Huge drop in 3dmark vantage score when changing Graphic card

[dadude941]

Hello PPL
I have a home built desktop with the following configuration:
Thermaltake Kandalf LCS liquid cooling case
850 watt Antec PSU
6 gigs of DDR3 ram
XFX 790i Ultra SLI mobo
XFX 8800 GT Alpha dog edition
Intel core 2 duo 1.86 ghz

With this configuration I got a 3dmark vantage score of
total: 22 249
GPU: 22 689
CPU: 21 002.8

Now here's my problem.
I have recently upgraded my 8800 GT to a XFX HD 5870 standard edition.
Here are the scores with it:
total: 9857
GPU:32 291
CPU: 3196

Somehow, my processor produced one seventh of the score. Can anybody explain this to me?
Apart from 3DMARK Vantage, the upgrade has improved my FPS in a couple of games like Team Fortress 2, HL2, street fighter 4.

 

[dadude941]

Please, this is really Urgent

 

[mpavao81]

your 3dmark vantage score is higher than my system, even on your 1.8ghz system than my i7 system. something isnt right. Something doesnt add up when a 1.8ghz dual core/8800 GT beats a i7 860 @ 3.8ghz/ and 5870.



And mine is still lower at 4ghz on i7 860

 

[dadude941]

i know, its weird... Gahhhh

 

[dadude941]

i think your hd 5870 might have a bit of a low score...

 

[mpavao81]

Unless you were using a older version of 3dmark on your first set up.

 

[dadude941]

nope they were both from 3dmark vantage latest version

 

[dadude941]

just downloaded it from futuremark.com

 

[mpavao81]

What settings did you use?

 

[dadude941]

entry

 

[dadude941]

im running a performance test right now

 

[dadude941]

Here are the results at performance lvl:
Total: 7462
GPU: 12 964
CPU: 3283

 

[keithlm]

Did your old 8800 use GPU Physx?

(The ATI 5870 does not.)

In other words.... you'd have to disable Physx with your old GPU and re-run the test to really see what your CPU would score.

Or just look in the ORB to see what the same CPU would score.

EDIT: In the orb a C2D of about 1.86Ghz would give you about a CPU score of 3270-ish.

 

[dadude941]

thanks, I didnt think of the physx...
Ill fit it back together tomorow then update this thread

Thanks for the advise

 

[jerreece]

Also keep in mind, a dual-core @ 1.8Ghz is going to restrict the overall score of your ATI 5870. So keep that in mind if/when you compare your GPU scores to anyone else.

 

[dadude941]

a bottleneck?

 

[mpavao81]

yea hes saying that the 1.8ghz dual core cant keep up to the speed of a 5870 which causes a bottleneck.

 

[jerreece]

Basically, the CPU has to be fast enough to feed the video card enough data to keep it running at top speed. Your CPU won't be able to keep up, and therefore your new video card will not get the chance to run full throttle as it'll be waiting on the CPU for new data.

Therefore, your GPU scores will be lower than they should be in any benchmarks you do. To fix that problem (if it bothers you at all) you'll need to update to a very fast dual-core, or upgrade to a good Quad Core processor to get the full abilities out of that ATI 5870.

With modern games, generally you want to hit 3Ghz or more to ensure your CPU does not limit your GPU.

 

[dadude941]

i7 920: will that be enough?

 

[mpavao81]

i7 920: will that be enough?

yes any i7 or i5 series will be more than enough, even a core i3 would be good.

 

[Joshwaa]

i7 920: will that be enough?

Ok Here are my Scores when I had my old processor the Pentium D 940. With a ATI HD5850

Peformance Setting

P7300

Gpu 11654
Cpu 3441

See the problem my GPU score should be much higher but the processor is holding it back.

Also you must uninstall all Your PhysX software and reinstall with the ATI. This will fix most of your problems.

I will post my scores with the Intel Q9400 in the same rig tomorrow.