Low 3dmark06 score with dual 3870?

[snowmanman]

Hey all,
I just built a new pc and I don't know if I'm getting the performance I should be getting.
My pc specs are:
AMD Phenom 9600 2.3ghz
2 x ATI 3870
Gigabyte 790fx
2gb 1066 ram
Yeah it's a AMD Spider platform.

My overall 3dmark06 score is 10824. Dunno if this link will work: http://service.futuremark.com/orb/resultanalyzer.jsp?projectType=14&XLID=0&UID=13401367

Is this right? I've looked at other people's Crossfire setups and they are getting better scores than me. Like this review: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/605/10/
Anyone know if my scores are right? Maybe my crossfire is not working???

 

[emp]

Hehe spider platform LOL XD... Sorry just had to do it.

To be honest it seems to be correct, maybe a little under what it should be since the Phenom is slower clock for clock compared to the Q6600. I wouldn't worry too much about stupid synthetic benchmarks like this, just worry about if it plays your games the way you want it to know or not, if it doesn't then you have a problem.

 

[snowmanman]

Yeah, I guess I shouldn't of been so curious about the Spider platform . If this is normal then I'm thinking of selling my processor and mobo. Or maybe just wait until these so called "faster" Phenoms come out.

 

[wingless]

I score a little over 10200 with an Opteron 185@2925mhz and a single 2900XT. I just took a look at your score breakdown and it seems you are not running in crossfire at all. I score 4500 in the SM2.0 and 5000 even in the 3.0 tests with a 2200 CPU score. You're getting 4000 in 2.0, and 5200 in 3.0. Those look like single 3870 scores to me. You don't have crossfire enabled somewhere along the way. I don't know if you have to set your PCI Express slot speeds in the BIOS for your motherboard manually or if you have Crossfire disabled in your drivers but something isn't allowing both cards to function.

Make sure you have the Catalyst 7.12 drivers too (I'm sure you do, but just to make sure I include this comment, no offense).

 

[hok]

I have intel duo celeron @3.2 Ghz and i had a score around 11000 so i think its fine. I just wish games would work under CF...

 

[snowmanman]

I score a little over 10200 with an Opteron 185@2925mhz and a single 2900XT. I just took a look at your score breakdown and it seems you are not running in crossfire at all. I score 4500 in the SM2.0 and 5000 even in the 3.0 tests with a 2200 CPU score. You're getting 4000 in 2.0, and 5200 in 3.0. Those look like single 3870 scores to me. You don't have crossfire enabled somewhere along the way. I don't know if you have to set your PCI Express slot speeds in the BIOS for your motherboard manually or if you have Crossfire disabled in your drivers but something isn't allowing both cards to function.

Make sure you have the Catalyst 7.12 drivers too (I'm sure you do, but just to make sure I include this comment, no offense).

I have my crossfire set in Catalyst Control Center and I have them connected with the Crossfire bridges. Does it matter which DVI port I plug my monitor in to? I have four to choose from. Do I have to set crossfire in the bios? I don't really know what I could have set wrong. I'm gonna run 3dmark06 again with crossfire disabled in Catalyst Control and see if theres a difference. Oh yeah, I do have the latest 7.12 drivers.

 

[babybudha]

There is no way that that is correct. Maybe with only one 3870, but not with 2. Something is not working correctly.

 

[badgtx1969]

What is your breakdown? i.e. SM2.0 score, HDR/SM3.0 score, CPU score

With my set-up (signature) I get 10800 3D Marks. Dragged down by my CPU score (2477), which about half what I see a lot of Intel quads getting.

 

[badgtx1969]

Just saw your breakdown:
3DMark Score 10824 3DMarks
SM 2.0 Score 4030 Marks
SM 3.0 Score 5202 Marks
CPU Score 3203 Marks

Those SM2.0/3.0 scores are way lower than you should be getting. Are you sure that all of your connections are right (the bridge connector is on) and CF is enabled?

Can you get a GPU-Z or ATi overdrive screen shot?

 

[snowmanman]

I just ran 3dmark06 again with Crossfire disabled in Catalyst Control Center and my overall score is 9515.
http://service.futuremark.com/orb/resultanalyzer.jsp?projectType=14&XLID=0&UID=13402484

So I don't get it. Crossfire is making a difference, just a small difference. Anyone have any ideas? I will try and get gpu-z screenshot in a minute.

 

[jumpmaster]

it also looks like your RAM is in single channel b/c your using slot 1 and 2. Dual channel will use 1 and 3 or 2 and 4. There should be a free slot between you modules when in dual channel. That should help the score a bit.

 

[shoota]

actually not true jumpmaster. his board uses dual channel with side by side slots.. unfortunately

snowmanman- give us a rundown on some games, that should help a little bit too

 

[snowmanman]

On my Gigabyte 790fx DS5 the ram is dual channel in slots 1 and 2.

Anyway, I went into my bios and my video option was set on pci slot. It had 3 options i could set it to. PCI Slot, PEG, and PEG1. It said PEG is for when your video card is in the pci express slot. So I set it to PEG. Not sure what PEG1 does. I ran 3dmark06 again and I got the same score... I'm open to any suggestions.

 

[shoota]

PEG and PEG1 is prolly referring to when you use a single card. meaning you can select which single slot to use on ur mobo... just a guess.

anyway i don't know much about crossfire but i was looking to getting two 3870's as well so i can't help out much other than giving you some encouragement

one idea.. take it all apart and start from the beginning, maybe you have some old drivers that need cleaning out.. not sure but good luck and keep trying.

 

[Earnie]

E6850 core 2 duo
asus maximus
4g crucial ballistix tracer 1066
xp home
2-3870's CF

3d mark 06 scores=10,987 single and 14,058 in crossfire

all stock settings
driver 712

 

[snowmanman]

actually not true jumpmaster. his board uses dual channel with side by side slots.. unfortunately

snowmanman- give us a rundown on some games, that should help a little bit too

Well, I upgraded from a pretty weak system so I've noticed a big performance jump. So far I have tryed Company of Heroes. I played it on 1024x1280 resolution with MAX settings with 4xAA(dx9). I got about 25fps average. Is that good? I usually play without AA with Company of Heroes and then my fps go to about 35 average and it's playable.

 

[shoota]

yeah that's not bad, ati cards are notoriously weak at AA, but it might be a tad low for crossfire.

You should be getting about the same '06 score
as earnie, maybe a touch lower..

 

[snowmanman]

E6850 core 2 duo
asus maximus
4g crucial ballistix tracer 1066
xp home
2-3870's CF

3d mark 06 scores=10,987 single and 14,058 in crossfire

all stock settings
driver 712

Hmmm, now I'm confused. Maybe it's my processor that's holding me back. But your still getting more than me with a single card. You get a 3,000 jump in 3dmark06 score when going from single to dual and I get only a 1,000 point jump. Could I get a link to your 3dmark06 score page? Or could you tell me your SM 2.0 and 3.0 scores please?

-Also, why is my ATI Overdrive all greyed out? Anyone know?-

 

[sepayne21]

Just saw your breakdown:

Can you get a GPU-Z or ATi overdrive screen shot?

I agree, download GPU-Z and run it to ensure you're running in crossfire mode

 

[snowmanman]

I just ran GPU-Z and it says I'm running Crossfire. I don't know how to post a screenshot so. I'll keep trying to tweak around with it.

 

[wingless]

Check your BIOS. Your PCI Express slots may be set to 16x-1x or something weird like that instead of 8x-8x, or 16x-16x. It seems one card is severely impaired.

 

[random1283]

Im not sure but you're cpu might be bottlenecking the cards try overclock it to max speed. If your still low try overclocking pci-e bus.
My E6750@3.6 gets 3078 cpu score so I'm not sure

 

[badgtx1969]

Have you tried process of elimination - run 3D mark on each card with the other removed from the mobo. Wondering if one card is just not up to snuff.

Weird stuff, your two 3870 should be screaming. Hoping this isn't the Phenom TLB bug rearing its ugly head!!!!

 

[snowmanman]

Wow! I think I found the problem. I read up about the TLB patch and it's peformance problems. I turned off the TLB patch and ran 3dmark06 again and it's now 12425. Is it ok if I leave the patch off? I heard the TLB bug just causes system hangs sometimes. It's supposed to be hard to encounter right? It shouldn't cause any long term problems will it?
http://service.futuremark.com/orb/resultanalyzer.jsp?projectType=14&XLID=0&UID=13422698

 

[badgtx1969]

Should be fine for you, leave the patch off. Don't know if the bug has been replicated outside of a lab.

Now you should try to OC the processor, I'm interested to know how high yours will go. Heard you are lucky to get a phenom processor that can do 2.8 gHz.

Have fun!