Started having a play...

[KAIN]

Eventually got around to benching my new system some...

I'm not to sure about my 8500 now though, not clocking like it used to... Could be dying, the R300 can't come soon enough :D

I'm not going to be going for anywhere near the top till then...

I'm gonna bench again tonight once I've pushed her back upto 3 gig... Just realised I was clocked back.

Anyway my compare: http://service.madonion.com/compare?2k1=3825717

Anyone got any hints? Other than clock my 8500 higher :p

[oc jason]

Try stuff like turning off all un-nessesary services, especially in WinXP it saved me like 30megs of mem and quite a few cpu cycles. Stuff Like Smart Card/Fax Services/TElnet/remote registry/QOS/Printer Spooler.

Whatever you dont use will just lower you marks at bit if its on. Also Defrag harddrive and set 3dmark in Task manager to REAL TIME priority before you start the benchmark. Turn off v-sync and all FSAA in you driver settings.

[KAIN]

Thanks... have to try the Real Time settings and disabling :D

[oc jason]

if you have an nVidia based card you need to set vsync to Always OFF in both D3Dsettings and OpenGL settings. Also set the mipmap level in D3D i believe to best performance insted of best quality.

The fastest proven drivers (if you have a VIA chipset) are teh 4.,37's you should try those

[KAIN]

I'm using a Radeon 8500 and a Abit TH7-II, so no NVidia or Via ;)

But cheers anyhow :D

[KnightElite]

Thanks for the tips. I'll have to go through all those. Plus disabling all those services should help with overall system performance too :D.