Help! Why is my 3DMark Vantage benchmark score dropping???

[Glendor]

<<<Somewhat Resolved: outdated drivers and PhysX set incorrectly>>>
<<<newest drivers having problems, I need to downgrade to an older driver to get it to work stable>>>

I'm trying to figure out why my 3DMark Vantage scores went down so drastically when I rebuilt my system on the RAID0 drives. Below is a summary of my system, the Vantage scores, and and a brief description of any changes I made.

MSI 890FXA-GD70 (bios 1.2 then 1.6)
AMD Thubian 1055T X6 (3.5ghz OC)
G.Skill Ripjaws 2 x 4gb DDR3 (1333)
2x BFG GTX 275oc (SLI enabled with xDevs patch)
originally Seagate 80gb then 2x Seagate Momentus XT in RAID0
Windows 7 64bit

Date, CPU Score, GPU Score
Initial build, mb bios 1.2, cpu overclock 3.5ghz, SLI enabled, single hardrive
July 16th, 47257, 19324 (not bad, fastest PC I've had to date)
July 30th, 44362, 19243
July 31st, 44115, 19209
rebuild 1, mb bios 1.2, cpu oc = 3.5ghz, SLI=No, 2x seagate Momentus XT in RAID0
July 31st, 17031, 11245 (wow, what the heck happened to cpu score???)
rebuild 1, mb bios 1.2, cpu oc=3.5ghz, SLI=Yes, 2x Momentus XT in RAID0
July 31st, 17134, 19092 (cpu score still bad)
July 31st, 17432, 19265 (not getting any better, started troubleshooting)
rebuild 1, mb bios 1.6, cpu oc=2.8ghz (no OC), SLI=Yes, 2x Momentus XT in RAID0
Aug 1st, 14501, 18322
rebuild 1, mb bios 1.6, cpu oc=3.5ghz, SLI=Yes, 2x Momentus XT in RAID0
Aug 1st, 17859, 19501 (new bios didn't help)
rebuild 2 fresh OS & drivers, mb bios 1.6, cpu oc=3.5ghz, SLI=Yes, 2x Momentus XT in RAID0 (completely fresh install still didn't get me back to my original scores)
Aug 2nd, 17531, 19369 Current score

Were my original scores some kind of anomoly, or are my new scores really low?
Could the RAID 0 drives have that much impact on the CPU scores?
I could use some advice...

Thanks,
Glendor...

 

[Rifter]

thats messed up, i hope you get to the bottom of this because i want to know whats going on

Honestly i would go back to one hdd just to see what happens

 

[Glendor]

thats messed up, i hope you get to the bottom of this because i want to know whats going on

Honestly i would go back to one hdd just to see what happens

Yea, I was thinking the same thing. I still have the single 80gb drive ready to go, and it would just be a simple plug&play test. I'll do that when I get home tonight.

Glendor...

 

[Elganja]

A few things:
-physx is included in your cpu score. so by only running one card, your CPU score will fall
-turn on the visual indicators for SLI and Physx in nvidia control panel. ensure they show up in vantage when you run it
-make sure the vantage profile exists in your nvidia control panel

my guess is that SLI is not working correctly.

 

[tweakboy]

The motherboard is a crummy brand MSI ? . That can be the reason or

the PSU is huffing and puffing and the voltages are changing not giving full juice to the video card. or your graphics card might be faulty; RMA in that case,, good luck and GB and GG.

 

[Glendor]

A few things:
-physx is included in your cpu score. so by only running one card, your CPU score will fall
-turn on the visual indicators for SLI and Physx in nvidia control panel. ensure they show up in vantage when you run it
-make sure the vantage profile exists in your nvidia control panel

my guess is that SLI is not working correctly.

I will check on this tonight. Maybe PhysX is choking my CPU? SLI is enabled, and seems to be working, since the single card GPU score is about half of the SLI GPU score.

I followed the same install steps when I built the system the first time, and on both rebuilds, so the OS, patches, drivers, benching tools, etc... should have been the same. I don't know how PhysX could have been on the GPU in the first several runs, then on the CPU in the last ones, but I will definately check it.

The motherboard is a crummy brand MSI ? . That can be the reason or

the PSU is huffing and puffing and the voltages are changing not giving full juice to the video card. or your graphics card might be faulty; RMA in that case,, good luck and GB and GG.

Since when did MSI become a 'crummy brand'??? All the reviews I read prior to purchasing it seemed to flip back & forth between Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte being tops.

I will check the voltages though, since I did add a 2nd harddrive. That was the only change that seemed to have caused the problem; going from a single 3.5" 80gb drive to two 2.5" 250gb Momentus XT drives in RAID0. I had assumed that since I was going from a single desktop drive to two laptop drives in RAID0, the power drain would balance. Maybe I've reached the limit of my Mushkin Enhanced 550w PSU.

 

[Phynaz]

The motherboard is a crummy brand MSI ? . That can be the reason or

the PSU is huffing and puffing and the voltages are changing not giving full juice to the video card. or your graphics card might be faulty; RMA in that case,, good luck and GB and GG.

Seriously dude, you need to seek help for your meth problem.

 

[Rifter]

well i do agree that MSI is not up there with asus or gigabyte its by no means a crappy brand, i dont think thats the problem. agree with above poster.

 

[james1701]

Wait wait wait, are you saying you scored 47,257 with a 1055T @ 3.5ghz and two GTX 275? Never mind, thats just the graphics card part.

Looks like you might be running on one card that is idling down.

 

[richierich1212]

Your CPU score is low because somehow PhysX isn't detecting both 275s

 

[Glendor]

Wait wait wait, are you saying you scored 47,257 with a 1055T @ 3.5ghz and two GTX 275? Never mind, thats just the graphics card part.

Looks like you might be running on one card that is idling down.

Not sure what you're saying above. Are you saying my score is too high, or too low?

GPU score only
1 x GTX 275oc = 11254
2 x GTX 275oc in SLI = 19286 (average)
That looks perfectly normal, right? SLI nearly doubled the score for a single card, right, or am I misinterpreting the results?

The big question to me is why did my CPU score drop from an average of 45244 pre-rebuild to an average of only 17397 after the rebuild?

Your CPU score is low because somehow PhysX isn't detecting both 275s

I beginning to agree with you, and I may have found the problem. I noticed this morning that the PhysX settings after the rebuild were not the same as I remembered when I first built the PC in early July. It looks like I was using the previous driver version after the rebuild, not the most recent. I downloaded the latest nVidia drivers this morning, and the PhysX controls in nVidia Control Panel have more options than the one I had installed. Unfortunately, I had to leave for work before I could see the Vantage results. I'll have to check when I get home.

I couldn't find any settings to turn ON the SLI and PhysX visual cues. Where is that setting located?

BTW: I tried to go back to the old pre-rebuild harddrive and it's bjorked. Won't boot to windows anymore.

 

[Elganja]

I agree, and I may have found the problem. I noticed this morning that the PhysX settings after the rebuild were not the same as I remembered when I first built the PC in early July. It looks like I was using the previous driver version after the rebuild, not the most recent. I downloaded the latest nVidia drivers this morning, and the PhysX controls in nVidia Control Panel have more options than the one I had installed. Unfortunately, I had to leave for work before I could see the Vantage results. I'll have to check when I get home.

I couldn't find any settings to turn ON the SLI and PhysX visual cues. Where is that setting located?

as for drivers, just download the latest WHQL drivers from NVIDIA's website to ensure you have the latest phsyx and video drivers. I understand you want to use the same drivers as a baseline, but the variance in drivers isn't much (maybe 100-500 pts... but not like 10k or something)

for the visual cues, once you click on "3D Settings -> Manage 3D" on the left pane; look at the top menu bars (file, edit, view, 3D Settings, Help). The indicator toggles will be under 3D Settings.

 

[Glendor]

I went back to Orb and check the details of my three good runs (pre-rebuild) and the CPU stats were:

Graphics Test
Jane Nash: consistantly 56.xx fps across all runs, pre and post rebuild (*)
New Calico: consistantly 56.xx fps across all runs, pre and post rebuild (*)
* except the one run when SLI was off of course

CPU Test before rebuild
AI Test: run 1 - 2265.26 ops/s, run 2 - 2228.18 ops/s, run 3 - 2292.98 ops/s
PhysX Test: run 1 - 169.95 ops/s, run 2 - 155.51 ops/s, run 3 - 154.18 ops/s

CPU Test after rebuild
AI Test: averaged 2275 ops/sec across all post-rebuild runs
PhysX Test: averaged 27.xx ops/s across all post-rebuild runs

To me, this indicates that something changed with the PhysX settings, and it had a considerable impact on the CPU scores.

 

[Glendor]

I updated the drivers and fixed the PhysX setting. Now I'm getting:
3DMark Vantage: 22495
GPU Score: 19332
CPU Score: 44177

 

[james1701]

Not sure what you're saying above. Are you saying my score is too high, or too low?

GPU score only
1 x GTX 275oc = 11254
2 x GTX 275oc in SLI = 19286 (average)
That looks perfectly normal, right? SLI nearly doubled the score for a single card, right, or am I misinterpreting the results?

The big question to me is why did my CPU score drop from an average of 45244 pre-rebuild to an average of only 17397 after the rebuild?




I beginning to agree with you, and I may have found the problem. I noticed this morning that the PhysX settings after the rebuild were not the same as I remembered when I first built the PC in early July. It looks like I was using the previous driver version after the rebuild, not the most recent. I downloaded the latest nVidia drivers this morning, and the PhysX controls in nVidia Control Panel have more options than the one I had installed. Unfortunately, I had to leave for work before I could see the Vantage results. I'll have to check when I get home.

I couldn't find any settings to turn ON the SLI and PhysX visual cues. Where is that setting located?

BTW: I tried to go back to the old pre-rebuild harddrive and it's bjorked. Won't boot to windows anymore.

I was thinking it was too high. I forgot about how much PhysX raises your scores for your video cards. I rechecked my scores, and seen over 37133 on my Intel cpu, but my video cards were only 30667 for 5870's. I forgot about the PhysX drivers boosting the score.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=2340363

 

[veri745]

It seems kinda lame that the difference between nvidia and ati solely because of physx is that high.