Great System!! REALLY BAD 3DMARK06 SCORE??

[dragoncyber]

Hello Fellow TechHeads,

I have been building custom computers for the better part of 15 years, and typically have no questions when it comes to my own rigs, but honestly with this problem I am stumped, there are only two issues that I think could be the reason for my computers poor performance, but before we get in to deep, here are the specs:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.4Ghz
OverClocked to 3.0 Ghz (very stable)
Zalman 9700 CPU Cooler
(Maintains Idle Temp of 34 Deg Cel)
(Load temp of 48-50 Deg Cel on average)
4Gb of Corsair XMS2 DDR2 Performance Memory(800 spd)
2x BFG 8800GT OC 512mb /SLI OC'd to 700/1900
BFG 680i SLI MotherBoard (1333mhz FSB) "Original Bios"
COOLER MASTER 850W SLI Certified Power Supply
Creative Fatality1 X-FI Soundcard
2 x Samsung SATA DVD-R/RW optical drives
3 x Sata2 WD 250gb HDD w/16mb Cache in Raid (NVRaid On Board)
(Striped for Performance)
3 x 120mm Antec Red LED Fans
2 x 80mm Antec Red LED Fans


On paper the system looks like it should rock...Unfortunately it doesn't even roll.
I went out and completely rebuilt my system this weekend, going from a 939 Socket Dual Core
AMD Opteron 2.8 ghz (OC'd)DDR system with 4gb of ram and an ASUS A8n Sli-Premium MOBO. Swapped
only the MOBO, RAM and Processor, reinstalled WinXp Pro, all the updates done, and all the latest drivers
for all my hardware. Nothing installed on the Hard Drive except WINDOWS and 3dMARK06. I overclocked my
processor to 3.0 Ghz after some extensive testing, I also Overclocked the VideoCards to what I have read was stable all over the internet (700/1900) for my 8800GT OC's, and ran some stress tests on the cards to check for temps, they ran fine. Now heres the KICKER.. I can only manage a 3DMARK06 Score of about 10,700.

What the Hell I kept saying to myself?? My old system with slower ram, a slower processor, and a 3 year old MOBO got a score of 11,600 with the same setup, and the worst part is that the 3DMARK scores for the processor showed virtually no improvements, going from a slower Dual to a faster Quad, and No Improvements?? Hmmm.

I tried tweaking everything, adjusting overclocking up, down, reinstalling Nvidia's latest drivers for the 680i and the 8800GT's, swapping ram, and back again. I even installed some games and it ran rock solid with excellent performance. I even reinstalled 3DMARK06 again, to see if anything changed. Nothing...I got the same scores after all the changes.. Now I have read online that some guys with virtually the same setup are pulling 15000+ or higher in 3DMARK, so what am I doing wrong?? The only thing I havent done yet is update the MOBO bios. OH and the funny thing is that when I look in 3DMARK it doesn't show my cards as SLI'd but in windows it shows they are, and in NVIDIA control panel it shows they are. I have the purchased version of 3DMARK06, (advanced) not the professional version..Is it possible that 3DMARK isn't recognizing both cards and running scores for only one??
I know I have SLI configured correctly..SO WHAT GIVES?? The only other issue could be the 850watt psu isn't pushing enough juice to keep the system running optimally, but I doubt it, this powersupply is a tank. I called BFG Tech Support (@ 11:30 pm eastern time heh) and they were nice but couldn't help me with my problem, but said they didn't think it was the powersupply.

Any advice at all would be helpful guys..thanks!!

 

[iancarnage]

dude, im having the same problem. I was getting almost up to 20k on 3dmark06 with vista. Now with XP and hacked DX10 I can only get a 14 and sometimes a 13.

 

[Kari]

well you could remove one of the cards and run 3dmark again just to see if it has any effect... cause imho it really should show up as SLI system in 3dmark if it is using both of them

 

[Kari]

wow holycrapbatman, this is an OLD thread, o why did you do it iancarnage?

 

[kad]

Well Dragon
What is your OS ??
Try with 2 memory sticks only