Hi,

I have the following rig:

AMD 5200+ AM2 running stock 2.6GHZ
Foxconn C51XEM2AA with nvidia 590i chipset
4gb (4 x 1gb) Corsair Dominator XMS2 C4 at 4-4-4-12 stock 800mhz
Leadtek Winfast 8800gts 320mb stock
Vista Business 32bit
Western Digital 160gb RAID 0

I'm running 3dmark 06 and getting just over 5700 marks - which I think is a little low!

Does anyone know what could be holding the system back?

Regards

Dank_Army

I think your cpu is holding your system back. It is not the fastest cpu, and it lacks multicore technology. Please tell me what is your cpu score. If its below 2000 you should consider upgrading your cpu. Anyway you should not rely on this please look at Toms Hardware vga charts. Your GPU is good, but i don't understand why you didn't buy the 640MB version.

I get 10,700 with the same GPU.

10,700 with a 8800gts 320mb its pretty nice. The reason why the number is high is because of your core 2 quad Q6600 overclocked. The bottleneck is the CPU. My computer gets 11,800 with a Q6600 Stock speed and 8800GTX. I think that if i overclock my cpu i can reach 13000 to 15000.

I assume you're using a dual core CPU, since there is no single-core 5200+.

I noticed that you have 4GB RAM, but only a 32-bit system. Maybe that's the culprit. If I'm not mistaken, a 32-bit system can only go up to 3GB. I may be wrong, though. If the OS does, does your motherboard support 4GB of RAM?

redwinedrummer youre right the ATHLON 64 5200+ is a X2, Dual core. Anyway i think the cpu is holding down the system. The culprit is not 4GB of ram, because i have that, in my Vista 32Bit and it doesn't present lack of performance. My pc displays 3.25GB (i Have installed 4GB) of Ram because it allocates 768MB of my 8800GTX, and my 3DMARK 06 is of 11,800.

I get 10,200 with my Opteron 185 and Radeon 2900XT 512mb. There is definitely a problem with his system. My old 4200+ and 7900GT got ~5700! You system is kinda jacked up so you need to do some tuning. You might have some incorrect settings in your BIOS. Make sure your CPU is running at 2.6Ghz. When you build a system and first start it, usually it doesn't run at full speed. You may have to set your HTT, Multiplier, and memory timings manually.

Hi,

Thanks for all your replies!

Yes I forgot to add the CPU is of course dual core. The 4gb thing in Vista is correct, it only lists as 3.2gb in system information. But thats no mystery, Vista's memory management reserves memory such as PCI and graphic devices - so 3.2gb sounds about right.

To be honest I have had the system a few months now, and only just started getting into overclocking it. Been busy (i know thats no excuse).

I will get a CPU score this evening and let you guys know and also get a list of all the frequencies from ntune or the bios.

Cheers

Dank_army

Actually I'm willing to bet your memory is listed at 3.2 because of it being a 32 bit system. It's stated through XP that the OS will not detect more then 3.5 GB of ram unless you are running a 64 bit version of XP.

I'm sure the same is applicable for Vista. But TBH 3.5 should be fine for now not worth all the driver issues you most likely will get if you switch to a 64 bit version.

Okay, bit of an update - and more 3dmarks!

I just realised that the last 3dmark bench I did was with dual montitor setup and the second monitor was activated but turned off

Just ran again and got the following results:

3dMark score : 8240
SM2.0 Score: 3802
HDR/SM3.0 Score: 3724
CPU Score: 1936

So is my CPU bottlenecking the system? I have recently had it up to 2.9ghz air cooled. What kind of marks should I expect with this overlock?

Regards

Dank_Army

Your system is ok, the score is high, similar systems have an average of 6000 to 7000 marks. Anyway your cpu is bottlenecking the system, because the score is below 2000. If you overclock your system it could go and have 9000 points. If you disable the dual monitor and special characteristics such as aero interface and lower your resolution you should get more points, because the graphics card is using that VRAM.

martinette: you're way off:

your system does not display 3,25gb because you have a gtx, it simply can not use more ram because it is a 32-bit system wich has that limit. put in a 1 mb pci card and it will still say 3,25gb memory.

also those systems do not average at 6000-7000 points, they do the same as his. you where right in one sentence: your system is fine. (and indeed, c2d cpu's score much higher in 3dmark)

also tricks as lowering the resolution of the desktop is from the time whe used windows 95...... with current cards it will not make a noticeable difference...

and overclocking your quad gives you maybe 15.000 3dmarks? don't think so......... just try it, before you make statements here.

meljor: I have researched that the theorical limit of the 32-bit systems is equal to 4GB. The things that you say are not true. Please research. Some systems show more than 3.25GB of Ram because of the ram allocation in the system. If your computer has more peripherals it can lower the amount of ram shown. Finally i said that my system can show 13.000 to 15.000 3dMarks if overclocked.
Think before you type!!!!!

*Ahem* 15,000 with a 8800GTX? 15,000?!...Thats low....jk I've seen 17000

Here is your answer to why out of 4 Gb only 3.2 shows up. Always cite a source if you are going to flame someone...not nice.

White paper from HP on WIndows memory addressing...
http://h20331.www2.hp.com/Hpsub/do [...] WP_x64.pdf