Bizarr: More FSB gets less Score

[Taischo]

Hi all,

its a curious thing, when i set my FSB above 173 MHz i get less 3D Marks Score:

@ FSB 173

3DMark Score 10362
Game 1 - Car Chase - Low Detail 155.7 fps
Game 1 - Car Chase - High Detai 72.1 fps
Game 2 - Dragothic - Low Detail 160.4 fps
Game 2 - Dragothic - High Detai 85.8 fps
Game 3 - Lobby - Low Detail 157.3 fps
Game 3 - Lobby - High Detail 77.0 fps
Game 4 - Nature 46.6 fps


@ FSB 175

3DMark Score 10082
Game 1 - Car Chase - Low Detail 151.4 fps
Game 1 - Car Chase - High Detai 71.0 fps
Game 2 - Dragothic - Low Detail 156.6 fps
Game 2 - Dragothic - High Detai 83.6 fps
Game 3 - Lobby - Low Detail 151.8 fps
Game 3 - Lobby - High Detail 74.4 fps
Game 4 - Nature 45.3 fps


My System:
Athlon XP 1700+ @ 2160 MHz with 1,5VCore
Epox 8RDA+ Rev. 1.1
2 x 256 MB DDR 333 Infineon - 2.0-2-2-5
ATI 8500 BBA

i tried raising Vdimm from 2.59 to 2.77 but without luck. I also have to mention that Prime Torture-Test gives a Error above 173 MHz FSB. Do you think that errors are the reason for the drop of my Score ??? I cant believe that 333 Infineon RAM knocks off only at 7MHz more FSB.

 

[Soulkeeper]

yeah the errors are probably the reason for a lower score
one of you components don't like the raised speed

i noticed your vcore is pretty low, have you tryed raising that ?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Was that one run at each FSB? because those scores fall within the margin of error. Your timings are too tight for getting much extra speed beyond spec on that ram so loosening them a bit should get you further. Also, that 1700+ doing 2700+ speed on 1.5v is damned impressive :beer: but perhaps when getting the FSB up with the multiplier unchanged it may be time to start giving it a little extra juice as that may be why P95TT errors out above 173fsb.

 

[maluckey]

I've noticed that if I run extra tight memory settings at 174 mhz FSB, I can beat my bench scores at 179 mhz FSB with relaxed timings. At a certain point, my benches begin to fall as the FSB rises. I did noticce that as the bandwidth efficiency rises past 93 percent (close to bus saturation), the scores begin to drop. It does this in SANDRA, 3DMark, and UT2003 benchmarks, so it's probably not a fluke of the benchmarks, but a symptom of bus saturation, and error generation as a result.

 

[Taischo]

i test 3D Marks directly i reboot my machine at each FSB...

The CPU doesnt need more Juice, because it makes FSB 173 @ 12,5 Multi = 2160 MHz without problems, primestable !

I noticed the paradox situation as i was at FSB 175 @ 11 Multi = 1925 MHz !
FSB @ 173 i got 10100 3DMarks, FSB @ 175 i got 9800 3D Marks.

@ maluckey

with SiSoftSandra 2004 i ironically see a normal development, if i set it to FSB 175 i got a little more Points.... but i thing Sandra doesn't stress the hardware as much as 3D Marks or Prime, with Prime as i mentioned i got after the first testing an Error !

-------

Now here some other hints:

FSB @ 180 MHz and 2-2-2-5 Timings Windows 2000 even doesn't start up !

FSB @ 190 MHz and 3-3-3-9 Timings Windows 2000 starts, but 3D Marks freezes right at the beginning.

FSB @ 185 MHz and 2,5-3-3-9 Timings when testing 3D Marks probably after the middle, my Machine turns off ?!?!?

FSB @ 180 MHz and 2,5-3-3-9 Timings i got no problems but i have only 9800 3D Marks, so its better to it at FSB 173 with sharp Timings.

Its really very very pity, since the cpu do 2160 MHz with only 1,5Vcore.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

3D2k1 is far more reflective of CPU speed than 3D'03 so running it at 2fsb more but significantly lower clockspeed explains the lower score BTW, you need to do at least 3 runs at each speed when benchmarking 3DMock as the margin of error is approx. +/- 3%. As to bus saturation, I have not experience it with my Soltek SL-75MRN-L, the higher I set the FSB and clockspeed the better the performance in all benchmark suites I've tried scales.

 

[rogue1979]

Try raising your AGP voltage to 1.8v. If your motherboard doesn't have that feature, there is a simple mod for the 8RDA to fix that. Both my 8 year old son and I are using that mod successfully to run our 8RDA's at 200MHz.

 

[Taischo]

DAPUNISHER i tested 3d Marks many times, its always the same situation, if i go above 173 MHz i get lower scores, also the Score-List i posted above are both at same clockspeed ( 12,5 )

rogue1979 thx for your advice, but raising the agp-voltage wouldnt help me out. The problem is that i simply get lower scores when i go higher than FSB 173, also i can reach FSB 190 with bad (!) RAM-timings, although i couldn't run 3D Marks. With good-timings i couldnt even load Windows at FSB 190. So this shows me, that my Problem is caused mainly by my Infineon RAM.... or how is yours opinion ? both of my Infineon RAMs are with 6-B Steppings, are these known as bad-overclockers ??

Nevertheless, i think my oc isnt so bad at all, above all i need only 1,5Vcore

 

[Taischo]

up

 

[LawrenceHeffernan]

Inferion memory, sorry Infinieon, isn't the best at overclocking, and if you increase the FSB, if set to SPD, it will increase your Cas Latency.

 

[Taischo]

no it is on Auto

 

[Taischo]

last up