Why are my benchmarks so low?

[SoonerJoseph]

I just built a new computer and my benchmarks for 3dmark2001 are a couple thousand behind what I was expecting. I have got between 11,000-11,100 on multiple runs. Could my monitor (around 3 years old) be causing the poor #'s? One problem I did have with the vid card/mobo/PSU is that when I went to turn the computer on a few days after I set all this up, it said that my vid cards' power cable wasn't hooked up. I restarted the computer and haven't seen the message since. Here is my setup:

Soyo KT400 Ultra Platinum
AMD XP1700 (Burnt my 2100 up, should have it replaced in a week or two).
FIC 9700 Pro (324/311) with Cat 3.1 drivers
512 Corsair DDR PC3200
Vantec VA4-C7040 HSF
WD 80 GB 8MB Cache HD
Kingwin case w/ 5 fans
Windows XP Home
DirectX 9 installed

My temp is just fine with this setup. I probably shouldn't worry about a 3dmark score, but when you pay this much for a computer, you expect good benchmarks.

 

[Markfw]

The cpu could be holding you up. I would get a 2400+, they are guaranteed to be a tbred, and my 2700+ runs at 38c oc'ed to 2456 at full load with the same Vantec C7040 you have !!!

 

[selfbuilt]

I presume that the video card's power cable is indeed hooked-up? First thing I'd try is make sure you are running at least at 4X AGP (I presume your mobo supports 8X, but it doesn't really matter). You can check under the Smartgart tab in your advanced display properties (don't worry about fast writes, they won't help). If you are not at least 4X, check your system BIOS settings and enable it.

The other thing is to make sure you have the most recent AGP drivers for you motherboard. If you haven't installed these, I'd recommend uninstalling the graphic drivers, re-install the AGP drivers, and then re-install the Cat 3.1 drivers. Usually the AGP setting and drivers are the culprit for low benchmark scores.