Lower 3Dmark scores?

hello,

What could cause 3DMARK06 scores to go down? I used to get scores of ~10100 marks, now I am getting about 200-400 less. This is despite performing things like disk cleanup, making sure there are no 'zombie' programs hiding on my drive, startup program management, Perfect disk defrags (there is literally only 1 excess fragment on C drive, and none on D drive), offline defrags etc etc over and over again. Infact, I have noticed a massive improvement in respsonsiveness, and startup times. Further, my physical system memory usage has plummeted from 47% at idle to 33%. However, I am still getting lower 3DMark scores than when my system was in a much less 'perfect' condition. I'm getting lower scores despite getting higher scores on the CPU test. This obviously means I'm getting lower scores on the SM and the HDR tests (graphics card). What worries me is the fact I have recently had a graphics card replacement (exactly the same model card). Could this be the source of the problem?

Man, have I been unluckly with this system... :D

First off if you have changed graphics card even for the same model you will notice changes in benchmarking software, every GPU and RAM chip is not created equal.

And more to the point why do you even care? 3DMark06 is a synthetic benchmark try playing some games or doing some intensive photo/video editing if you can see a difference in them be more worried/annoyed if you cant then it doesn't really matter does it!

Sorry if that last bit seems a bit harsh, but people worrying about a couple of hundred points in a synthetic benchmarking program just doesn't seem worth worrying about to me unless your system was the highest ever score then you could be annoyed! But somehow I doubt that it was!

I dont think its all that consistent anyway.

I remember I ran a benchmark on it, and I got like 10050 I think. And then I ran it again, about 4 minutes later, just to show the pretty graphics to my mate and how it works, and I got over a 100 less.

I didn't pay much attention because I just assumed its like a 100 metre runner. Sometimes they do it in about 10 seconds sometimes they do it about 6. As long as it performs well when gaming, thats what counts.

p.s. I've been REALLY unlucky with this PC too. I've had problems with almost every component.

200/400 is nothing much to worry about, although I understand where you are coming from, it is good to know that a system is performing as it should whether it be via benchmark or gaming. I would try a clean install of the graphics card drivers, and make sure that aa/af/high quality etc is turned off

Have you changed drivers?

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Originally Posted by AD-15

hello,

What could cause 3DMARK06 scores to go down? I used to get scores of ~10100 marks, now I am getting about 200-400 less. This is despite performing things like disk cleanup, making sure there are no 'zombie' programs hiding on my drive, startup program management, Perfect disk defrags (there is literally only 1 excess fragment on C drive, and none on D drive), offline defrags etc etc over and over again. Infact, I have noticed a massive improvement in respsonsiveness, and startup times. Further, my physical system memory usage has plummeted from 47% at idle to 33%. However, I am still getting lower 3DMark scores than when my system was in a much less 'perfect' condition. I'm getting lower scores despite getting higher scores on the CPU test. This obviously means I'm getting lower scores on the SM and the HDR tests (graphics card). What worries me is the fact I have recently had a graphics card replacement (exactly the same model card). Could this be the source of the problem?

Man, have I been unluckly with this system... :D

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erm I'm disappointed I can't get over 6000 at 1024X768, a bit depressing when you go on the 3dmark site and see that you have only have an average system.

That's the problem with Windows. It just gets bogged down with loads of crap. You can run as many registry cleaners (waste of time and can often causes more problems than it solves IMO) and defraggle your motherboards as much as you want. The longer an OS runs, the slower it generally gets. It's just the way it is. A couple more background processes here, a massive log file there. All it takes for a slightly off score will be a brief spike of processing from another process. All consistency is lost.

The only way to maintain a relative consistency in Windows performance is to wipe it clean and start again, especially if it gets constant usage.

Or to put it another way, will you ever notice a drop of 400 3DMark points without benching?

Got to agreee with this_is_gav.

Perhaps the antivirus definitions file is ever expanding, certainly the registry gets more and more cluttered.

Short of wiping the disk and installing the OS from scratch there probably isnt a lot you can do about it.

OK, thanks so much guys. The PC has actually been in the post several times, it won't be that will it (internal dmg)?

No. If it was damaged a loss of a few 3DMarks wouldn't be the problem, it would be complete instability, things not working, and capacitors rattling around in the bottom of the case.

It could be a different driver. It could be the old card was slightly OC'd or this one is slightly UC'd. I think those are more likely explanations than registry bloat and the like, which IMO wouldn't knock framerates in a synthetic test enough to notice.

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Originally Posted by excalibur2

erm I'm disappointed I can't get over 6000 at 1024X768, a bit depressing when you go on the 3dmark site and see that you have only have an average system.

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The difference is you are presumably running 3dmark with the same settings that you'd use the computer with day in day out. That's certainly how I always use it (and I only get 5600 or so). If you just want a meaningless score then you can do all sorts of things to force lower quality mipmaps/textures etc. etc. which boost the score tremendously but lower the IQ.

hello,

Ok, thanks for the reassurance guys. :D

Rather than making a new topic, I'll just ask here. Can motherboard 'bending' cause damage? For example, when installing add-in card, memory etc...?

Thanks again!

Depends how much you bend it I suppose. I once fitted some components in an old PC when I was really wasted, and I later realised I forgot to put in a couple of the little brass motherboard pin thingies. So it was bending like a .. bendy thing, when I was shoving in the graphics card and stuff.

Its like a twig I suppose. You can bend it and it copes, and then it breaks. As long as it doesnt break or something pop off, its ok :P I dont think bending would affect performance too by the way. Like gav said, if it works it works, if it was damaged, it would do other stuff besides lower a 3d mark score.

p.s. acrobat does not condone the use of twigs as motherboards.

Yeah, providing you've got all the stand-offs in that you can, then generally they can take a fair bit of punishment. I used to hate mounting stuff to mobos when I started building PCs though. The original Athlon and Duron mountings for their original heatsinks were simply awful. I used to break out into a cold sweat mounting those.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by excalibur2

erm I'm disappointed I can't get over 6000 at 1024X768, a bit depressing when you go on the 3dmark site and see that you have only have an average system.

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You should surely be getting higher than that.
I hit 10005 last night and my card isnt O/C'ed at all. The old 8800GTS is still going ok :D