Whats this about Win2k? I think not...

[Maxvla]

Windows XP (all updates incl dx9 several programs installed)

2.36ghz 236fsb cas 2.5 454/380

22,767 (http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=7525122)

Windows 2000 (all updates incl dx9 virtually barebones)

2.35ghz 235fsb cas 2.5 454/380

22,771 (http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=7535798)

so uh... i gained 4 points and less stability. win2k is alot less stable than XP. i even had to back off 1mhz fsb to make it through 3dmark reliably.

whats this about switching to 2000 is an automatic 500 points? more like 4 points. :rolleyes:

i believe i've reduced my previous problems to ram or cpu. i'm thinking its ram. i bought a stick of pc3000 khx bh5 and it does exactly the same settings as my mushkin bh5. my board just says no to cas 2 at all.

well it looks like i'll be keeping XP for quite a bit longer.

[sandman]

Yea, I gained about 100, but that could have just been variance between tests too.....

[r3b0rN]

u think ur motherboard's the problem with the cas latency... u got enough money to get something like an abit kv8 m3 or an asus k8v dlx?

[sjohnson]

Maxvla - for one thing, don't do dx9. Trim your win2k out, eliminate unecessary services. The 3dmark tweaking guide, started by Makanz is also important.

[Maxvla]

i'm fairly satisfied at this point. i think i'll just wait it out til nf3 250.

[Maxvla]

Originally posted by sjohnson
Maxvla - for one thing, don't do dx9. Trim your win2k out, eliminate unecessary services. The 3dmark tweaking guide, started by Makanz is also important.
at first i used cat 3.2 with just dx8.1 and my scores were nowhere near what they should be. my max with that setup was 21,800.

installed dx9 (so i could install newer drivers) and cat 3.9 and voila back to 22,7xx.

[dim3z]

you must of had some settings wrong, perhaps in the ATI control panel... 3.2 and dx8.1 is a VERY fast driver combination, not the fastest on some systems but not that far away form the fastest either.

[r3b0rN]

Originally posted by Maxvla
i'm fairly satisfied at this point. i think i'll just wait it out til nf3 250. yeah, i guess blowing that sort of money just so u can lower cas latency by .5 is a little pointless.
Originally posted by Maxvla
at first i used cat 3.2 with just dx8.1 and my scores were nowhere near what they should be. my max with that setup was 21,800.

installed dx9 (so i could install newer drivers) and cat 3.9 and voila back to 22,7xx.
Something is very strange about that... hopefully somebody has had the same problem and can help u out.

[Maxvla]

Originally posted by r3b0rN
yeah, i guess blowing that sort of money just so u can lower cas latency by .5 is a little pointless.

blowing that sort of money?

i can easily resell it and recoup most of my expenditure. not sure where you see me blowing money. if i killed the ram then yes but i didn't.

[Maxvla]

Originally posted by dim3z
you must of had some settings wrong, perhaps in the ATI control panel... 3.2 and dx8.1 is a VERY fast driver combination, not the fastest on some systems but not that far away form the fastest either.
both win2k and winxp were setup identical in the control panel as well as in ragetweak.

i should note that i tried 3.2 with dx9 and XP and it was also much slower on my system than 3.9.

[Geforce4ti4200]

maybe win 2k is best for amd XP cpus only but any other cpu theres no gain between win 2k and xp. I see people with xp cpus lose out to me in car chase and lobby even with higher fsb and MHz with win xp so it hurts xp cpus. ironic eh?

[Cranox]

I also tried the combo cat 3.2 with dx8.1 and my score dropped to 22115 , with cat 3.9 and DX9 i got 23068

Strange problems for me to :brick:

[Soulburner]

Originally posted by Geforce4ti4200
maybe win 2k is best for amd XP cpus only but any other cpu theres no gain between win 2k and xp. I see people with xp cpus lose out to me in car chase and lobby even with higher fsb and MHz with win xp so it hurts xp cpus. ironic eh?
No, look at what OPP and macci bench with.

AMD is still fastest in Win2k when setup correctly.

[Geforce4ti4200]

so maxvla didnt set win 2k correctly? or maybe his xp was optimized so much it matched a somewhat unoptimized win 2k

[Gautam]

Both 3.9 and 3.2 worked horribly for me. I'd strongly suggest that you guys give 3.5 a whirl. There's no doubt that 2k will turn out faster in the end. 3DMarks don't always come easily. You may have to do a lot of messing around with drivers, and other tweaks before you reach your sweet spot.

[isp]

The dx9 might of affected it this comparison...

[Maxvla]

Originally posted by isp
The dx9 might of affected it this comparison...
please read the thread before posting. thanks. :stick:

[Maxvla]

Originally posted by Soulburner
No, look at what OPP and macci bench with.

AMD is still fastest in Win2k when setup correctly.
macci's best score is with XP :stick:

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=7387336

[Geforce4ti4200]

thats because windows xp is faster with Intel while windows 2k for amd

[Aldus]

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=7382155

And OPP's is with 2kpro.

[isp]

Originally posted by Maxvla
please read the thread before posting. thanks. :stick:

I did read it, and I'm saying the gain might not of been noticeable because of dx9. What say you? Try 8.1 and see if there is a difference.

[Maxvla]

Originally posted by isp
I did read it, and I'm saying the gain might not of been noticeable because of dx9. What say you? Try 8.1 and see if there is a difference.

http://www.maxvla.com/smiley/pat.gif

Originally posted by Maxvla
at first i used cat 3.2 with just dx8.1 and my scores were nowhere near what they should be. my max with that setup was 21,800.

installed dx9 (so i could install newer drivers) and cat 3.9 and voila back to 22,7xx.

[isp]

I apologize, I guess I missed that... :doh:

[Soulburner]

Originally posted by Maxvla
macci's best score is with XP :stick:

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=7387336
Thats his Intel system, so yes XP is the best choice there.

But look at his A64 score. It's not on XP.

[r3b0rN]

Originally posted by Maxvla
blowing that sort of money?

i can easily resell it and recoup most of my expenditure. not sure where you see me blowing money. if i killed the ram then yes but i didn't.
heh, i meant going out and buying something like an asus k8v just so u could run cas .5 lower might not be worth doing? anyways back to your actual problem, maybe just try cat 3.1 and 3.5 with dx8.1, as somebody else said it might take some time and tweaking before u find ur systems 'sweet spot'.

[Geforce4ti4200]

he already put windows xp back and his new ram didnt oc any better on just 2.9 volts. Hes afraid a v mod will kill his cpu

[Maxvla]

not so much i'm worried about the chip, i just don't feel like modding the board. its never going to be a stellar performer. NF3 150 is handicapped from the beginning. no sense putting a supercharger on a geo metro....

[unrealneo]

obviously not an experienced (3D) tweaker........

[Geforce4ti4200]

he doesnt need to mod anyway, hes already got over 22k marks thats pretty high and will take me a while to beat him with my ti4200

[r3b0rN]

lol geforce, im quite sure his goal wasnt to beat u :p:

[Maxvla]

actually my goal was 22k and i've gotten to 22,771. seems i met my goal.

[Maxvla]

Originally posted by unrealneo
obviously not an experienced (3D) tweaker........
you are right, but nobody said switching from XP to a heavily tweaked 2k = 500 points. they just said 2k. i don't want to disable half the operating system and make it nearly useless just for 500 points.

[luihed]

Are you sure both test were done with the same exact settings?... looking at your scores seems like the card was clocked higher on the bench done with XP cos Drago hi/lo and nature is higher on that bench.......

XP to win2k is not 500pts lol........ I tested it in the AXP days and it was around 150 to 200pts then, it did help me break 20K so I know that win2k is faster for AMD........ maybe untweaked XP and untweaked win2k is the same since you didnt do any OS tweaking on both......

[unrealneo]

Originally posted by Maxvla
you are right, but nobody said switching from XP to a heavily tweaked 2k = 500 points. they just said 2k. i don't want to disable half the operating system and make it nearly useless just for 500 points.

lol, i do, it's called partitions and backing up. ;)

btw, w00t for me, 244 x 10.5 on my Tbred :D

[r3b0rN]

:slobber: nice oc on that tbred there unrealneo, please dont tell me your accomplishing that on an air setup - air setup's in aus are useless :mad:

[unrealneo]

Originally posted by r3b0rN
:slobber: nice oc on that tbred there unrealneo, please dont tell me your accomplishing that on an air setup - air setup's in aus are useless :mad:

um, yeah, air. :p: :banana:

[zakelwe]

What service pack did you use on Win 2000 ?

Regards

Andy

[Maxvla]

SP4

had to install it to install the more recent ATI drivers.

[zakelwe]

Originally posted by Maxvla
SP4

had to install it to install the more recent ATI drivers.

really, I am a noob when it comes to Ati, but SP2/SP3 are probably faster.

Regards

Andy

[G H Z]

Hey Max no need to install DX9 to install the newer CAT's. Just ignore the warning during the driver installation.

As to the best drivers, I would agree with Guatam. Cat 3.5's are very good. But tonight I tested the 3.7's and found a solution for my low Nature scores. With 3.5's around 129-133. With the 3.7's it's fixed.........139.5fps

I wonder if Macci and Opp have tried those drivers. But I really cannot imagine that they have not tried every last one of them, including hacked versions. Maybe the best driver set is related to the card somehow with one driver set being better for a different card.

I do know tht the new 4.1's are supposed to be very good for '03 the bench almost everyone seems to hate.

[k|ngp|n]

xp-2kpro was worth a little over 200 points for me. I have tested them ALL in the past two weeks...and the best combo for 3dmark01' on 3400+/an50r/9800xt is cat3.1/win2k without a doubt. Most noticeable in lobby scores.