Are My 3dmark06 Scores Appropriate For My System?

[ABXG]

12717

I need to know if this score is appropriate considering my hardware and OC (in my signature). I have been looking around these forums and seeing people with lower and cards and systems getting higher 3dmark06 scores than I can achieve.

Am I missing something or doing something wrong? What can I do (or overclock) to get a higher score. I already have my CPU overclocked as far as I am willing to take it. As for my RAM, I could increase the divider, but I don't want to put any more volts through it than I am right now (2.2V, stock for this RAM), I also do not know how I should go about setting my timings at higher clocks (main and sub timings). I also do not have my Shader's overclocked on my graphics card (I couldn't find any such option in nTune or Rivatuner)

I have already disabled as many XP services as I can get away with considering that computer is part of a domain and I use it for much more than just gaming/benching.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice that you can give, it is greatly appreciated.

[tet5uo]

Have you overclocked your GTX?

Alot of those scores are probably SLI also...

[ABXG]

Have you overclocked your GTX?

Alot of those scores are probably SLI also...

Yes, my GTX is OC'd to 644 Core and 1000 memory (the setting that appears in nTune).

I am specificly referirng to people who say they are using only one card, such as "My single GTS 320 scores 13k in 3dmark06" or "My single GT score 14k in 3dmark06".

[tet5uo]

I'd say the score looks about right for that set-up...

I might suggest that you find something besides nTune to tweak with , though.. there have been so many cases of that crazy software messing with people's bios settings unbeknownst to them, even corrupting the bios soemtimes.

[ABXG]

I'd say the score looks about right for that set-up...

I might suggest that you find something besides nTune to tweak with , though.. there have been so many cases of that crazy software messing with people's bios settings unbeknownst to them, even corrupting the bios soemtimes.

What about Gainward ExpertTool? You may be right about the BIOS thing, the download new drivers section of nVidia's website recognizes my card as an Ultra even when I am set to stock clocks.

[dengyong]

I prefer ntune. I've tried the others and saw no benefit. Core clock and shaders linked works best for me, and don't push the gpu memory to hard there's little return.

[The0men]

I got 12777 In 06 with 3.6ghz processor and GFX @ GPU644/Mem1932/Sha1509 so my GTX was actually a bit slower than yours. BUT my score will be slightly higher because I'm running slightly tighter timings on RAM and higher frequency. I also went and modified most of my subtimings aswell to help with optimizing score rather than running higher frequency.

Considering how easy you have achievced that score it is about right, and with timing your subtimings, being that its a p35 and not a 680i motherboard you could get higher than mine. But its alot of messing about for not really any realtime preformance gain.

I am specificly referirng to people who say they are using only one card, such as "My single GTS 320 scores 13k in 3dmark06" or "My single GT score 14k in 3dmark06".

I know those posts, and I remember for certain that the guy using the GTS had a Q6600, and had a CPU score as high as his SM2 and SM3 scores.

My setup is a dual core at 3.6 like your and similar GPU speeds. Therefore it is a more realistic comparison.

[ABXG]

I am working on my overclock now, I will hopefully post new results in the morning.

I am hoping to up my 8800's OC to 660/2020/1520 core/memory/shaders. I am also trying to get my RAM running faster. I outlined a few possible overclocks, I am currently stability testing:

DDR2-1080, 5-5-5-12-42-10-4-6

If this passes I will try tighten the timings a little more to something like:

DDR2-1080 5-5-4-12-32 (or 25)-9-3-3

I unfortunatly cannot run at 1T (system wont post), I also cannot enable the "Transaction Booster" (system wont post). Another piece of advice I found that wont work is manually setting my PCI frquency to something like 135, but if I set the frequency off auto than my motherboard will not recognize any of my hard drives and I can't access my OS.

Do you have any more advice for me?

EDIT: I can't get the DDR2-1080 stable right now, I will try further relaxing the timings later (5-5-5-15-10-42-11-10-10, If I get this stable I will tighten timings from there). For now I am going to pursue tighter timings at DDR2-900. I am going for 4-4-4-10-3-25-6-3-3.

[The0men]

Does your motherboard have the latest BIOS? Your system should POST if you overclock your PCIE frequency, mines at 130 I think. Though to be honest I found no gain. I think you would need something like a mega fast Ultra or SLI or something to see the difference.

I run 1000mhz and tight timings. Playing with subtimings can make up for that loss of being able to use 1t command, luckily thats one thing the nforce680 can do right lol. Frequency seems to have more benifit for 3d benchmark over tight timings (bandwidth vs latency)

I have seen people with timings at DDR2-1080, 4-4-4-10-32-10-4-6.... Perhaps try and leave your timings 4-4-4-10 and push frequency up, your ram can easily deal with 2.3v 24/7 if your case is adequately cooled.

If you want purely to get some high scores on the board, you need to spend lots of time on each component finding its perfect range, like your ram (timing vs frequency) FSB vs Multiplier and whether its worth changing your shaderclock ratio on your GTX.

[ABXG]

My system posts if I up the PCI frequency, it just wont detect any of my hard drives. Thus I can't get into Windows.

I also tryed to just up my frequency to 1080 while leaving my timings alone, the system didn't post.

Unfortunatly, I do not believe there is a whole lot of airflow around my RAM, I can't seem to find a place to mount a small 40mm fan I bought to cool my RAM (If this doesn't work I have a spare 80mm that I think I could mount next to my PSU to blow air down on my RAM). I would prefer to keep my RAM at 2.2V or less (until I can figure how to mount the fan so it cools my RAM). As of this morning I will be starting my RAM at 1080 with loose timings, I will try tightening them if I can get this frequency stable. If I can I may even up the frequrncy (to 11xx I think).

EDIT: My system posted at DDR2-1125 5-5-5-15-10-42-10-10-10 (2.2V). If this is stable I will start working on tightening the timings. I think the trick is in the subtimings, My system became stable at DDR2-1080 after relaxing the subtimings a bit.

[C-N]

Yes, my GTX is OC'd to 644 Core and 1000 memory (the setting that appears in nTune).

I am specificly referirng to people who say they are using only one card, such as "My single GTS 320 scores 13k in 3dmark06" or "My single GT score 14k in 3dmark06".

Hi ABXG

I score about 12k in 3DMARK06 with my 320MB 8800GTS @ 617 x 955 so I am sure there are people out there able to hit 13k with a little more overclock on the card.

You will also find that all the people scoring 13k ish with a GTS also have Quad core CPU's which is one of the reasons they score so high my E6600 is about 1k behind my Q6600 clock for clock.



CN

[dengyong]

4-4-4-10 @ 900 should be slightly faster than 5-5-5-15 @ 1080 (I think). You probably have a little voltage droop to your memory running 4gb so it's not going to hurt it to run 2.225v.
If you need memory cooling for cheap use 4 small pieces of double sided tape to stick a 40 or 50mm fan directly to the memory blowing down on it.
It will stay in place just fine and come off clean and easy when you need to remove it. You can bump the pci-e frequency up a little not the pci.
Is there a pci-e slot power option in your motherboard's bios ?

[ABXG]

I thought with DDR2 on Intel systems higher frequency with looser timings gave more performance? I just got 5-5-5-15 @1080 stable. I think I am finding that the RAM can do the frequencies with 2.2V, I just can't get the timings completetly stable.

If I should work at DDR2-900 with tight timings than I will try that, thanks for all the advice!

[The0men]

Hi ABXG

I score about 12k in 3DMARK06 with my 320MB 8800GTS @ 617 x 955 so I am sure there are people out there able to hit 13k with a little more overclock on the card.

You will also find that all the people scoring 13k ish with a GTS also have Quad core CPU's which is one of the reasons they score so high my E6600 is about 1k behind my Q6600 clock for clock.



CN

C-N This is not a good way to compare... Once again you are trying to compare your CPU score, not SM2 and SM3 scores, overall score means nothing if you are not using the same or similar CPU (cores and clock) CPU. 3Dmark06 score are heavily weighted by CPU, and it does scale per core you have.

You said you have 4 cores and 3.8ghz (actually the picture you just posted has a Q6600 @ 4.278ghz), you cannot compare that to, 2 cores @ 3.6ghz, because theoretically your CPU score alone should be more than double.
6000CPU score to 3000CPU, is what your trying to compare... look only at SM2 and SM3 scores to compare a GTS to a GTX.

Look at CPU score on my screen with E6600 @ 3.6, and a GTX at similar speeds, you will see you are not far off the mark. Just a couple of subtiming changes and you will beat me.

[The0men]

I thought with DDR2 on Intel systems higher frequency with looser timings gave more performance? I just got 5-5-5-15 @1080 stable. I think I am finding that the RAM can do the frequencies with 2.2V, I just can't get the timings completetly stable.

If I should work at DDR2-900 with tight timings than I will try that, thanks for all the advice!

It is hard to define preformance when comparing frequency vs timings. Basically you always want the highest frequency with the lowest timings. But no one can do that so you have to compromise. I found with max frequency at CAS5 I got a better score than I did with max frequency at CAS 4 on 3dmark06. This is because of the large bandwidth 3d mark06 uses. If you are doing superPI runs or Nuclear etc, then it is often better to have less latency, so you go for your max frequency at a lower CAS setting like CAS3 or 4.

[ABXG]

I have been running DDR2-900 4-4-4-10-6-35-6-4-6 stable for an hour now, I will retry my 3dmark06 score if this turns out to be stable.

[C-N]

C-N This is not a good way to compare... Once again you are trying to compare your CPU score, not SM2 and SM3 scores, overall score means nothing if you are not using the same or similar CPU (cores and clock) CPU. 3Dmark06 score are heavily weighted by CPU, and it does scale per core you have.

I know what you are saying from a comparison point of view but I think you have your wires crossed with me & have gone off on one.


I never said I was comparing anything.


I just pointed out that IMO 13K with a 320mb gts was possible as ABXG's quote

I am specificly referirng to people who say they are using only one card, such as "My single GTS 320 scores 13k in 3dmark06" or "My single GT score 14k in 3dmark06"

implied to me he did not believe 13k was possible.

Oh & the "Once again you are trying to compare your CPU score, not SM2 and SM3 scores" bit

No I am not I already said

You will also find that all the people scoring 13k ish with a GTS also have Quad core CPU's which is one of the reasons they score so high my E6600 is about 1k behind my Q6600 clock for clock.

You said you have 4 cores and 3.8ghz (actually the picture you just posted has a Q6600 @ 4.278ghz)

No I didn't say I had 4 cores @ 3.8 but as it happens the picture was at 3.8GHz its just 3DMARK06 doesn't take into consideration I have dropped the multiplier down to x8 from x9.


Anyway back to the point ABXG


I found both my Asus P5K Dlx & this DFI P35 don't like high PCI-E frequency's over about 115mhz & this figure gets squeezed down to 105-108mhz once you load the board up. My DFI 680 was different all together & could run 130-150mhz quite happily.

Also no amount of playing with subtimings on a P35 board is going to get you 300 3DMARK06 points its raw CPU & GPU mhz that make the points.

I might suggest that you find something besides nTune to tweak with , though..

You could try ATI tool http://downloads.guru3d.com/download...t=725#download

Regards.

CN.

[paul_]

TheOmen, how exactly do you tweak your RAM subtimings on your 680i? I have wanted to play with them, but I am not exactly an expert RAM overclocker; I usually deal with valueRAM, so this is the first time I have really had decent overclocking RAM.

Sorry about posting in this thread, but your PM is disabled. If it's any consolation, that score is just about right if I can judge from the difference from my GTS.

[ABXG]

TheOmen, how exactly do you tweak your RAM subtimings on your 680i? I have wanted to play with them, but I am not exactly an expert RAM overclocker; I usually deal with valueRAM, so this is the first time I have really had decent overclocking RAM.

Sorry about posting in this thread, but your PM is disabled. If it's any consolation, that score is just about right if I can judge from the difference from my GTS.

I've been teaching myself. The first thing you need to do is find the full set of sub timings for your RAM, this shouldn't be to hard to do. After that I went with trial and error. I lowered all the timings a notch or two and tested, if it is stable than I try and push the RAM a bit further, if it is unstable I loosen the timings. The long part comes when you start to individually tweak the sub timings, getting timing as low as it can go.

[ABXG]

So I went for broke and pushed my GTX way higher than I normally would or should (670/2050/1600 Core/Memory/Shaders) and I did it:

13155

[The0men]

I've been teaching myself. The first thing you need to do is find the full set of sub timings for your RAM, this shouldn't be to hard to do. After that I went with trial and error. I lowered all the timings a notch or two and tested, if it is stable than I try and push the RAM a bit further, if it is unstable I loosen the timings. The long part comes when you start to individually tweak the sub timings, getting timing as low as it can go.

Its about that simple. You can use everest to get your orignal timings. It gives a pretty comprehensive list of sub/timings. Take notes of your original timings. Then start pulling them down. Dont start playing with Asynce and all that. Just your normal timings and basic sub timings. I can probably get a screenshot of what i change. Some changes make more difference than others. Generally you only use them to tweak for something specific.

But remember dropping the timings can drastically reduce bandwidth for the sake of latency. You are always taking from somewhere to give to somewhere else.

@ Paul- I think my PM's do work, I have sent and recieved them not that long ago.

@ C-N- Umm you still have 3.8ghz for that 3dmark score, 4.278ghz with 9 multi is 475.3FSB which with a multi of 8 is 3.802ghz. So what are you trying to say?
Yes a GTS can get 13k and you would expect a GTX to get higher than a GTS, but if the rest of the system is different then it doesn't work like that. dot.

The original Question here- was the score of 12717 right for his system specs. Yes it can do higher, if you change more about it. But at those clocks and settings the simple answer is yes, its about right.

[C-N]

@ C-N- Umm you still have 3.8ghz for that 3dmark score, 4.278ghz with 9 multi is 475.3FSB which with a multi of 8 is 3.802ghz. So what are you trying to say?

Yes a GTS can get 13k and you would expect a GTX to get higher than a GTS, but if the rest of the system is different then it doesn't work like that. dot.

The original Question here- was the score of 12717 right for his system specs. Yes it can do higher, if you change more about it. But at those clocks and settings the simple answer is yes, its about right.

I know what the original question was because I READ IT

In addition to ABXG's first post which also said

I have been looking around these forums and seeing people with lower and cards and systems getting higher 3dmark06 scores than I can achieve

I replied to ABXG's later post trying to offer a second opinion other than yours as to why GTS's were scoring high in 3DMARK06 "Quad CPU Score"

I just offered an opinion to ABXG that IMO a GTS could make 13k in 3DMARK06 as I got the impression from his earlier posts that he did not believe it was achievable.

I AM NOT GOING TO REPEAT MYSELF FOR THE 4TH TIME SO PLEASE STOP CRAPING THIS THREAD