I need a sanity check, or help, or probably even both.
First: I'm not a performance enthusiast: I'm a hobbyist at best. My most recent foray into performance is the first time since my days in the late 90's with overclocking Celerons in tandem with TNT's and Voodoo's (b/c of marriage, kids).
That said, I'm a career technologist and go pretty deep on this stuff - so, I'm no newbie, but I'm most likely very green in relation to the gurus on this board.
So.. my issue.
I've run through a few sets of hardware components trying to get the most out of my machine. My "quick" benchmark is Crysis v1.2.1, island, GPU benchmark -- my "not so quick" is 3DMark06.
My testing is -not- that scientific, so please be gentle.
Onto the details:
Motherboard: EVGA 780i FTW
\ http://www.newegg.com/Product/...7&Tpk=evga%20780%20ftw
Memory : GSkill 1200
\ http://www.newegg.com/Product/...1201&Tpk=gskill%201200
Video Cards: 2 @ EVGA GTX 260: 896-P3-1260-AR
\ 2 @ EVGA GTX 285 SSC: 01G-P3-1287-AR
Resolution: 1680x1050
Crysis v1.2.1, 1680x1050 0xAAm, Very High (fps are all average for 4 runs)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
E8600@3.33GHz, RAM@1067-6-6-6-18, 260/SLI (182.06)/576/1242/999: 41.7 fps
E8600@3.33GHz, RAM@1067-6-6-6-18, 260/SLI (182.06)/576/1242/1202: 40.5 fps
E8600@3.33GHz, RAM@1067-5-5-5-15, 260/SLI (182.06)/648/1397/1202: 42.3 fps
E8600@4.0 GHz, RAM@960-6-6-6-18, 260/SLI (182.06)/576/1242/999: 42.6 fps
E8600@4.0 GHz, RAM@960-6-6-6-18, 260/SLI (182.06)/600/1293/999: 43.6 fps
E8600@4.0 GHz, RAM@960-6-6-6-18, 260/SLI (182.06)/648/1397/1202: 45.0 fps
E8600@4.0 GHz, RAM@960-5-5-5-15, 260/SLI (182.06)/648/1397/1202: 45.4 fps
E8600@4.0 GHz, RAM@960-5-5-5-15, 260/SLI (182.06)/674/1453/1202: 46.2 fps
E8600@4.0 GHz, RAM@960-5-5-5-15, 260/SLI (182.06)/674/1453/1248: 46.35 fps
E8600@4.0 GHz, RAM@960-6-6-6-18, 285/SLI (182.06)/702/1584/1323: 47.7 fps
E8600@4.0 GHz, RAM@960-5-5-5-15, 285/SLI (182.06)/702/1584/1323: 48.6 fps
E8600@4.0 GHz, RAM@960-5-5-5-15, 285/SLI (182.50)/702/1584/1323: 46.9 fps
E8600@4.0 GHz, RAM@960-5-5-5-15, 285/SLI (185.66)/702/1584/1323: 46.0 fps
Q9650@3.0 GHz, RAM@800-5-5-5-15, 285/SLI (182.06)/702/1584/1323: 40.3 fps
Q9650@3.6 GHz, RAM@960-6-6-6-18, 285/SLI (185.66)/702/1584/1323: 42.1 fps
Q9650@3.6 GHz, RAM@960-5-5-5-15, 285/SLI (185.66)/702/1584/1323: 42.79 fps
Q9650@3.6 GHz, RAM@960-5-5-5-15, 285/SLI (182.06)/702/1584/1323: 45.7 fps
3DMark06: (limited runs, b/c I only do this at the end when I'm satisfied with the above):
---------
E8600@4.0 GHz, RAM@960-5-5-5-15, 285/SLI (182.06)/702/1584/1323: 19458
\ http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=10521253
E8600@4.0 GHz, RAM@960-5-5-5-15, 260/SLI (182.06)/674/1453/1248: 18877
\ http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=10485753
Notes:
------
a) my 260's are decently overclockable: 17% on the core & shader and 25% on the ram. my gtx 285's are sadly not overclockable at all.
b) i overclock the processors with the built-in "dummy oc". i have had no issues going 20% on either of the two proc's above.
c) i purchased the q9650 with the crazy notion that my performance was somehow being limited by my e8600. i was wrong. in an expensive way. ouch.
d) the 185.66 beta drivers are not ready for prime time. obviously, they are beta, but still.
Issues/Questions:
1) wtf. 285/sli barely eeks out performance increases over 260/sli: 10% over stock 260 and near-neglible over overclocked 260's. serious wtf.
2) should i return the 285's? there's no real other way for me to say it, but i really feel as though i got duped into thinking the 285's would perform better than 260's. seriously. look at the "improvements" above.
3) regarding (b) above: is there a way to read out the voltage/etc settings from the mobo? i may be missing something obvious, but i can't get -all- of them using windows tools (even the nvidia toolset) to correctly identify all of the changes that "dummy oc" is making.
4) i'm hoping someone from EVGA pipes in and either tells me i've got what i can get or that there's something wrong with the cards, but i seriously doubt that it'll be that black and white.
Help! I'm going crazy!
Thanks,
deusued/Will
First: I'm not a performance enthusiast: I'm a hobbyist at best. My most recent foray into performance is the first time since my days in the late 90's with overclocking Celerons in tandem with TNT's and Voodoo's (b/c of marriage, kids).
That said, I'm a career technologist and go pretty deep on this stuff - so, I'm no newbie, but I'm most likely very green in relation to the gurus on this board.
So.. my issue.
I've run through a few sets of hardware components trying to get the most out of my machine. My "quick" benchmark is Crysis v1.2.1, island, GPU benchmark -- my "not so quick" is 3DMark06.
My testing is -not- that scientific, so please be gentle.
Onto the details:
Motherboard: EVGA 780i FTW
\ http://www.newegg.com/Product/...7&Tpk=evga%20780%20ftw
Memory : GSkill 1200
\ http://www.newegg.com/Product/...1201&Tpk=gskill%201200
Video Cards: 2 @ EVGA GTX 260: 896-P3-1260-AR
\ 2 @ EVGA GTX 285 SSC: 01G-P3-1287-AR
Resolution: 1680x1050
Crysis v1.2.1, 1680x1050 0xAAm, Very High (fps are all average for 4 runs)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
E8600@3.33GHz, RAM@1067-6-6-6-18, 260/SLI (182.06)/576/1242/999: 41.7 fps
E8600@3.33GHz, RAM@1067-6-6-6-18, 260/SLI (182.06)/576/1242/1202: 40.5 fps
E8600@3.33GHz, RAM@1067-5-5-5-15, 260/SLI (182.06)/648/1397/1202: 42.3 fps
E8600@4.0 GHz, RAM@960-6-6-6-18, 260/SLI (182.06)/576/1242/999: 42.6 fps
E8600@4.0 GHz, RAM@960-6-6-6-18, 260/SLI (182.06)/600/1293/999: 43.6 fps
E8600@4.0 GHz, RAM@960-6-6-6-18, 260/SLI (182.06)/648/1397/1202: 45.0 fps
E8600@4.0 GHz, RAM@960-5-5-5-15, 260/SLI (182.06)/648/1397/1202: 45.4 fps
E8600@4.0 GHz, RAM@960-5-5-5-15, 260/SLI (182.06)/674/1453/1202: 46.2 fps
E8600@4.0 GHz, RAM@960-5-5-5-15, 260/SLI (182.06)/674/1453/1248: 46.35 fps
E8600@4.0 GHz, RAM@960-6-6-6-18, 285/SLI (182.06)/702/1584/1323: 47.7 fps
E8600@4.0 GHz, RAM@960-5-5-5-15, 285/SLI (182.06)/702/1584/1323: 48.6 fps
E8600@4.0 GHz, RAM@960-5-5-5-15, 285/SLI (182.50)/702/1584/1323: 46.9 fps
E8600@4.0 GHz, RAM@960-5-5-5-15, 285/SLI (185.66)/702/1584/1323: 46.0 fps
Q9650@3.0 GHz, RAM@800-5-5-5-15, 285/SLI (182.06)/702/1584/1323: 40.3 fps
Q9650@3.6 GHz, RAM@960-6-6-6-18, 285/SLI (185.66)/702/1584/1323: 42.1 fps
Q9650@3.6 GHz, RAM@960-5-5-5-15, 285/SLI (185.66)/702/1584/1323: 42.79 fps
Q9650@3.6 GHz, RAM@960-5-5-5-15, 285/SLI (182.06)/702/1584/1323: 45.7 fps
3DMark06: (limited runs, b/c I only do this at the end when I'm satisfied with the above):
---------
E8600@4.0 GHz, RAM@960-5-5-5-15, 285/SLI (182.06)/702/1584/1323: 19458
\ http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=10521253
E8600@4.0 GHz, RAM@960-5-5-5-15, 260/SLI (182.06)/674/1453/1248: 18877
\ http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=10485753
Notes:
------
a) my 260's are decently overclockable: 17% on the core & shader and 25% on the ram. my gtx 285's are sadly not overclockable at all.
b) i overclock the processors with the built-in "dummy oc". i have had no issues going 20% on either of the two proc's above.
c) i purchased the q9650 with the crazy notion that my performance was somehow being limited by my e8600. i was wrong. in an expensive way. ouch.
d) the 185.66 beta drivers are not ready for prime time. obviously, they are beta, but still.
Issues/Questions:
1) wtf. 285/sli barely eeks out performance increases over 260/sli: 10% over stock 260 and near-neglible over overclocked 260's. serious wtf.
2) should i return the 285's? there's no real other way for me to say it, but i really feel as though i got duped into thinking the 285's would perform better than 260's. seriously. look at the "improvements" above.
3) regarding (b) above: is there a way to read out the voltage/etc settings from the mobo? i may be missing something obvious, but i can't get -all- of them using windows tools (even the nvidia toolset) to correctly identify all of the changes that "dummy oc" is making.
4) i'm hoping someone from EVGA pipes in and either tells me i've got what i can get or that there's something wrong with the cards, but i seriously doubt that it'll be that black and white.
Help! I'm going crazy!
Thanks,
deusued/Will