Reasonable 3dMark06 Score for OCd CPU and GPU? Possible Bottleneck?

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hugoender

hugoender

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Nov 7, 2009
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My Specs:
OS: Windows 7 64-bit Professional
Memory: 4GB DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) - 4 x 1GB
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (Overclocked to 2.889GHz from 2.5GHz)
GPU: NVIDIA XFX Geforce 7950GT 256MB (Overclocked to Core/Memory of 670MHz/800MHz from 570MHz/730MHz)
HDD: Seagate 250GB HDD @ 7200RPMs
Monitor: LG 22" Widescreen running at 1600x1050

My 3dMark06 Scores:
Score: 5867
SM 2.0: 2470
SM 3.0: 2418
CPU: 1914

Now my questions are:
■Is this a reasonable score for such a setup?
■Does the fact that my CPU score is lower than my GPU score mean that my CPU is the bottleneck at this point?
 
Solution
4Ryan6
I 2nd englandr753s suggestion to roll back to XP, if you were already having issues before Win7 then you could have some corrupted GPU drivers or have upgraded your Nvidia drivers past your cards capabilities.

Even though new Nvidia drivers can be used on your GPU doesn't mean your GPU will perform its best with them, I had 2 7800GTX that were real finiky about the drivers you used with them.

Nvidia has a driver archive and I suggest drivers that were released optimized for your particular GPU takes some research on your part but will yield good results for you.

Your 3DM06 score is normal for your hardware configuration but it will improve if you find the perfect GPU driver release for your hardware and roll back to WinXP, even...
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Dude, no offense, but your system sucks balls.

Its time for an upgrade.

I would reccomend testing with 3dm01 because that will give you a more acurate score with such low end hardware. And no, a higher cpu score than GPU score does not mean that the GPU is a bottleneck.

I would call it a reasonable score, but that is some old ass hardware.
 
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lol I know it's old. I built it in the Summer of 2007 as a budget gaming rig (whole thing cost me $600) and the fact that I can still run games decently makes me happy. Those $600 have gone a long way 😀

However, now I am running into issues with games that have been running fine until recently. Team Fortress 2 is one example. When it came out it ran very smooth with all settings to the max. Now, not so much. I am not sure if over time they have updated the game with new graphic technologies that my card cannot handle or what, but I find it really weird. Even when I set everything to the lowest quality and resolution, I still get shitty performance. That is why I am overclocking now and looking at my CPU as a possible bottleneck.
 
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lol I need to reward myself with a car first so I can get to work and get paid (to fund future rewards).

It is not my HDD nor my TF2 installation since I have already reformatted my drive and thus also reinstalled TF2. I think it's either the updates or the updated drivers. I think video card companies do it on purpose. The more you update your drivers, the less compatible they are with your aging card and therefore, the crappier the performance. Whoever said to keep your drivers up to date works for NVIDIA 😀

Anyways, back on track... so does this score look okay? My motherboard only supports AM2 sockets and so I am pretty much at a dead end as far as upgrading my cpu is concerned. If I were to upgrade my CPU I would also have to change my motherboard. I think I will squeeze maybe one more year out of this rig before I build a new one.
 
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it is an am2 system

i had athlon x2 4800+ that was socket 939 but was forced into an upgrade 3 months ago when the motherboard failed. It was a really good processor and I had intended it last me for another 2 years. I ran games at screen res 1600 x 1200.

I now have q6600 which of course is much better, but would preferred to have retained my athlon x2 4800+ for another 2 years (for cost reasons)
 
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No it is an AM2 socket. The issue started while I was on Windows XP and has continued on over to Windows 7. I didn't intend for this thread to be about my game issues. Rather, just a discussion about whether the 3dMark06 score was reasonable for my setup and if the CPU could be a possible bottleneck.

I want to know whether my next upgrade should be a video card or if I need a new motherboard altogether in order to get a new CPU.
 
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Tbh your cpu and video card is a fair match up. It wouldn't be a worthwhile upgrade unless you did your mobo, cpu, ram, video card and probably power supply depending on which one you have.

You just have to ask yourself if its worth spending 600+ bucks to get more frame rates. It's definitely not worth it if getting your benchmark higher is all you are concerned about IMO...
 
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I noticed you overclocked the cpu. Did you do anything with your ram?
Click to expand...

I did but i don't think I messed with the timings just because I didn't understand it too much. I may have changed clocks and voltages.

As for upgrading for the sake of benchmark scores... that is not what I am after. I want real life performance. If it wasn't for the fact that I am not getting playable framerates in my games, I would not even consider upgrading. I guess I will just stick with my current setup until a game I absolutely must play (Starcraft 2) comes out and my computer cannot play it correctly.
 
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I 2nd englandr753s suggestion to roll back to XP, if you were already having issues before Win7 then you could have some corrupted GPU drivers or have upgraded your Nvidia drivers past your cards capabilities.

Even though new Nvidia drivers can be used on your GPU doesn't mean your GPU will perform its best with them, I had 2 7800GTX that were real finiky about the drivers you used with them.

Nvidia has a driver archive and I suggest drivers that were released optimized for your particular GPU takes some research on your part but will yield good results for you.

Your 3DM06 score is normal for your hardware configuration but it will improve if you find the perfect GPU driver release for your hardware and roll back to WinXP, even though you can run Win7 on your hardware, doesn't mean it will perform well at all.

What is the performance score Win7 is rating your computer at?

That should tell you something right there!

Upgrading is a whether you can afford it or not, and seems from your statements its not a priority to you at this time, so getting by until you can upgrade makes the most sense to me.

I would roll back to WinXP period and go back with the GPU drivers on your GPU instalation disk, then look in the nvidia driver archives for drivers probably 90 series and below for your best performance, you can always upgrade later.

Getting your games working again should be your priority, it would be mine, 3DM06 favors Intel over AMD anyway so don't put too much stock in that, your gaming is what matters.


Performance Tip; If WinXP is the 32bit OP/SYS you'll get better performance dropping your RAM configuration back to 2G in the primary slots, 4G 4 x 1G configuration occupying all 4 slots is not a WinXP 32bit sweet spot, 2G is.

Running WinXP 32bit 4G 2 x 2G in primary slots works good but 4G 4 X 1G is a performance killer, that is from my own experience testing the setups running WinXP 32bit both ways.

Also get rid of all built up dust bunnies, and make absolutely positive your OC is stable.
 
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Solution
The problem was occurring under XP 32-bit as well. I get a performance score of 5.9 in Win7. I thought that was good since the max is 7 but correct me if I am wrong.

As for rolling back to an old driver that gives better performance: it's funny because I was just mentioning that to my friend last night. This is probably what I will do today. I thought this was a problem since the drivers the NVIDIA site was telling me to download for my 7 series card was turning out to be the same drivers that users with other series card were being told to download as well. Therefore, the driver I was getting was almost a generic/general driver that was most likely optimized for the newer cards.

If an OC being stable means it can run Prime95, Memtest, and 3dMark06 without excessive temps, failures, or artifacts then yes my OC is stable.

Thank you for your post. Now that someone else has mentioned rolling back my drivers after me thinking the same thing, I will go ahead and do that.

One question though: If I were to want to keep my Win7 64-bit OS, would going back to an older driver cause problems since it wasn't made for Win7?
 
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Most likely so. It means it hasn't been tested for the current OS and is not known. You may or may not have issues but most likely would. If you are going to go back to XP what do you have to lose to try and install the older driver just to see what happens?..
 
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Well to be honest I don't really want to go back to XP. I would rather stay with Win7. Therefore, I will try resolving the issue with Win7 and if not then I will just give up gaming until I can upgrade (there aren't any games that I MUST play just yet so its okay).
 
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I understand your Win7 desire if you've already spent your money and purchased a copy of it, but if you're running the Win7 RC [Release Candidate], its a dead end road anyway, that free ride will end.

Anyhow if you're determined to stay the Win7 course and you're running the 64bit version, disregard my memory performance tip and run the full 4G setup of memory you have, 64bit will take full advantage of the 4G even 4 x 1G modules.

That tip was for WinXP 32bit OP/SYS, since you're going to stay the Win7 course, best of luck to you.

By the way nvidia archived drivers will not work with Win7, so disregard that suggestion too.

GPU: NVIDIA XFX Geforce 7950GT 256MB (Overclocked to Core/Memory of 670MHz/800MHz from 570MHz/730MHz)
Monitor: LG 22" Widescreen running at 1600x1050

However, now I am running into issues with games that have been running fine until recently. Team Fortress 2 is one example. When it came out it ran very smooth with all settings to the max. Now, not so much. I am not sure if over time they have updated the game with new graphic technologies that my card cannot handle or what, but I find it really weird. Even when I set everything to the lowest quality and resolution, I still get shitty performance. That is why I am overclocking now and looking at my CPU as a possible bottleneck.
Click to expand...

Obviously your monitor is a late comer to the party, an LG 22" LCD with a 1600x1050 default resolution, seriously trumps a 7950GT w 256mb memory, even OC'd.

I would guess your problems actually started after you got your new monitor and started trying to game at those resolutions with a 7950GT graphics card, but thats just a wild guess.
 
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Yeah I purchased Win7 Pro 64-bit and am liking it so far and thus do not want to go back to XP. I am sticking with the 4GB and you are right, the archived drivers don't work with Win7.

That being said, am I better off just upgrading my video card or will my CPU bottleneck my system and not really let me benefit from a new card?
 
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I would get a good video card and be done with it. I would suggest maybe the ATI 5750/5770 due to it's dx11 capable, cheaper than the other dx11 cards and will be plenty of power for your current system. You could get an AMD 6000 X2 for about 55 bucks and sell your 4800 on ebay. This would give you a little boost on the cpu end without breaking the bank.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103772&cm_re=amd_6000-_-19-103-772-_-Product

Get an aftermarker cpu cooler of your choice.

 
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Well I can only go with NVIDIA cards.

As for the aftermarket cooler, when I decided to overclock I bought a Xigmatek (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003) and it works beautifully (dropped CPU temp by about 10 degrees C)

Thank you for your suggestion. Seeing as it is only $55 I may consider it... not sure yet. I kind of don't want to put any more money into something that I will have to get rid of in my next upgrade step (like if I get a new motherboard). A video card can go from one motherboard to the next with no problem which is why I will most likely go that route.
 
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No problem. If you did get the 6000 x2 you could get 30 bucks for yours on ebay no problems so that would only be about 25 bucks for a slight upgrade that could get rid of a few hickups even with the new video card.

At least get the new video card as you stated to start with then you can consider the 6000 x2 if you still have some issues...
 
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Are you familiar with the 8 series cards? The GTX 275 is equal to 3 8800 GTX Ultras. So even 1 GTX 260 is a pretty powerful card. The GTX 220 is meh and the GTX 210 is basic video and thats about it. The lowest card you want to go in the 200 series will be the GTX 260.

Why can you only go Nvidia? SLI? Don't let that make you stay with Nvidia if theres a good deal on a comparable ATI card. I think single card solutions are better anyway and I have had tri sli so I do know a little about what I'm talking about with that. HD 5770 or HD 5850...
 
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Well I just assumed that having an NVIDIA nForce 590 motherboard would get along better with an NVIDIA card than an ATI card. To be honest, until now, I thought I couldn't use ATI with my motherboard but now that you got me thinking about it, that assumption had no basis on anything.

However, I have had ATI before and they have left a sour taste in my mouth in the past so I may just stick with NVIDIA.

With that said, does it matter that my motherboard is not PCI Express 2.0? I know I can technically still use PCI-E 2.0 cards since it's backwards compatible but will that cause another bottle neck (in bandwidth)? And I see that some GTX 200 series cards say they support OpenGL 3.0 and other says OpenGL 2.1. Should I be worried about this? For example, there are two cards on newegg, both of which are GTX 250's and one says OpenGL 2.1 and the other OpenGL3.0.

Sorry if this thread is getting off topic. But thank you all for your time and input.

EDIT:Oh and I have an Enermax 500W PSU... does this need upgrading as well in order to use such a card? Better yet, can someone tell me how to figure out how much wattage you need in a PSU depending on your components? How do you figure that out?
 
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1st off don't overlook ATI as they have a lot of great choice cards to fit most any budget. Being that you are using Windows 7 its kind of a shame to buy a dx10 card when you could get a dx11 but only from ATI for now.

The PCI 2.0 backwards compatibility question is no issue. I wouldn't worry about that.

Here's a psu tier list ranging from top tier to bottom tier. I think your psu is fine unless you go dual cards.

http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx

Here's a power supply calculator that lets you select your current components to give you an estimate of your power needs:

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

Hope that helps... 😉

 
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Best P/S rule of thumb according to Johnny Guru is, if the P/S has all the necessary connectors you need for your setup without using any adapters, the P/S is designed to handle it.

For EX, a 260GTX takes 2 6pin PCI-E, if you're stuck on Nvidia I wouldn't go any lower than a 260GTX, but does your P/S have 2 6pin PCI-E connectors?

ATI will work just fine with the Nvidia chipset, in a single card setup, as englandr said, if you get a better deal for your money with an ATI card? Well its your money.

If Nvidia is your choice just make sure the P/S can handle it, or the upgrade road gets longer.
 
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