E6400 3DMark performance question

[bossman34]

Hey all, I'm new to these boards and I'm new to the PC building world. I just successfully (mostly) built my first PC (Specs below) and ran it through a few tests and benchmarks including 3DMark. While my overall score definitely improved over my old P4 system, I noticed that my CPU performance is severly lacking compared to other similar setups. Out of 26 comparable systems, I ranked 25. That wouldn't really bother me except that my CPU score was consistently half of every other system including the guy below my score! I didn't look through all of the scores, but most were at stock speeds. Any ideas! Thanks in advance!

Core 2 Duo E6400
MSI P6N SLi Platinum
EVGA 8800 GTS 320 Superclocked
2 gig Corsair XMS2 @ 675

 

[corvetteguy]

What was the score? What 3Dmark... 06?

If its 06 your score should be similar to mine, which is about 8800 total, and 2000 for cpu, at 1024x768.

 

[bossman34]

Yup, 3DMark 06. My overall score was 6719 and cpu score was only 973 (about half)

 

[corvetteguy]

Yup, 3DMark 06. My overall score was 6719 and cpu score was only 973 (about half)

8O 8O 8O

Hmmm, do you have any other benchmarking software or games you can test your frame rate at or anything? Thats really really low, even stock my cpu score was 1400.

Actually, check what resolution you ran the test at. That could have something to do with it.

 

[bossman34]

I ran the tests at default settings so it ran at 1280 x 1024. I also ran a benchmark test on PC Wizard which showed sub-par performance as well. Any other good benchmark software?

I just thought of something else...could it be related to the power supply? There is an 8-pin connector for the CPU supply, but 4 of the pins are semi covered by a plastic piece. I couldn't find jack in the mobo manual so i just inserted the 4 pin connector from the PSU as shown in the PSU manual. Could this be it?

I have an Ultra X-Finity SLi 600 Watt, btw.

 

[corvetteguy]

I ran the tests at default settings so it ran at 1280 x 1024. I also ran a benchmark test on PC Wizard which showed sub-par performance as well. Any other good benchmark software?

I just thought of something else...could it be related to the power supply? There is an 8-pin connector for the CPU supply, but 4 of the pins are semi covered by a plastic piece. I couldn't find jack in the mobo manual so i just inserted the 4 pin connector from the PSU as shown in the PSU manual. Could this be it?

I have an Ultra X-Finity SLi 600 Watt, btw.

Ok, so the difference in res pretty much makes up for the little bit of difference on the total minus the cpu. Now we just need someone to come here and tell you if its defective or not lol.

The 4 pin is fine btw, i thinkmost desktop motherboards have it covered. I forget the reason for the other4 pins but there is one, maybe for dual cpu but i can't remember.

 

[dasickninja]

Hnn. Its not the PSU, since that would deal with stability. Have you tried flashing the BIOS, setting you RAM to SYNC and installing the dual core hotfix?

 

[bossman34]

Hnn. Its not the PSU, since that would deal with stability. Have you tried flashing the BIOS, setting you RAM to SYNC and installing the dual core hotfix?

I haven't done any of those things. I'm not even familiar with the dual core hot fix to be honest. I need to read up a bit more on flashing the BIOS, but I will give it a shot along with setting the RAM to Sync.

 

[dasickninja]

IIRC your FSB speed is 1066 and your RAM runs at 667MHz or possibly higher. Syncing it to the bus speed will allow for a one to one ratio. The dual core hotfix can be found here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896256

It may or may not help you, but its an important thing to install.

 

[bossman34]

Thanks for the help so far...I am going to try your suggestions tonight. One more thing tho...I was doing some more things with PC Wizard and it is telling me in general information this:

Number of Core: 2
Number of Core Enabled: 1

What could this mean??

 

[corvetteguy]

Thanks for the help so far...I am going to try your suggestions tonight. One more thing tho...I was doing some more things with PC Wizard and it is telling me in general information this:

Number of Core: 2
Number of Core Enabled: 1

What could this mean??

Its sounding more and more like you need the dual core fix. When did you get your version of xp?

 

[bossman34]

I'm using Windows XP MediaCenter 2005 SP2. I loaded the OS from the disc that came with my old PC. From the sounds of it, i think both of you are right (hopefully!). I'm going to download the hotfix and hope for the best!

I am still open to more ideas in case this isn't the fix!

Thanks!

 

[MYTHOZ]

Really low score.

I get just over 8300 on my system running 1024x768 resolution in the benchmark.

Opteron 170 @ 2.4
Asus A8N-e
2 Gigs Kingston HyperX 3200
Single Nvidia 7900 GX2 at stock settings

 

[corvetteguy]

Really low score.

I get just over 8300 on my system running 1024x768 resolution in the benchmark.

Opteron 170 @ 2.4
Asus A8N-e
2 Gigs Kingston HyperX 3200
Single Nvidia 7900 GX2 at stock settings

The great (or bad depending how you look at it ) about my score is that the vid card is always the bottleneck, so the higher i clock the cpu, the higher the ram goes, and the more power the vid card unleashes. With the extra 600 cpu points that i got from overclocking i gained about a 1000 or more from my ram and gpu. 8O