Low 3Dmark scores...argh!

[Kyle7257]

I am getting a low 3Dmark score and I'm not sure why.

16522 3Dmark 2001SE
11656 3Dmark 2003
4909 3Dmark 2005

System specs as follows:
A64 3000+ skt754
512mb Crucial CAS 3 PC3200 ram (upgrading this to 1.5gb soon)
BFG 6800 Ultra w/ 71.84 drivers (fresh install on new HD)
Fastwrites turned off to solve a stuttering problem I had.

From what I gathered, I SHOULD be getting around:
3Dmark01 ~ 20k
3Dmark03 ~ 12.5k
3Dmark05 ~ 5.5k

I really just game, but the difference in numbers was enough to make me take notice.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks guys.

 

[JuicyLucy]

Try playing games not benchmarks n00b

 

[Kyle7257]

Helpful...:roll:

I can do what I want with my system...plus, read my second to last line...

 

[RussianSensation]

Make sure that you have the latest Nforce/VIA chipset drivers for your motherboard.
Make sure everything is set to high performance and no Anti-Aliasing or Anisotropic filtering is forced in games.
Make sure the cpu is running at its 2.0ghz rated speed.
Make sure Vsync is off.
Did you install the latest DX9.0C?
Did you turn off all programs in the background like Distributed computing projects? Ran Ad-aware and Spybot to remove possible programs in the background?
Have you tried other drivers? Your 3dmark 03 and 05 scores seem decent (a bit low). It's the 3dmark01 score that is extremely low. You should be getting 21000 at least.
Did you force AGP8x just in case?
Do you have the latest motherboard BIOS?
Did you enable turbo or fast settings if your motherboard allows?

 

[Kyle7257]

Thanks for the reply Russian.

Make sure that you have the latest Nforce/VIA chipset drivers for your motherboard.

Yeah, newest drivers.

Make sure everything is set to high performance and no Anti-Aliasing or Anisotropic filtering is forced in games.

Those scores were run with settings set to high performance. AA and Aniso off by default.

Make sure the cpu is running at its 2.0ghz rated speed.

Check.

Make sure Vsync is off.

Check.

Did you turn off all programs in the background like Distributed computing projects? Ran Ad-aware and Spybot to remove possible programs in the background?

Yes, and I've only used Firefox on this install.

Have you tried other drivers? Your 3dmark 03 and 05 scores seem decent (a bit low). It's the 3dmark01 score that is extremely low. You should be getting 21000 at least.

66.93 on my last window's install gave me ~1k more on 2001 but ~100 less on 03 and 05

Did you force AGP8x just in case?

Yes, AGP @ 8x

Do you have the latest motherboard BIOS?

I don't think so, but the Bios download site at Chaintech isn't working right now.

Forgot to add, I am using a Chaintech VNF-250.

 

[blkdragon]

What bios are you running? I too have the vnf-250 and when I flashed to the 3/21/05 my bench scores went to the toilet. In AQ3, I was getting 40k w/ a gfx score of 5400. I flashed to the 7/29 version and I went right back up to 60k w/ a gfx scored of 8500.

 

[RussianSensation]

Is there a windows based utility you can download from Chaintech to do an automatic flash download and easy step by step update? I know my Abit P4 motherboard has Abit FlashMenu. You could try that instead of manually downloading the update and flashing it yourself. I am running out of ideas as to why your 3dmark01 score is low...hmm...

Are you running RAM:CPU ratio at 1:1? See if PC3200 is running at 400mhz. Cas latency shouldnt be that much of a factor. My friend let me borrow 9700 non-pro like 1 year ago and i scored 16500 points in 3dmark 01 with my P4 3.2ghz and the videocard stock at 275/275 and it only has 8 pipelines.

What you should do is go to Futuremark and run compare with other users with a similar setup. There in 3dmark01 compare all the videocard fillrates and so on. This will show you if videocard drivers are lacking. These scores wont be affected by CPU speed much. So they should be consistent with similar 6800Ultras. Now look under Test 2- chase high detail. Compare that score. This will show you if your cpu is lacking in speed. You should be getting well over 100 frames there at stock settings.

Compare cpu test 1 and 2 for 3dmark03 similarly. Run PCMark04 to check if your cpu is getting similar scores as well. Once you isolate if it's a memory/cpu/or gpu incosistency, you can go from there.

I dont own an Nvidia card, but some Nvidia users are very happy with 75.6 or some other form of XG drivers or something along those lines (I think it's similar to Omega Drivers for ATI).

Finally you could try downgrading the speed of the 6800Ultra to say 370/1050. If the scores increase or stay the same, your card might be overheating at its stock settings. I doubt this is the case however because you would have experienced lockups, artifacts or white dots. Also 6800U cards shouldn't downclock before 100*C on GPU.

 

[blkdragon]

^^Winflash is about as easy as it gets.

 

[Kyle7257]

Just tried a couple different BIOS versions, none were out of the margin of error. Ram and CPU are @ 1:1, pc3200 at 400mhz. I'm about to try the 76.xx series nvidia drivers...*crosses fingers*

 

[blkdragon]

What do you mean, "none were out of the margin of error?"

 

[Kyle7257]

Ah, I mean Version 4 and 5 both bumped my score up by ~ 100.....the differences between those two versions were even less (ie...no discernable difference).

 

[blkdragon]

I see. Well anyways, like I said before the 3/21 (V. 5) killed all of my gfx scores. I spent hours trying to figure out the problem. As best as I could tell, the mobo was running my card in PCI mode. Once I switched to the 7/29 (V.2) bios, all my problems were fixed.

edit: Except for the fact that I can't run 2 sticks of ram at 200. The board automatically downclocks to 166. I tried all the different slots and I had the mem running at auto in the bios but nothing worked. O'h well, nothing is perfect.

 

[Kyle7257]

Just updated to the 76.44 drivers...
16427 3Dmark 2001SE
11702 3Dmark 2003
5025 3Dmark 2005

 

[BrokenVisage]

:Q
My X800XL had better scores just mildly OC'd..
Don't know whats wrong that hasn't already been addressed but somethings not kosher.

 

[christopherzombie]

Originally posted by: Kyle7257
Just updated to the 76.44 drivers...
16427 3Dmark 2001SE
11702 3Dmark 2003
5025 3Dmark 2005

Everything looks good for 03 and 05. But your 2001se score IS low. It could have alot to do with your CPU and non-dual channel MOBO. 03 and 05 doesn't rely on these things as much as 2001se. My scores are in the sig.

AMD 3500+
MSI K8N Neo2
Corsair TwinX 1024XL PRO
eVGA LE 6800 Ultra 400/1100

 

[christopherzombie]

Originally posted by: JuicyLucy
Try playing games not benchmarks n00b

It says "Low 3Dmark scores" in the title. If you don't care about benchmarks, why did you post. Are you trying to build your post count?
...anyway, good luck with whatever your goal was, cuz your not helping here.