Very strange 3dmark06 scores

Cheezeit

Diamond Member
Apr 21, 2005
3,298
0
76
Hey guys,

I ran 3DMark06 on my new rig with a 7900gs, E6400 @3.2ghz, and 2gigs of ram. I was really shocked when the test finished and I got a score of 2600. That's about half of what I should have received. I ran the test again, and got the same score. Finally, I rebooted the machine, then ran the test again. This time I got 4800.

I thought it was probably just a temporary bug of some sort for not rebooting my machine and dismissed it. Today, I ran 3dmark again and got a 2600 score again! I tried messing with display settings to no avail, only getting 2600 again. Alas, i reboot and get a 4800 score.

Why do I have such a significant difference in 3dmark scores after a reboot? The CPU scores the same on all the tests, but the 7900gs's score doubles after the reboot.

Thanks in advance,
Darren
 

Skeeedunt

Platinum Member
Oct 7, 2005
2,777
3
76
Do you have some utility that's forcing AA/AF? Overheating maybe? Neither sounds quite right though.
 

ScrewFace

Banned
Sep 21, 2002
3,812
0
0
Don't worry about it. FutureMark suggests that you reboot your computer before benchmarking.:)
 

Rottie

Diamond Member
Feb 10, 2002
4,795
2
81
check and disabled background apps running such as virus scanner and anything before you run 3dmark
 

Cheezeit

Diamond Member
Apr 21, 2005
3,298
0
76
Thanks alot for the replies guys :)

The card is not overheating as it is running around 50-60C. Is there a possiblity that rthdrbl would force AA/AF?

As for my OC, the Video card is not overclocked aside from the EVGA factory OC. My Cpu is 17 hours orthos stable at 3.2ghz though.

I have no problem rebooting before benchmarking, but I don't like the fact that I would also perform worse in other 3d tasks like games at seemingly random times unless I reboot.

I've tried turning every background test like antivirus off before running the test, but I still get the low 2k score. I've also tried starting everything I may use up after a reboot, such as itunes, firefox, antivirus, but I'll still get the high 4k score.
 

xSkyDrAx

Diamond Member
Sep 14, 2003
7,706
1
0
Originally posted by: Cheezeit
Thanks alot for the replies guys :)

The card is not overheating as it is running around 50-60C. Is there a possiblity that rthdrbl would force AA/AF?

As for my OC, the Video card is not overclocked aside from the EVGA factory OC. My Cpu is 17 hours orthos stable at 3.2ghz though.

I have no problem rebooting before benchmarking, but I don't like the fact that I would also perform worse in other 3d tasks like games at seemingly random times unless I reboot.

I've tried turning every background test like antivirus off before running the test, but I still get the low 2k score. I've also tried starting everything I may use up after a reboot, such as itunes, firefox, antivirus, but I'll still get the high 4k score.

sometimes 3dmark is picky about your OC speeds but you should at least check your performance at stock speeds both CPU/GPU even if they were factory OC. If it stabilizes then you found your problem.
 

Cheezeit

Diamond Member
Apr 21, 2005
3,298
0
76
Originally posted by: xSkyDrAx
Originally posted by: Cheezeit
Thanks alot for the replies guys :)

The card is not overheating as it is running around 50-60C. Is there a possiblity that rthdrbl would force AA/AF?

As for my OC, the Video card is not overclocked aside from the EVGA factory OC. My Cpu is 17 hours orthos stable at 3.2ghz though.

I have no problem rebooting before benchmarking, but I don't like the fact that I would also perform worse in other 3d tasks like games at seemingly random times unless I reboot.

I've tried turning every background test like antivirus off before running the test, but I still get the low 2k score. I've also tried starting everything I may use up after a reboot, such as itunes, firefox, antivirus, but I'll still get the high 4k score.

sometimes 3dmark is picky about your OC speeds but you should at least check your performance at stock speeds both CPU/GPU even if they were factory OC. If it stabilizes then you found your problem.

I put the GPU clocks back to stock like you said. Since rivatuner requires a reboot, I'm guessing the reboot temporarily fixed the problem. This is because after the reboot at stock speeds, I run slightly slower than factory speeds after a reboot. Also, I've now overclocked the card to 740mem/520core. It runs even faster in 3d mark.

Anyone else have ideas?