3D Mark 2001 SE ?

[FPSguy]

Originally posted by: phpdog
Hi ,

shady06 : that score is about right for a 9200 but if you arent gaming, why bother with 3dmark anyway?

I dont play games just now but ,i plan to in the future i just dont have any time just now . Thats why i downloaded 3DMark to see if my PC was adequate for todays games. So all i really need is a reasonable GFX card and it should be fine for most games ? Any suggestions what to buy , im only willing to spend aroung £150 thats about $250 USD Ive never ever lookad at GFX cards so i have no idea what to look for.

If you are asking because you are about to buy a video card to use for modern games, then first of all I would compare 3dMark 2003 scores, because the 2003 version is designed to measure performance as it relates to features used by the upcoming generation of games. Also, if you have around $250 to spend I would first recommend going to the Radeon camp, and would probably recommend a Radeon 9800. Your score probably would more than triple if you got a 9800. You might try setting the TRAS to 11 on your RAM too.

 

[rogue1979]

Originally posted by: FPSguy

Originally posted by: phpdog
Hi ,

shady06 : that score is about right for a 9200 but if you arent gaming, why bother with 3dmark anyway?

I dont play games just now but ,i plan to in the future i just dont have any time just now . Thats why i downloaded 3DMark to see if my PC was adequate for todays games. So all i really need is a reasonable GFX card and it should be fine for most games ? Any suggestions what to buy , im only willing to spend aroung £150 thats about $250 USD Ive never ever lookad at GFX cards so i have no idea what to look for.

If you are asking because you are about to buy a video card to use for modern games, then first of all I would compare 3dMark 2003 scores, because the 2003 version is designed to measure performance as it relates to features used by the upcoming generation of games. Also, if you have around $250 to spend I would first recommend going to the Radeon camp, and would probably recommend a Radeon 9800. Your score probably would more than triple if you got a 9800. You might try setting the TRAS to 11 on your RAM too.

Why spend $250-350 dollars right now for upcoming future games. A fast Geforce4 128MB will play current games with power to spare. When the upcoming games are here, you will be able to buy a 9700/9800 Pro for less then half the price! The fact is DX9 is highly overrated right now, in the upcoming future it will be important, but by then it will be much cheaper. And yes, I did own a Radeon 9700 Pro and found that it wasn't necessary yet and sold it! My main rig will play UT at 1600 x 1200 no AA or AF and average 125+ fps. It does Unreal 2003 benchmark flyby @ 100fps, botmatch @ 60fps. Yes, still at 1600 x 1200. Old technology isn't always obsolete, although Nvida and ATI would like us to believe so.

 

[SilverBack]

An ATI 9600 Pro would be more than adequate for todays games and you can find them for about $140..

 

[BaboonGuy]

Originally posted by: FPSguy

Originally posted by: BaboonGuy
i'm ~17000, see sig. but i bet i have the best bang for buck machine out there for 3dmark, and i got the parts during last summer (higher prices than now). 17 points of 3dmark for every 1 dollar spent!

If you spent $1,000 on your system then I claim a better bang for the buck. I got 17,286 3dMarks for $541.37 (not including an old 17" monitor that I re-used for this system). That's 31.9 3dMarks per dollar. See sig for system details. My sense though is that others probably can beat my ratio.

how did u get that stuff? and what are counting as your system cost?

 

[Boyne7]

~19000 with rig in sig

 

[FPSguy]

Originally posted by: BaboonGuy

Originally posted by: FPSguy

Originally posted by: BaboonGuy i'm ~17000, see sig. but i bet i have the best bang for buck machine out there for 3dmark, and i got the parts during last summer (higher prices than now). 17 points of 3dmark for every 1 dollar spent!

If you spent $1,000 on your system then I claim a better bang for the buck. I got 17,286 3dMarks for $541.37 (not including an old 17" monitor that I re-used for this system). That's 31.9 3dMarks per dollar. See sig for system details. My sense though is that others probably can beat my ratio.

how did u get that stuff? and what are counting as your system cost?

Er, the parts fell off the back of a truck ... . j/k

Actually, as I go back and look at the parts I see that the total I quoted did not include re-used parts. Including re-used parts (other than the monitor), the total is $678. If you want to throw in the cost of a 17" monitor, it might be fair to add another $100 to the price. (link to $90 AR 17" Envision monitor at Staples) I also have a scanner that I got free after rebate from OfficeMax and a printer that I got for $40 after rebate from OfficeMax. I did not include the printer in the system price. However you calculate it, though, it's definitely under $1,000. Here is what I bought, where I bought it, and what it cost:

Sapphire RADEON 9500 ATLANTIS 128MB DDR AGP8X TVO/DVI (OEM/Red Board -- overclocked to faster than 9700 Pro speeds) - $168 (from AllStarShop)
Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 Processor 2.4GHz, 800MHz FSB, Socket 478 Retail (overclocked to 3.0Ghz right now) - $171 (from Newegg)
Western Digital 120GB Hard Drive - $10 AR (from Circuit City)
2 x 256MB Kingston HyperX PC3500 DIMMs (running in dual channel mode with 2-3-3-7-1 timings) - $100 AR (from Best Buy)
Abit IS7 Motherboard (MB i865PE|5P1A4D IS7 ABIT ATX RTL) - $108 (from Newegg)
PREMIER CP0-PR-TM7673WP 350W Mid Tower ATX Case w/ Window - $53 (from Newegg)
Keyboard/Mouse - $0 AR (from Best Buy)
Lite-On 16x DVD ROM Drive - $27 (from Dell)
Verbatim 48x CD-RW Drive - $0 AR (from OfficeMax)
Floppy Drive - $12 (bought at a local computer store)
Labtec Spin-60 Speakers - $17 (from eBuyer)
2 x Lighted Case Fans - $12 (from SVC)
17" Dell CRT Monitor - $0 (re-used part; bought a long time ago)
Total Cost: $678 (plus monitor; cost of $40 AR printer excluded)