Possible benchmark glitch??

[rx7000]

I just bought a Dell series 600 xps, which I configured with two 7900 Gs Cards in sli, I benchmarked it using 3dmark05 (demo version) and it threw down a score of 7000... I have a system with a 6800 GT that threw down 5000... Now my question is, does 3dmark05 demo take advantage of the sli in its tests or is it only using one card?? (also as a side note my old system had a pentium 4 3.0, this computer has a dual core pentium 3.0 x2, so one can safely assume the cpu part of the test is at least as good if not better (Not sure how well 3dmark utilizes dual cores if at all, so its a safe assumption to show that both these cards together only throwing out a 7000 sucks).

(Personally I think the system is weak as hell espically for how much it cost so im already in the process of returning it, but just needed to ask to confirm my assumptions).

Now assuming that its just a bad run and nothing is wrong, that must mean the 7900 GS is a crippled card?? I was under the impression just one 7900 card should give you 8-10k in 3d05. Do you have to jump to the 7900 gt / gtx to throw down the 10k + scores?

Any feed back is appreciated, Im looking for a strong system so I can start playing new age games in high detail obviously the xps for 2500 failed horribley. So im probably going to build another from scratch, I was just hoping to avoid the whole process of building another computer.

Thanks in advance to anyone able to contribute / offer advice, cheers!!

 

[SidVicious]

What were you expecting ? XPS or not, that's a Dell you're dealing with.

If you wanted performance for a resoneable price, you should have built your own computer instead.

 

[rx7000]

Been there done that, Ive been out of the loop for awhile didnt want to have to do all kinds of crazy research etc, but I guess ya pay the price in the end. I dont know I might even keep it, a bunch of people who used my comp today were amazed at some of the frame rates and settings I was using, but im still disapointed, Ive actually heard alot of great things about them which is one reason I was interested in buying it. I can always toss some better videocards in it down the road, Ill have to sleep on it as their customer care department isnt open till monday anyways.

 

[Heyyou27]

I didn't know there was a 7900GS for desktops; what are the specs of the cards? And the Dell comment, he was saying you overpaid for crappy performance, which usually seems to be a standard for Dells. (Or believed to be by many)

I say download the newest Nvidia beta drivers from http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_downloads_rel70betadriver.html

 

[Flakes]

Been there done that, Ive been out of the loop for awhile didnt want to have to do all kinds of crazy research etc, but I guess ya pay the price in the end. I dont know I might even keep it, a bunch of people who used my comp today were amazed at some of the frame rates and settings I was using, but im still disapointed, Ive actually heard alot of great things about them which is one reason I was interested in buying it. I can always toss some better videocards in it down the road, Ill have to sleep on it as their customer care department isnt open till monday anyways.

ive heard reports that all the software that dell installs before giving you your machine can slow it right down and then even after uninstalling and taking things off the startup list the computer still doesnt give the result a brand new computer would of the same spec.

hence im gonna tell you to format and reinstall the same version of windows(u should have a key located on your dell box, dont use the restore disk)

p.s

ive just read a thread with very bad english and seem to adopted some of it.

 

[rx7000]

Yeah when I first got the pc I spent a few hours getting rid of all the dell crap and bloatware etc, You should have seen the start up and services in the msconfig, it was laughable. Heres the system specs.

Pentium D 930 3.0 2mb
2 Gig DDR2 667 5300
320gb Sata 2 Hard Drive 7200 16mb
Xp Pro
Sound Blaster X-Fi


Heres one of my issues to, the first game I installed and was gearing up to play was battlefield 2, but for some reason its running awful, and then I had the poor 3dmark score, but after installing cs / dod source, not only are those games running awsome, but im getting like triple the score Ive gotten before. I tried checking other peoples like systems in 3dmark05 but its not giving me any, saying none found. Trying some new drivers now ill also try 3dmark06, going to see if I can find some hard information on what it uitilizes as far as hardware goes also.

*quick edit, 91.28 Forceware drivers installed, 8753 in 3dmark05, Thanks for the link to those, when I first got the comp I tried to get the newest ones from nvidia but they didnt support the 7900 GS.

 

[Kholonar]

It's very difficult getting information on what the 7900gs is. Some reports say it's an agp card, others a pci express. Reports say it's a card for laptops, others for desktops. Some say it's clocked at 375Mhz, others at 450MHz. There's even confusion about the pixel pipelines. What I can see is that for a long time nvidia didn't support it with their drives, it can't be overclocked and is availaboe to system builders like dell only.

It would be great if you could provide us with information on the card. Use a program like pc wizard or something. It should be able to diagnose the card and give you comparison performance figures to a 7900gt.

 

[rx7000]

Gladly provide any information I can, the cards I have have 256 MB of meory each, they are Pci-X, going to look for pc wizard now and will update the post once I get some results from that. Unfortunetly the drivers I used for the 3dmark tests arnt certified so I cant publish the results.

Main Test Results (3dmark05)
3DMark Score 7283 3DMarks

CPU Score 6169 CPUMarks

Detailed Test Results

Game Tests
GT1 - Return To Proxycon 30.6 fps

GT2 - Firefly Forest 22.1 fps

GT3 - Canyon Flight 36.7 fps

CPU Tests
CPU Test 1 3.8 fps

CPU Test 2 4.5 fps


Main Test Results (3dmark06)
3DMark Score 5938 3DMarks
SM 2.0 Score 2773 Marks
SM 3.0 Score 2571 Marks
CPU Score 1458 Marks

Detailed Test Results
Graphics Tests
1 - Return to Proxycon 23.247 FPS

2 - Firefly Forest 22.973 FPS

CPU Tests
CPU1 - Red Valley 0.486 FPS

CPU2 - Red Valley 0.699 FPS

HDR Tests
1 - Canyon Flight (SM 3.0) 27.062 FPS

2 - Deep Freeze (SM 3.0) 24.363 FPS

 

[rx7000]

Here is the PC Wizard Analysis of the card.

General Information :
Manufacturer : Nvidia Corp (Nvidia Corp)
Model : Nvidia Corp
Bus Type : PCI-Express
Total Memory : 256 MB
Texture Memory : 524 MB
Processor : GeForce 7900 GS
Converter : Integrated RAMDAC
Refresh Rate (min/max) : 60/60 Hz

GPU Information :
Number of GPU : 2
Codename : G72
Revsion : A2
Bus : 128-bit
Memory Type : DDR-SDRAM
GPU Frequency : 450 MHz
Memory Frequency GPU : 2 x 660 MHz
Memory Bandwidth : 21120 MB/s

GPU Configuration :
2D Core : 450 MHz
2D Memory : 660 MHz
3D Performance Core : 450 MHz
3D Performance Memory : 660 MHz
3D Reduced Power Core : 450 MHz
3D Reduced Power Memory : 660 MHz
Anti Aliasing Mode : OFF
Frames Buffered : 3
ForceWare Version : 6.14.10.9131
Technology SLi Enabled : Yes
SLi Mode : Single CPU
Number of GPU SLI : 2

Video Bios Information :
Date : 02/27/06
Version : Version 5.71.22.14.09
ID : Version 5.71.22.14.09

i2C Bus Information :
Number of Bus : 2

General Features :
Width : 370 mm
Height : 296 mm
Pixel per inch : 96x96 dpi
bits per pixel : 32
Colour Bits/Planes : 1
Brushes : 4294967295
Pens : 4294967295
Markers : 0
Device Fonts : 0
Device Colours : 4294967295
Clip Output to Rectangle : Yes
Hardware Acceleration : Yes

Blend and Shade Capabilities :
GradientFill Rectangle : No
GradientFill Traingle : No
Per Pixel AlphaBlend : Yes
Premultiplied Alpha : No

Raster Capabilities :
Banding : No
Transfer Bitmaps : Yes
Bitmap >64 KB : Yes
Fonts larger than 64 K : Yes
DIBs : Yes
DIBTODEV : Yes
Flood Fills : Yes
Scaling : No
StretchBlt : Yes
StretchDIB : Yes

Curves Capabilities :
Chord Arcs : Yes
Circles : Yes
Elipses : Yes
Interiors : Yes
Pie Wedges : Yes
Rounded Rectangles : Yes
Styled Borders : Yes
Wide Borders : Yes
Wide, Styled Borders : Yes

Lines Capabilities :
Interiors : Yes
Markers : Yes
Polylines : Yes
Polymarkers : Yes
Styled : Yes
Wide : Yes
Wide, Styled : Yes

Polygonal Capabilities :
Interiors : Yes
Alternate Fill Polygons : Yes
Winding Fill Polygons : Yes
Rectangles : Yes
Scan Lines : Yes
Styled Borders : Yes
Wide Borders : Yes
Wide, Styled Borders : Yes

Text Capabilities :
Stroke Precision : Yes
Stroke Clip Precision : Yes
90° Character Rotation : No
Any Angle Character Rotation : No
Independant X-Y Scaling : No
Double Weighted Characters : No
Italic : No
Underline : Yes
Strikeout : Yes
Raster Fonts : Yes
Vector Fonts : Yes

Color Management Capabilities :
CMYK : No
Gamma Ramp : Yes
ICM Device : No

 

[Kholonar]

Ok, those scores seem reasonable, they're higher than my single 7800gt but a significant margin but they are perhaps a bit low for a 7900 series sli system. It would still be good to know the vertex processors, pixel pipelines, memory speed and core clock speed.

I don't think you have much to worry about your system, it seems to work fine. I don't know what your memory is (size or speed) but if it's less than 2gb battlefield 2 might complain. Oh, and I haven't a clue what a dual core pentium 3.0GHz X2 is. There are pentium Ds and AMD X2s. This leads me to think you have a 3GHz pentium D 930 or 830 unless what you were saying is that you have 2 dual core pentium processors. Anywhay, whatever the cpu, they are pretty good.

EDIT: The 7900gs's specs look quite good, pretty equivalent to the gt version.

 

[rx7000]

Pentium D 930 3.0 2mb
2 Gig DDR2 667 5300
320gb Sata 2 Hard Drive 7200 16mb
Xp Pro
Sound Blaster X-Fi


.

I have the feeling the 7900 GS is the ghetto bargin version of the 7900 series. I wouldnt be suprised to find out its running half the pixel pipeliens or something. But I am much more pleased with the new 3dmark score than I was with the old one. I think im going to end up keeping the system I dont wanna go back to cs and dod at minimum settings. Hopefully once the new age end all end of d10 cards come out itll be time for mandatory upgrades anyway

But on a side note if anybody wants to see any other benchies or whatever on the 7900 GS, give me a holler, ill gladly throw it down.

 

[Flakes]

what worries me is the fact you get a lower score in 3dmark05 than i do (look in sig for mine) a 7900 card of anytype should gain a higher mark than the predecesor then again, it is a GS and like the guy above me said reports are sketchy at best.

personnally i would still format and reinstall everything(but thats just me lol, just formatted my pc again. how about running the FPS benchmark in FEAR, then i can compare real performance =).

edit

just read in another thread that you plan to return the computer, good use the money to build yourself a better one, if you need help just post a topic, just about everyone on this forum will help you out.

 

[rx7000]

Ive decided to keep it, Ive built comps before its not a question of know how its a question of just not in the mood. Ive gone threw a mountain of pc problems before I bought a new one and Im just sick of tinkering around, one of the reasons I figured id go with a prebuilt this time.

I played the fear demo and wasnt impressed with the game at all so I dont have it to benchmark.

Its probably good to mention one of the things im in love with. Its a hundred percent silent, which not only amazes me but is seriously addictive, espically after plugging in my old one and comparing the sound of the high speed fans. That might be another reason the cards arnt throwing down heftier scores is maybe they are dumbed down a bit for quiet reasons.

 

[MrsD]

Heres one of my issues to, the first game I installed and was gearing up to play was battlefield 2, but for some reason its running awful, and then I had the poor 3dmark score, but after installing cs / dod source, not only are those games running awsome, but im getting like triple the score Ive gotten before

Battlefield 2 upon install will always run crappy no matter what system you have. You have to patch it to the latest version. Patch it then check all your settings, then try to play.

 

[Heyyou27]

Memory Frequency GPU : 2 x 660 MHz
Memory Bandwidth : 21120 MB/s

PC wizard says:
Memory Frequency GPU : 2 x 1201 MHz - [initial : 1100 MHz]
Memory Bandwidth : 76864 MB/s
8O

 

[TheMaster]

Another satisfied Dell customer. :roll:

I didnt know they were puttin laptop parts in desktops now.

I don't like that 128 bit bus... screams LE edition.

 

[rx7000]

Yeah, as I mentioned before im sure they are the bastard step child of the 7900 series, but to get them was cheap, going with one 7900 GT or GTX would have been a abusrd amount of money. With the dx10 card hype already out, id rather have spent 250 bucks then upgrade my crap 7900's anyway, then have bought 750 worth of cards and still want to upgrade. With some tweaking and maybe a few more generations of drivers it should peg 9000 in 3d05, thatll get me by for awhile, Its just the mental game of not having hitting a number preset in my mind that sucks : Oh well ive complained enough about it, time to start enjoying what it can do...

 

[sleepy127]

I just checked and my single 7900GT gets 9838 in '05 so maybe with some tweaking you can get it over 10,000. One thing you may want to check is if your cards are overheating and slowing down. Have you tried the coolbits hack? If you are not overheating then maybe you can bump up the clockspeed a little, heck I used to get over 6000 with my old 6600GT.

 

[Aragorn]

Definately agree with that GS being a stripped down GT. The memory badwidth looks painful (I guess that comes with the 128 interface). Well If they were as much cheaper as you say then they may still be a good value even if they don't preform as well. You can always upgrade later. Just be carefull if you ever want to upgrade the Mobo. I don't think Dell is doing it anymore but they used to use non standard 20 pin power cables that could fry standard boards. BTW I have purchased 2 Dells in the last year (one for myself and one for my father, both laptops) so I don't really have anything against Dell but I build my own desktops as the origonaly poster here used to.

 

[rx7000]

It stays very cool im pretty suprised, my 6800 GT use to get up into the yellow (5 or 6 bars on the temperature meter), the 7900 Gs's have never gone above 55 degrees (2 bars green).


Ive tried a bunch of tweaks as of yet and havnt been able to go above the 8753 Ive done.


*Edit

Another thing ive found that is interesting is that testing one card by itself scored 7000, which leaves me to belive that 1. The software isnt optomized to efficiently take advantage of the sli. 2. The motherboard sucks that hard.

I have trouble beliving the motherboard is awful to the point where the other card is adding only 1700, id like to think that it should easily be able to hit 10, espically after one scoring just 7000. Hopefully its a question of the card hasnt been out long and the drivers arnt fully uitilizing whats there....

But at the same time I dont really know what the hell im talking about and thats why im here I know driver impact performance is very significant, but not knowing much about sli I dont understand how important the driver is in the actually usage of the sli adapter / socket / system thing. Hopefully one of the old video card hands with all the knowledge in the world will bump into this post soon and shed some light.