DMark score is to set the AGP Aperture size in the BIOS to 128 MB. You could also try 256 MB. I noticed slight gains on my system when going from 64 MB to 128 MB.
 
Forge
Lord High Gerbil
Posts: 8253
Joined: Wed Dec 26, 2001 7:00 pm
Location: Gone

Fri Dec 06, 2002 11:12 pm

P4s can throttle as low as 60C, and things other than temperature can bring on throttling. My [email protected] was throttling, but not because of heat. Your 2.26*2.7 might be throttling as well. Try 150 FSB and see what happens.

If you'd like to do a more in-depth analysis of your 3Dmark score and how to improve it (generally a useless venture for anything but ego, but I do it), then catch me on IRC some time. We can run down more ideas in less time in IRC than on a bulletin board.

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