what's my bottleneck?

[eyimbo]

hey guys,

windows XP
ballistic 2X512 on dual channel at PC4000 (What does PC4000 mean?)
GF 6800GS 256
AMD 64 3500+
2X WD cavia in raid 0+2
shuttle board.

thanx guys

 

[WOWchamp]

What problems are you having, that rig should do nicely in most areas save the more intense mutli taksing areas.

 

[endyen]

Looks well balanced to me. Some games may like more ram, as will some encoding tasks.
As to the ram, pc4000 is rated to 250mhz true memory bus. If you are actually running your mem @ pc4000 speed, you may have your cpu OCed to 2.75ghz.
Not much point in setting your mem bus higher than 1:1, as you can usually get better timings with those chips @ 200mhz true mem bus.
Latency usually helps Amd chips more than bandwidth.

 

[eyimbo]

What problems are you having, that rig should do nicely in most areas save the more intense mutli taksing areas.

well i was going over some scores on 3d mark and people with similar set ups have 1000 ish more marks then i do!!!

 

[eyimbo]

i don't understand...

checked my bios and my CPU is clocked at 204Mhz and my mem is clocked at 250... so does this mean i can clock them separately? and if so is there any benefits to that? and if there isn't have i just wasted money on buying PC4000 instead of 3200?

 

[luminaris]

Well, I really don't see anything that could be bottlenecking that machine. What kind of PSU are you using? If it doesn't have enough juice, something may be throttling back. Also, heat will cause your system to throttle back as well. Are you using the stock cooler on your CPU? What are your temps like?

I wouldn't worry too much about your machine not comparing well with others. Each system is different and will perform like non other. The other thing to remember too is, those other machines your comparing yours to, may be OC'd and therefore, are producing better scores. Just a thought.

 

[eyimbo]

wellllll.... i guess that's a good point, heat isn't an issue as far as i know, but i am using a shuttle 300W PSU.... feel stupid..... sorry don't have much space in room.... anyone have any ideas how i can sort this out? i mean 3482 score compared to 4500ish is a joke...

 

[endyen]

i mean 3482 score compared to 4500ish is a joke...

Score in what? If you are talking a 3dmark score, these are often very affected by gfx settings. To benchmark, most people set thier gfx to min quality, max frames.

checked my bios and my CPU is clocked at 204Mhz and my mem is clocked at 250... so does this mean i can clock them separately?

Yes, so it would seem. Try testing, but I doudt the extra bandwidth will do anything. I would set the ram manually to 1:1, and lower the timings a notch. Do you know what your current timings are ? (cas, in bios)
If you are not OCing (probably not a good thing to do in that small a case), you probably did pay too much for your ram. If you can get timings to 2,2,2,6 it will be well worth the money (at least in some people's mind)

 

[eyimbo]

ok, i have how clocked it to DDR 402... dunno why it's 402 and not 400 but... anyways i've tried 2 2 2 3 but it won't even start!!! 🙁 and now i'm at 2.5 6 3 3 ... grrr... i hate myself.

 

[the_guru]

ok, i have how clocked it to DDR 402... dunno why it's 402 and not 400 but... anyways i've tried 2 2 2 3 but it won't even start!!! 🙁 and now i'm at 2.5 6 3 3 ... grrr... i hate myself.

Have you tried 2-2-2-10? (which is by the way much faster than 2-2-2-3 when it comes to AMD 64). tRAS should be 9-11 on AMD 64.

 

[eyimbo]

i don't think i've even got the option to set that....

 

[eyimbo]

but thanx anyways😉

 

[endyen]

Set your timings one lower than they were @ at SPD.
You can put the mem back to auto or by spd to check
Then if it says 3,4,4,9 set them to 2.5, 3,3,8.
The ras that guru was talking about was for the older chips.
The newer controllers are fine with a ras of 5 or 6, if your memory can do it.
Tell us what your "auto, or SPD timings" are, and we will recommend any changes that seem reasonable.
DDR402 says that your mobo gives the system a bump, for slightly better perf. That's fine.

 

[eyimbo]

at 250Mhz it's 3 7 3 3

 

[endyen]

Wierd order, I guess that's your bios. Looks like 2.5,6,3,3 it is then.
Sith spit, I have samsung generic, and it does those timings.
BTW make sure your bios says T1, not T2 for timings.

 

[PCKid777]

Which version of 3DMark? I agree with an earlier post, if you are getting low scores in say 3DMark05, then its your gfx card. I score around 4700-5000 depending on gfx quality and look at my rig!