3dmark 2001 LOW score -- help! (1Ghz w/G4 Ti4200)

[scsi stud]

Hi,

I recently purchased a PNY Geforce4 Ti4200 for my 1Ghz Thunderbird (on an Abit KT7) with 512 MB PC133 SDRAM, and I ran 3dMark2001 and I was getting disasterous scores like 5900!

I compared my score to others on madonion.com, and they were all getting scores in the 7000's range.

Anyone have any ideas as to why my score is so low? I have a link, comparing my system to another's, that has a 100 Mhz FSB, and their score is 7455 as opposed to my lowly 5988.

here's the URLs:

Page 1
Page 2

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Wingznut]

It's been said before, but I'll say it again...

3dMark is a horrible benchmark to compare different systems that are posted on their database. People do silly things like overclock their videocard, their RAM, and even go as far as manipulating the mipmap levels so low that a game would be unplayable... Just to get a higher score.

My advice? Are you happy with the way your system plays REAL games? If so, then don't bother to log onto the Online Result Browser again.

 

[scsi stud]

Well, that's the thing -- I am quite unhappy with my results.

I got the card because my Geforce2 GTS wasn't cuttin' it in Unreal Tourney 2k3 demo. It was dog slow, so I thought that by upgrading it would help.

Now, I can run the game in 1024x768 32 bit with everything enabled, but my Framerate is 15-25 fps. I've asked others and they said I should be getting at least 35+.

So.. I'm a bit concerned.

 

[NOX]

run the UT2003 benchmark, and post your score.

 

[BlindSeaman]

Sad to say I get a similar score with a system almost exactly like yours. I have a 1 gig duron with pc133 memory and a 4200 o/c'd to 4400 speeds. I got around 5700 in 3dmark and 74 in the flyby and 24 in the botmatch. very shitty, I think its the memory/processor holding us back.

 

[BlindSeaman]

scsi stud what dma mode is your main hd running in? It probably not related but I have been having issues with that lately and i think its my PSU.

 

[Sniper82]

Just a few suggestions:
Make sure you have latest 4in1's for your mobo and latest drivers for the GF4(most important)
In BIOS make sure your AGP aderpter(I know thats not even close) size is set to at least 128/256
In BIOS try to get your ram CAS to 2-2-2 even if the ram may not be that fast
Just check a few things in your BIOS like make sure AGP 4x is enabled
If nothing else redo Windows(which could fix everything) if it hasnt been done in a while

 

[scsi stud]

My UT2k3 benchmark score:

@1024x768:

Flyby: 79.62
Botmatch: 26.48

Blindseaman:
I don't have my IDE channels even enabled in the BIOS -- I'm running on SCSI peripherals. And yeah, maybe you have relatively the same problem as me. Frankly, it's really annoying me because I invested in a Ti4200 and I am not getting use of its full potential.

Sniper:
Yep, I installed the latest 4-in-1 drivers last week, as well as the 30.xx Detonator drivers Nvidia has available on their website.
I have AGP 4x enabled (although I didn't have it enabled until earlier tonight, but that still didn't make a difference).
I'll have a look at the AGP aperture size after I post this.

Thanks for all the help guys, keep it comin'!

 

[Sniper82]

It doesnt seem to be a hardware problem. I ain't saying it will def fix it but I would redo windows. Then install all latest drivers,3Dmark and UT2k3 demo and run them then and see what you get. Install nothing more.

You did install the AGP drivers from the 4in1 right?

 

[RanDum72]

You could probably tweak the BIOS settings and improve scores a bit but you are basically running into the limits of a 1ghz Athlon CPU and PC133 memory, probably more so in the CPU area. The 100mhz FSB is also a factor.

 

[scsi stud]

Yeah I'm definitely going to re-install XP Pro in the next week or so.

And yeah, when I ran the 4-in-1 drivers, it asked me for Quick Install or Normal Install, I chose Normal, and then it asked me to install/uninstall certain things, including the AGP drivers, I just chose "Install".

One note -- I had previously ran the 4-in-1 driver installation a week ago and I did it again last night without uninstalling. That is okay, right? I'm assuming it just overwrites what it previously installed.

And Randum,
Yeah I am figuring the 100mhz FSB is a factor -- but did you take a look at those 2 images I posted in my initial post? A comparison of my machine to another's, and they have the same FSB, but the score is substantially higher (in the 7000's).

Plus, on my Thunderbird 1Ghz, is it possible that if I unlock the multipliers I can get my FSB to something along the lines of 133 Mhz? Or is that impossible for the CPU I have?

 

[Mavrick007]

You should see my friend's machine. He has an Asus A7S333, with the SIS 745 chipset, an 1800+ cpu, 512megs of Samsung PC2700 ram, and a GF4 Ti4400 and he's only getting about 7400 in 3dmark2001 while I'm getting around 9600 marks at stock with PC2100. But it's as they say, if your games work the way you like then it don't worry about it.

 

[metallibloke]

What drivers are you using? The ones that came with the card or drivers fron nVidias site?

My advice would be to use the latest ones from nVidia (detonator4 40.41 for win2k/xp if memory serves, or 30.82 for win9x/me).

My rig consists 1GHz Athlon on a Abit KT7A-RAID, 384Mb PC133 RAM, Creative Ti4200 64Mb, IDE hard drive. I get between 7020 and 7050 when I run 3DMark2001. I figured that was kind of low considering some others on the online result browser were getting around 8000!!

 

[scsi stud]

Right, normally I wouldn't care if my games were playing smooth, but the fact is that UT2k3 runs semi-choppy even on my Ti4200!

And that alone doesn't make my purchase justifiable, because my Geforce2 GTS was doing fine with all other games I have. I got the Ti4200 for upcoming 3d games, i.e., UT2k3, NOLF2, DOOM, etc etc.. but if it's still going to be choppy then why waste the $$, ya know?

anyhow, still looking for suggestions and advice. Many thanks.

 

[RanDum72]

If you have installed the VIA 4-in-1's properly, it should have the latest dates under device manager (AGP driver, etc..). The only things that you can do is tweak the BIOS some more and do a clean re-install of the OS and drivers. If your score is still the same, then maybe thats how fast it can go.
Another thing is, those guys with the high 3Dmark scores can always OC their video card and tweak the driver settings like lowering texture quality and the like. They will do ANYTHING just to get a high 3Dmark score, which is really silly.

 

[Sniper82]

scsi stud you could try to unlock the multiplier and do 133FSB if the CPU won't do it just back the multiplier down and leave the FSB where it is. Like if the CPU is running at 10x100 back the multiplier down to 7.5/8x133 which is still 1.0/1.05Ghz. That could give you a nice little boost.

Nothing overclocked here at default settings:
1600+(not overclocked)
Radeon 8500 OEM(250/250)
256mb PC2100
Shuttle AK31a KT266a

I score 7901 at default. I got a 700 point increase by going from a 1.4 to a 1600+(which is also a 1.4). I am gonna try and overclock tonight since my Epox just came in today.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: scsi stud
Right, normally I wouldn't care if my games were playing smooth, but the fact is that UT2k3 runs semi-choppy even on my Ti4200!

And that alone doesn't make my purchase justifiable, because my Geforce2 GTS was doing fine with all other games I have. I got the Ti4200 for upcoming 3d games, i.e., UT2k3, NOLF2, DOOM, etc etc.. but if it's still going to be choppy then why waste the $$, ya know?

anyhow, still looking for suggestions and advice. Many thanks.

Two things usually help:

1.) Reinstall your O/S (clean install) with all the above suggestions re: drivers.

2.) Overclock - both your CPU and GPU will benefit greatly from this performance increase.

Upgrading - or putting up with crappy performance - is INEVITABLE. However, the above 2 tips will allow you to put them off as long as possible.

O/C'ing my 1.2Ghz Tualatin Celeron 25% to 1.5Ghz and my Radeon 8500 128MB from 250/250 to 300/300 made a BIG difference in performance (I am getting 8200 in 3DMark2001 and in UT2K3's benchmark - 101 in Flyby and 38 in Botmatch). ALL my demos/games are playing smoothly with both minimal AA and AF enabled and HIGH details @ 1024x768 @32.

Simply by O/C'ing, I have set my major upgrade plans aside for a few more months.

 

[scsi stud]

ok guys, well I guess I'm going to check one last time to make sure my 4-in-1 drivers are up-to-date and then sometime in the next week or so go ahead and reformat my machine.

One thing I also wanted to add:

There are like 5-7 devices that are sharing IRQ 14!! Could this be causing the slowdown? IRQ 14 stores:

2 USB controllers
SCSI Adapter (it's 2 channels so it shows up twice)
Wireless Network Card
SB Live
Geforce 4 Ti4200
ACPI

For the life of me I can't seem to manually set the IRQs on those devices.

Also, after I reinstall my OS, I'm interested in overclocking my GPU, what program would I have to download/use in order to do this?

Many thanks, guys.

 

[RanDum72]

IRQ sharing between several devices is normal under Win2000/XP. It shouldn't be the cause of the slowdown.

 

[Sniper82]

"Also, after I reinstall my OS, I'm interested in overclocking my GPU, what program would I have to download/use in order to do this?"

I would focus more on getting the CPU overclocked first. I think it and the ram is the bottleneck right now. As for the sharing IRQ14 deal if they are all indeed sharing the same IRQ it could be a problem(if the mobo ain't misreading something).

 

[apoppin]

Aha, snared another one into O/C'ing.

Just head over to the CPU/OC forum (tell them I sent you . . . I get "skill" points for this).

Getting your T-bird to around 1.33Ghz will help a lot!


(j/k'ing)

Anyway, locked at the top of the Forum are links to O/C'ing tools including GPU O/C'ers. You will find out all you need to know about a "safe" overclock.

Don't worry about sharing IRQs . . . only the older Radeons had some problems with Win98.

 

[Cabana]

If you think your score is low, check this out. I have a 1ghz Thunderbird, 128mb Ti4200, 768mb of ram, and I get 5190 in 3dmark2001. Talk about pathetic. I got the newest 4in1s, but they didn't help at all. BTW, I have WinXP too, fresh install.