Unusual Furmark Benchmark Results

[imported_Slider]

For some reason, when I overclock my card it gets a lower benchmark score compared to running it stock. However, when I run actual real world benchmarks such as Heaven dx11 benchmark and 3dmark11, my scores go up dramatically when the card is overclocked. The card is not showing any artifacts, glitching, or any other funny business when the card is overclocked.

Here's an example:

Furmark 1080P benchmark preset score:

Stock = 2190
Overclocked= 2058

Heaven dx11 Benchmark Average FPS after running benchmark:

Stock = 33
Overclocked = 38

I didn't include the exact numbers, but my score in 3dmark 11 also gets a nice performance boost while overclocked. Card is a geforce 560ti and I have it overclocked to 1050mV/940mhz core/2200mhz mem.

For the life of me, I cannot understand why the score in furmark goes DOWN when it's overclocked. I have double checked the results. It happens every time. I consider myself fairly tech savvy, and this is just confusing as fuck.

System info:

i5 2500k @ 4.3ghz
Asus p8p67
8GB RAM
GTX 560ti
Crucial m4 128GB SSD
Antec 520W

I have a feeling it's some sort of software issue, but I really can't pinpoint what is causing it. Can anyone shed some light on this?

 

[Silverforce11]

NV has been throttling for power viruses like furmark for a long time via drivers.

 

[Arkadrel]

Probably because furmark is a unreliable benchmarking tool.
At best its a semi decent stability test (but not really, since throtling ect is now in place for both AMD and Nvidia).

your Heaven score go up, thus your overclock > stock.

Run a game or 3Dmark bench to confirm your faster with overclocked than stock if you need to.
However you could just chalk this up to it being "furmark".

 

[imported_Slider]

Interesting, I guess I've kinda taken everything furmark has said to be realistic, guess it's just a shit program?

Btw, can you list any other nice looking benchmark software like heaven that I could run?

 

[ViRGE]

Interesting, I guess I've kinda taken everything furmark has said to be realistic, guess it's just a [bad] program?

To be clear it's not that FurMark is "bad" in respect to the quality of its coding or design, it's that it's specifically intended to maximize the stress on a GPU. NVIDIA and AMD both oppose these kinds of programs because the load is so much higher than a typical game, which is why they're throttled. Hence it's not a problem with the program, rather it's an outcome of it being purposely gimped by drivers. So for your purposes it's not going to be very useful.

 

[Silverforce11]

BF3 apparently is a power virus. It loads GPUs like nuts in MP.

 

[imported_Slider]

To be clear it's not that FurMark is "bad" in respect to the quality of its coding or design, it's that it's specifically intended to maximize the stress on a GPU. NVIDIA and AMD both oppose these kinds of programs because the load is so much higher than a typical game, which is why they're throttled. Hence it's not a problem with the program, rather it's an outcome of it being purposely gimped by drivers. So for your purposes it's not going to be very useful.

ya I see what you mean. I didn't know that software throttling was a thing and relevant to my situation. Guess I have just learned to take certain stress test programs with a grain of salt.

And silver - BF3 runs great on my system. Seems stable overclocked at listed settings and I'm thinking about raising the voltage a little more. Haven't really tried higher voltages than 1.05v on the 560ti.

 

[ctk1981]

What about the kombuster program that MSI provides with the afterburner software? It utilizes the furmark engine and there is specifically an extreme burn in button which prompts a warning about unlocking the power draw and may damage your card blah blah blah? Is this bypassing the throttling when running this setting?

 

[ViRGE]

What about the kombuster program that MSI provides with the afterburner software? It utilizes the furmark engine and there is specifically an extreme burn in button which prompts a warning about unlocking the power draw and may damage your card blah blah blah? Is this bypassing the throttling when running this setting?

Nope, it's entirely driver controlled. NV and AMD can detect any similar programs and throttle them.

 

[ctk1981]

Thanks for the info!

 

[cmdrdredd]

BF3 apparently is a power virus. It loads GPUs like nuts in MP.

Not really...it never loads up as hot as furmark.