some (windows) 3dmark tweaks

These are my collection, I will add more when I find more. 2 or 3 tweaks were taken from the original sticky at the top. A couple things I took from various topics I managed to dig up.

I didn't "make" these tweaks, so credit goes to everyone who found these tweaks and not me.

Windows Tweaks by lawrywild (using Dothan and 7800GT on XP Professional)

1. Disable all services that you can possibly disable (start, run, msconfig), you do not need any internet services etc, scores can be uploaded from the .3dr file on any PC/partition.

2. Disable any unnecessary startup items.

3. Disable the nVidia Display Driver service.

4. Disable any unnecessary items in device manager such as USB peripherals, COM ports etc.

5. Go to add/remove programs -> removes windows components and remove most accessories and games except paint and maybe calculator. Remove msn explorer, windows messenger, windows media player and other unnecessary items.

6. Runregedit and go to: HKLM/system/currentcontrolset/control/session manager/memory management and set the disableexecutivepaging(This has caused bootproblems for some members, be aware) to =1,

7. Largesystemcache=1(this has also caused problems for some members, be aware),

8. IOpagelocklimit=16384 in decimal,

9. Secondleveldatacache=2048 or the same as your L2 cache size in decimal. (this has lowered HouseERaT's x1900xt score, so check it is an improvement after setting it)

10. Reboot and run regedit again and go to HKLM and turn off the fileprotection: Software/Microsoft/windowsNT/currentversion/winlogon and change the value of SFCDisable to REG_DWORD “ffffff9d”.

11. Use win2k (with dx8.1 for 3dmark2001) with AMD processors, XP pro or win2k for Pentium M (doesn't really make much difference), winXP pro for p4

12. In system.ini , add the following line under 386enh: ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1. (N.B. may cause decrease in scores!)

13. Always run Realtime when benchmarking, this can be set easily from processes in task manager.

14. End all unnecessary processes before running any benchmarks.

15. End explorer.exe before running any benchmarks, this can easily be started up again by going to task manager -> file -> New Task -> explorer.

16. NEVER change cpu clockspeeds whilst 3dmark is running, it will void your score and you won’t be able to publish.

17. Spend some time working out an optimal order to run 3dmark2001se, it will really push up your marks. I use DL, LL, CH, DH, LH, NATURE, CL, repeat CL up to about 15 times, the FPS varies considerably with this game test, if you’re lucky you can gain about 500 marks just from getting a good CL run, though it could happen you won’t gain any marks because the first run was the fastest already. Best to make sure it is though, eh?

18. Spend time working out optimal LOD settings for each test, this again is worth the effort if you’re really serious about getting all those extra marks.

19. Place swap/paging file on a separate hdd. The beginning of the hdd is where it’s accessed fastest, so you want to place it in the first partition on the hdd.

20. Set paging file to 100-200% of your system’s ram (system properties -> advanced -> performance settings -> advanced -> virtual memory -> change).

21. Set resolution to 1024x768 and colour depth to 16bit. Set windows classic mode, using no screensavers and no backgrounds.

22. Go to system properties -> Advanced -> performance settings -> adjust for best performance.

23. Because, for XP SP2, A64 will start to run "noexecute" once boot in windows, it will mark up some memory address that cann't be executed, e.g. preventing buffer overflowing by default, it will give some loads to the CPU, so by disabling it, the CPU can be o/c a bit higher for extreme overclocking. Edit the boot.ini, noexecute=AlwaysOff, reboot after edit.

24. "Ricky Tweak" - Control panel -> system -> hardware -> device manager -> expand computer -> right click "ACPI uniprocessor PC" -> update driver -> don't go to MS update, chose to install from list, select "ACPI multiprocessor PC" -> install -> reboot. (this is only really useful in 3dmark2001 and can increase temps by up to 10'C, can be good for preventing against coldbugs etc though)

Hope they are useful :thumbsup:

good job bro..... I always appreciate these types of threads.

BTW.... the secondlevelchache tweak actually killed my nature score in 01 with my 1900XT. Always seemed to help on my other cards.

and for those that don't know...... the multiprocessor tweak will raise your cpu temps about 10°+ in Windows 2000..... especially for those folks on air (like me) :D

thanks, I'll add a little note of that :thumbsup:

edit: done

Some other things to do set background to none kill the taskbar clock.

Do a fresh defrag before you bench this is easily worth a couple of hundred points.

some other things depending on the test and what CPU you are running killing explorer.exe can hurt. For my P4 it helped sometimes for drago but hurt car high. I haven't tried it on my A64 yet though.

Also car high always seems to run the best for me second so some one elses order might not be right for you. Play around with it.

I always find closing explorer helps scores but if it hurts them, then definately dont use it.

yep forgot to add about defragging HDD, as often as possible.

Yeh CH and LL both run faster when earlier, and the gain of points is about the same, so the order of those two doesn't really matter too much.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by speed bump

Also car high always seems to run the best for me second so some one elses order might not be right for you. Play around with it.

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Yup, find the same, but can hurt the Lobby Low run, so its trial and error on that one!

24. .....and live in a wooden hut.

lol...you're making a console out of the computer if we're to get rid of all that...but i guess it results in maximum 3dmarks.

Good Stuff :up:

Perkam

Quote:

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Originally Posted by perkam

24. .....and live in a wooden hut.

lol...you're making a console out of the computer if we're to get rid of all that...but i guess it results in maximum 3dmarks.

Good Stuff :up:

Perkam

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yeh man, a wooden hut in russia with -40 deg temps, that'd be some sweet cold air benching :D

I tested NVIDIA display driver service and it increases 3dmark score, not decrease. Strange eh?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shadowmage

I tested NVIDIA display driver service and it increases 3dmark score, not decrease. Strange eh?

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yup, that's why i have it in there :)

It would be interesting to see how much gain does each of these tweaks give and sort them in that order :)

15. End explorer.exe before running any benchmarks, this can easily be started up again by going to start -> run -> explorer.

Thats a :nono: mate :)

16. NEVER change cpu clockspeeds whilst 3dmark is running, it will void your score and you won’t be able to publish.
Its possible to do, just dont change it 2 much...

Nice guide btw :)

Conservative swapfile usage is obsolete since windows 98SE, after that, it just doesn't do anything anymore.

no 23, multi proc tweak supposedly only works for 01...

Might want to add that with amd for 01 you should have win2k with dx8.1, with intel m the same, p4 winxp with dx 9c.

10 and 11 suposedly don't work anymore to...

Will edit in a link to a fix for it in a minute :)

Edit: linkie

http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/790

Quote:

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Originally Posted by M.Beier

15. End explorer.exe before running any benchmarks, this can easily be started up again by going to start -> run -> explorer.

Thats a :nono: mate :)

16. NEVER change cpu clockspeeds whilst 3dmark is running, it will void your score and you won’t be able to publish.
Its possible to do, just dont change it 2 much...

Nice guide btw :)

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ending explorer is good, for me it is anyway, typed that a little wrong though, i'll edit my post

should be task manager -> file -> New Task -> explorer

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jochenp

Conservative swapfile usage is obsolete since windows 98SE, after that, it just doesn't do anything anymore.

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ok well, i've leave it just incase, no harm in it

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MartianInvader

no 23, multi proc tweak supposedly only works for 01...

Might want to add that with amd for 01 you should have win2k with dx8.1, with intel m the same, p4 winxp with dx 9c.

10 and 11 suposedly don't work anymore to...

Will edit in a link to a fix for it in a minute :)

Edit: linkie

http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/790

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yup that's true I guess, i'll edit that.

for pentium M, xp pro with dx9c is actually slightly better.

I tried 11 and that didnt work, so I'll delete that, I tried 10, didn't do much but i'll leave it there

I tested 12. and it didn't do much for me. Lost about 450 marks.
What prog have you fellas been using for LOD adjustments? I've tried RivaTuner and it's given me more pain than anything else.

LOD tweaks is cheating IMO

Lod isn't cheating if all top scores on the orb are with lod...
Most benchers bench with lod imho, specially 2k1 on nature it gives a nice boost. 03 and 05 also benefit allot, I got my scores with lod, and went from almost page 1 to top 10 in most 3dmarks with my gpu.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lead Head

LOD tweaks is cheating IMO

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yeh but you're going to be the one who ends up with low (comparatively) scores coz evryone else is running LOD...

it's become less cheating now since ATi cards now have it too...


@ BlueWonder: Yup, rivatuner its easy, you need LOD Bias Range in the bios thing to 15 to be able to set LOD from 0-15...

I compiled a guide specific to 2k1 benches and posted it at another forum.

http://www.linkforcecorner.com/forum...read.php?t=266

Feel free to use whatever you think is usefull from it

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MartianInvader

I compiled a guide specific to 2k1 benches and posted it at another forum.

http://www.linkforcecorner.com/forum...read.php?t=266

Feel free to use whatever you think is usefull from it

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thanks martian :cool:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lawrywild

ending explorer is good, for me it is anyway, typed that a little wrong though, i'll edit my post

should be task manager -> file -> New Task -> explorer

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AM3 gains a little..
01SE looses
SPI & pifast looses a bit as well..
Sis sandra gains a bit (as far as I remember, not sure though)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by M.Beier

AM3 gains a little..
01SE looses
SPI & pifast looses a bit as well..
Sis sandra gains a bit (as far as I remember, not sure though)

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really??? I thought it was gaining me points in 2001 :confused:

and superpi too :confused:

oh well, anyone else have input on this? I'll edit if someone else has same results

stil a nublar I guess but I did get a higher score in 2k1 without explorer loaded but that was with aditional reg tweaking so idk guess someone has to bench it exactly same settings with and without explorer and atm my 2k1 partition is a mess :(

Just did a compare of without and with LOD, gains are sweet, must be at least 2k plus, loving the nature gainage especially.

Sweet guide :)

Thanks lawrywild for the info. Much appreciated :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lawrywild

really??? I thought it was gaining me points in 2001 :confused:

and superpi too :confused:

oh well, anyone else have input on this? I'll edit if someone else has same results

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http://img108.imageshack.us/img108/2...orer0iq.th.jpg

A minor compare @ 01SE :S

EDIT: Notice CPU freq..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bennah

Thanks lawrywild for the info. Much appreciated :)

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nps :thumbsup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by M.Beier

A minor compare @ 01SE :S

EDIT: Notice CPU freq..

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:confused: what exactly am I looking at? yes I see 3200mhz but what's your point?

LarryWild... damn yeah now I'm reading your sig I remember I hate you :p:

Your 6800le scores where always way to high for me to beat but I'm still pretty close for an asrock/3200+ combo

Got some tips for me besides upgrading hw :stick:

Edit: orb submission under me_Westmaas almost forgot :slap:

lol what cooling are you using?

my tip is get air as cold as possible..

all my 6800le scores were on my 24/7 xp partition coz I didn't have to time to optimize a partition and stuff, could have got higher if i'd bothered..

My point being, I've done quite a bit tweaking :) - I belive explorer has to be on - except AM3. - In fact I belive its a 300mark lower score in 01SE by turning off explorer.exe... :S

cpu is wc now but very entry level kit ( koolance pc3-720 with zalman wb3 gold ) card is with zalman 700cu. Your clocks are amazing for air, what mods did you do on the card? And I bet I would be allot closer if my cpu wasn't crapping out at 2.65ghz and if I had a better mobo then the asrock dual.

on topic: M.Beier I benched 01 also with exact same settings with and without explorer loaded and from 3 runs I got 2 higher one's without explorer. Was within the 100/150 points margin and damn 01 is a :banana::banana::banana::banana::banana: to try to compare diffrents tweaks because off natural score variations. I spend days figuring out what lod was the best for my particular setup and it still gives me nightmares.

if you have freash install, no wall and other visual things, killing explorer.exe allways gets you worse result, 3dmark, superpi...
that's with my experience. On the other hand, if you have a "nonbench" install with big pix as wall, killing explorer helps.

I stand correct by so many people saying it's better to have it loaded. Would love for someone to explain why though? Explorer.exe doesn't perform any tasks while benching wich influence the score if I'm not mistaken?

zbogorgon it would be better to not kill explorer but to remove desktop wallpaper and any visuals ( eg clasic theme ) right?

Indeed, kill wallpaper & especially screensaver - screensaver is a killer :S

- Watch out with using service tweaks, the wrong one being disabled aint nice :P

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MartianInvader

cpu is wc now but very entry level kit ( koolance pc3-720 with zalman wb3 gold ) card is with zalman 700cu. Your clocks are amazing for air, what mods did you do on the card? And I bet I would be allot closer if my cpu wasn't crapping out at 2.65ghz and if I had a better mobo then the asrock dual.

on topic: M.Beier I benched 01 also with exact same settings with and without explorer loaded and from 3 runs I got 2 higher one's without explorer. Was within the 100/150 points margin and damn 01 is a :banana::banana::banana::banana::banana: to try to compare diffrents tweaks because off natural score variations. I spend days figuring out what lod was the best for my particular setup and it still gives me nightmares.

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mods? meh... if you call a bios mod to 1.3v a mod then...

I did attach a cpu cooler to mine, but can't find post where i showed pics, I'll take a further look now

Is booting in diagnostic mode not a quick and easy way to get rid off allot off crap you don't need? I do that, and disable any services I think I don't need from there. Lol it's a :banana::banana::banana::banana::banana: though I forgot to turn windows sound on and I spend an hour installing drivers and another sc before I looked in the services if I didn't forget something

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lawrywild

mods? meh... if you call a bios mod to 1.3v a mod then...

I did attach a cpu cooler to mine, but can't find post where i showed pics, I'll take a further look now

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Lol I have mine flashed to 1.5v for months now already ( game 450/900 )... Card burns up without a fan blowing over the pcb but with the fan it's still alive and kicking :banana:

1.5v ewww...

I have a feeling that card is going to go up in smoke soon... :stick:

Alive and kicking for months already...

yeh but those vregs... hmm i'd be worried...

Lol check the le blackout thread I made a post there ;)

Here you go

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ghlight=6800le

oops meant to post this; http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...95&postcount=1

but you can read other thing aswell if u want..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lawrywild

Here you go

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ghlight=6800le

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I notice that the system test ( ll/lh/cl ) benefit from the intel allot ;)

Nature you still beat me with 15fps though we got almost identical clocks ( +5 core for me, +30 ram for you )... mhm 30mhz isn't that much :confused:

You got any pics left off your custom cooling solution?

Edit: lol I got the leadtek to

no idea if its useful but im usin it :P
just set in teh boot.ini /nodebug
also tweak teh services down 2 teh max

#10 disables windows file protection, then you just delete teh OS2 and POSIX subsystems, without having to disable them, though that is preferable.

Oops missed that there was some info missing.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\SessionManager\SubSystems]
"Optional"
->Clear completely to disable POSIX and OS2 subsystems, always welcome

IIRC that's what you mean Perry?

You can kill as many svchost.exe as you want, and if you end up with the "The system will reboot in 54-53-52", go to Start->Run (or press WinKey+R) and type "shutdown -a" without the "s

Always try to end explorer last (in case you want to end it) because Winkeys and Run won't work either :D