The Great Nvidia / Ati Question

[gilgamesj]

Ok im really confused over this one.

i out frame rate my good buddy in 3dmark2001se by a good few frames ( 10 - 20 in everything ) but when the final score comes about he scores 2000 more than me.

im running a 9700pro and him a gf4ti4400....

anyone understand this?

does this relate to the whole image thing? or is my 3dmark just borked ?

anyone giving an opinion would b top

[Ravens Nest]

Sounds very strange to me, as your out-classing him so much it should then reflect your score..

All i can think of is that it is well known that Nvidia have tweaked drivers that detect when 3Dmarks is running and alter the end score to a higher value, that might be whats happening.

Try going into your folder where 3dmarks is installed and rename the 3dmarks.exe file to something else like 3d.exe or something do the same on your friends machine as well, then run them and see what the resulting 3dmark is.

This will make sure that nvidias & ATI's drivers are not cheating to get there figures higher.

The only other thing you can do is run some games and decide between you & your friend what games run better on which machine.

A long shot is installing his card on your machine and see what 3dmarks score you get then.

But 3Dmarks isnt to important anyway it does not reflect how well games will run on your particular machine, if you ran 3dmarks2003 you would probably beat your mates machine easy.

But to be honest it would still make me worry

Sorry i couldnt be anymore help.

[acidrainy]

check what your max framerate is.....
in 2000 sometimes it limits your card to 60 or 120

ive had this problem whenever not running at absolute stock speeds...

[steve threlfall]

What are the rest of the specs of both machines? if you have a stock 1600 and he has a 2800 barton then theres your answer

[acidrainy]

Originally posted by steve threlfall
What are the rest of the specs of both machines? if you have a stock 1600 and he has a 2800 barton then theres your answer

lol never thought of that one
Can belive i missed it

Oh well its sunday, il let myself off!

[fondie]

it doesn't matter, if you are getting 10-20 fps in all tests, you SHOULD get a higher score no matter what, have you checked the average frame rates in the completed test summary ? are yours still higher in the summary ?

it sounds as though 3dmark is playing up though.

[acidrainy]

can you check your avg fps scores without the registered version?

im sure ive done this before, can't think how to do it of hand :/

[dirtydog]

What I have noticed in 3dmark2001 with a 9700 Pro vs a Ti 4200 (one of my old compare scores), is the 9700 scores slightly less in most game tests but is much faster in Nature, hence a higher overall score. Basically at 1024x768 and on average speed cpu's, with AA/AF off, a 9700 Pro is no faster than a Geforce4 It's only worthwhile if you have a high end cpu and/or use AA/AF.

[steve threlfall]

Originally posted by dirtydog
What I have noticed in 3dmark2001 with a 9700 Pro vs a Ti 4200 (one of my old compare scores), is the 9700 scores slightly less in most game tests but is much faster in Nature, hence a higher overall score. Basically at 1024x768 and on average speed cpu's, with AA/AF off, a 9700 Pro is no faster than a Geforce4 It's only worthwhile if you have a high end cpu and/or use AA/AF.

can you tell us a rough outline of both machines specs then mate?

[dirtydog]

Originally posted by steve threlfall
can you tell us a rough outline of both machines specs then mate?

My machine is a Celeron 1.4.. scored 8902 with a Ti 4200..
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=4011988

Another Celeron 1.4 machine, 9700 Pro, scored 9719.. but most game fps are lower..
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=4812629


Have a look on the ORB.. compare Athlon, P4 and Celeron cpu's around the 1.4-1.5GHz level with a 9700 Pro.. the difference between fps scores from a Geforce4 are negligible.

[Ravens Nest]

Have you tried my suggestion about changing the 3dmarks.exe file to another name? if so was there any difference.

I noticed that you're mate has Windows XP, and you have Windows 98 that might be some of the reason for slowdown.

Also do you have all the motherboard drivers installed, especially the GART driver, they should have come with the PC.

And going by 3DMarks you have a

ASUSTeK Computer INC.
Mobo Model
TUSL2-C

But i checked there website and there are no new MB drivers except a new BIOS and a new sound drivers.. oh well.

Perhaps you could try installing XP on your machine, it's very expensive to buy though

Try the new Catalyst video drivers, see if they increase your benchmark score also make sure Smartgart is not messing up with the drivers as well.
As this could turn off AGP or lower it causing loss of speed.

http://downloads.driverheaven.net/om...omega_2616.exe

[gilgamesj]

hmm, i have been wondering about the agp slot, i dunno if my psu is insufficient to really power my board processor a 9700pro and the various tit bits i got inside ( 350w )

my 3dmark is 12k, he scores around 13.5k

its real odd, our systems are near identical otherwise other than i have a kd7 he a nf2-s.

im running a barton 2500 at 2.2ghz, him a TB 1700+ at 2.2ghz. real odd..

ill try changing the exe name m8, tnx for that.

[Ravens Nest]

No problem gilgamesj.

I think i know why he gets better 3dmarks scores than you..

It's probably because he has an abit nf2-s which is a nforce2 motherboard, which if he uses two memory slots then he has dual-channel the latency will be a lot lower giving him faster operations also when two or more slots are used the PC go's from 64bit memory bandwidth (which you have) to 128bit bandwidth which increases speed which he probably has done.

Thats one of the main reasons people buy nforce2 other than being very easy to overclock.

As you have the abit kd7 which is VIA KT400 the memory timing isnt as good .

Also i noticed you said he has a 1,700@2,200 and you have a barton at 2,200 well i'm not 100% sure but his is probably slightly faster as the barton are a little slower but have larger cache.

You could try upgrading the BIOS on your motherboard, and altering the memory in your bios to more aggressive timings that will certainly help get you a higher score.

Also check to see if he is overclocking the FSB perhaps he has the settings at 9 X 200 and you probably have yours at 10.5 X 166..

If he has the that's like an overclock in itself, leaving your pc behind quite easily..

But if you have not done a BIOS upgrade, then i would recommend it as the memory timings normally get better as the Motherboard matures and they release newer BIOS's to reflect that..

(But be very careful, as there is a danger when upgrading the bios
of it going wrong and leaving the MB dead!!)

Just a few thoughts