Is my 7800GTX performance bad? If so what is bottlenecking my system

[Synergy]

I just ran a 3DMark05 (all default settings) and got 7507
This isn't quite as high as i'd like. I would like some technical advice from you guru's on what needs upgrading
I don't want any silly advice like buy a dual core, SLI, 4gb RAM PC.... I'd like advice on some feasible upgrades that aren't going to completely burn a hole in my wallet.

Here are some bits from CPU-Z

Name AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (NewCastle) S754 @ 2376.2 MHz (11x216)
Motherboard model K8N4-E Deluxe, BIOS Revision 1005
Chipset nVidia nForce4 rev. A2

Ram defaults to CAS 3, 3, 8 - but i'm trying these new settings from today (benchmarks were with settings below)
CAS# Latency 2.5 clocks
RAS# to CAS# 3 clocks
RAS# Precharge 3 clocks
Cycle Time (TRAS) 7 clocks

What are these for?
Bank Cycle Time (TRC) 12 clocks
DRAM Idle Timer 16 clocks
# of memory modules 2

Module 0 Micron Technology DDR-SDRAM PC3200 - 512 MBytes
Module 1 Micron Technology DDR-SDRAM PC3200 - 512 MBytes

My 7800GTX is in High Performance mode, vsync off - stock speeds.

I'm assuming that its my CPU slowing things down right? But for it to really make a difference I'm going to need to change to socket 939 and get an FX chip yes?

Thanks for any advice in advance.

 

[Pabster]

Hmmmm I score 7950 with an overclocked GT so that does appear low...

 

[Munky]

~7500 is a normal score for a 7800gtx. You might get a little more with a faster s939 cpu, but don't expect to get 9000 3dmarks. Also, I dont think benchmarking in High Performance mode is a valid score, because High Performance = Low Image Quality, the speed boost doesn't just magically appear in HP mode.

 

[nitromullet]

No, it's about average. My 4200+ (2.2GHz) scores about the same, and two cards SLI'ed don't make that big of a difference. Then again, you have to look at gaming benchmarks as well. They only really start to show the 7800GTX's power at resoltuions over 1600x1200, and the default resolution for 3DMark05 is 1024x768. 3DMark05 at the default resolution doesn't tell the whole story...

 

[blckgrffn]

lol, well if his GTX is stock, then a nicely oc'd GT will be able to get right up there. I get about 7950 as well, my guess is that a nice S939 CPU would be able to get you another 800 points or so, about the same you will probably get by oc'ing the GTX. Is getting a higher 3dMark '05 score worth the trouble? IMHO, no.

If you are really concerned about it though, then squeeze your CPU, man. You might be able to get another 200 mhz out of it with a memory divider and be able to get a little better ram timings to boot. Also, try out coolbits. It seems to be a pretty rare GTX that doesn't hit at least 460 on the core...

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: nitromullet
No, it's about average. My 4200+ (2.2GHz) scores about the same, and two cards SLI'ed don't make that big of a difference. Then again, you have to look at gaming benchmarks as well. They only really start to show the 7800GTX's power at resoltuions over 1600x1200, and the default resolution for 3DMark05 is 1024x768. 3DMark05 at the default resolution doesn't tell the whole story...

This is true... the 7800 series really starts to shine with higher resolutions. At 1024x768 the difference over the 6 series isn't all that impressive.

 

[Rage187]

wow, S754 w/ Pci-ex.

 

[imported_Kensai]

Originally posted by: Pabster

Originally posted by: nitromullet
No, it's about average. My 4200+ (2.2GHz) scores about the same, and two cards SLI'ed don't make that big of a difference. Then again, you have to look at gaming benchmarks as well. They only really start to show the 7800GTX's power at resoltuions over 1600x1200, and the default resolution for 3DMark05 is 1024x768. 3DMark05 at the default resolution doesn't tell the whole story...

This is true... the 7800 series really starts to shine with higher resolutions. At 1024x768 the difference over the 6 series isn't all that impressive.

Agreed. That's why I don't benchmark in 1024X768. 1600X1200 works nicely.

 

[Munky]

3dmark05 stresses you system differently from the way games stress the system. It's a lot more heavy on shaders - even their models are skinned using shaders. Also, supposedly each frame contains over a million polygons, way more than real games, so it's stresses the geometry pipes pretty good too. Even at 1024 resolutions, if you throw enough geometry and shaders at a 7800gtx, it will come to a crawl. The funny thing is, 3dmark05 still looks like crap, their textures are blurry, and even the models dont look as high detail as HL2 for example. It looks like they just made it stressful on the gpu for the sake of being stressful, not for any spectacular IQ.