Why is my 3dmark06 score so much better than my 3dmark05 score?

mfh6375

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Jun 20, 2005
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I ran 3dmark06 and 3dmark05 to test my new eVGA 7900 GTX. It is in a system with a P4 3.6ghz w/HT and 1gb DDR2 4200. Compared to websites, my 06 scores are fairly comparable. But my 05 score sucks. I'll use guru3d's scores as an example.

3dmark06 1280x1024
Guru3d=5235
mine=5122

3dmark05 1024x768
Guru3d=10599
mine=8067

Why would my 05 score lag so far behind? My 06 score is just fine. Isn't 06 more demanding?
Sorry if these are stupid questions. This is actually the first time I have ever ran any 3dmarks.
 

marketsons1985

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Apr 15, 2000
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I thought I remember 05 not testing video capabilities as much as 06...it's CPU limited a lot. IE if you have a good GPU you'll see that more in 06 than 05. That's just IIRC.
 

mfh6375

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Jun 20, 2005
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I thought that 06 tested the cpu and gpu combined, as in how well they work together. I'm sure my cpu bottlenecks my card a bit, but I was expecting it to really show in 06.
 

Cheesetogo

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Jan 26, 2005
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It's because 05 is much more cpu limited than 06. Guru3d was probably using an FX-57 or somthing.
 

Frostwake

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Jan 12, 2006
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Ya, P4 in 05 is crap, but since p4 is crap in games as well, the "right" score is 05 and not 06
 

1Dark1Sharigan1

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Originally posted by: Frostwake
Ya, P4 in 05 is crap, but since p4 is crap in games as well, the "right" score is 05 and not 06

They may not be as good as AMD but to call a 3.6 GHz HT P4 "crap" in games is a little, well ignorant . . .

Anyway, yeah it's true 06 tests both CPU and GPU but 05 is more CPU-limited as mentioned.
 

mfh6375

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Jun 20, 2005
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Originally posted by: 1Dark1Sharigan1
Originally posted by: Frostwake
Ya, P4 in 05 is crap, but since p4 is crap in games as well, the "right" score is 05 and not 06

They may not be as good as AMD but to call a 3.6 GHz HT P4 "crap" in games is a little, well ignorant . . .

He's right. You're being a little ignorant. With your logic, the 7900 GT and x1900xt are crap. If they aren't the absolute fastest on the market then they're crap, right? Anybody who has spent more than three minutes on a pc message board knows that AMD is optimal, but comments like that make you sound like a fanboy.



 

Frostwake

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Jan 12, 2006
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Originally posted by: mfh6375
Originally posted by: 1Dark1Sharigan1
Originally posted by: Frostwake
Ya, P4 in 05 is crap, but since p4 is crap in games as well, the "right" score is 05 and not 06

They may not be as good as AMD but to call a 3.6 GHz HT P4 "crap" in games is a little, well ignorant . . .

He's right. You're being a little ignorant. With your logic, the 7900 GT and x1900xt are crap. If they aren't the absolute fastest on the market then they're crap, right? Anybody who has spent more than three minutes on a pc message board knows that AMD is optimal, but comments like that make you sound like a fanboy.

Well huh... its just that the performance dif between AMD and intel in games is huge, of course if you game at decent settings it wont be that noticeable, and thats his problem with 3dmark05, benching at default tells us only which cpu is better

When i mean "crap" its no crap as in "take it to the nearest trash can" but crap as "BAD value for the performance"
 

mfh6375

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Jun 20, 2005
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We don't need to argue about this. I already agreed that P4 is not as good as AMD. I'm just saying that it isn't crap.

Besides, alot of the newer games seem to work the gpu more than the cpu. Maybe that's why 06 doesn't focus so much on the cpu? I've benchmarked my system on FEAR and COD2 using FRAPS. Depending on which site you look at, my fps is only 3-11 frames slower when it comes to the 7900 GTX benchmarks. And those websites are using higher end AMD processors for their tests. Yeah, I'd be better off with an AMD. But, I think I'm in pretty good shape for now. Not the best, obviously, but definitely not crap.
 

Frostwake

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Jan 12, 2006
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Sorry for being a bit extremist then, I tend to use crap alot more often then i should, depends on what crap is to you :p

Anyway from what ive seen 3dmark 06 seems to favour intel a bit (if you compare it with actual games) and maybe thats why your p4 gets you a score just as good as a top line amd cpu? (Btw im not an amd fan either, old p4 2.4 here :) )