3dmark score 10,400 for x38+e7200+3870

[50bmg]

i just built a new machine. I ran 3dmark and the total score was 10,400 for the following specs.

gigabyte GA-EX38-DS4 rev 1.x
Intel C2D e7200, 2.5GHz, 3M cache,
2x2G Patriot PC6400 DDR2 800MHz 5-5-5-12
Visiontek ATI Radeon HD 3870 OC 512M (1 only not xfire'd)
250G Seagate SATA150 HD (From old PC)
BFG Tech 800w 4x12v-20A
Window XP sp3

Nothing OC'd except the vid card. It is OC'd from the manufacturer.

Is that an ok score? 3dmark said 11,000 was average.

What willl xfiring another 3870 and OCing the e7200 to 333fsb/3.xGhz do to that score?

 

[SirCrono]

First, let's answer your question, adding a second 3870 would probably boost the scores by about 5000 points.

Now, let's clarify that those scores don't count at all in "real world" conditions, 3d mark is for stability testing, guesstimate benchamrking and nothing more.

What counts is games FPS, which you could chech here in toms vga charts or in any other site in the net.

Crossfire is best when used at high resolutions, so do a little research before adding a second card.

Also, OC'ing the CPU would certainly help noth the 3d mark score and the PC performance overall, at 3 ghz you should get quite an improvement.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-gpu-upgrade,1928.html

Read that for more info.

 

[roadrunner197069]

You should be able to hit 14-15000 with some tweaks. I had a e7200 and ran it up to 4.0. It scores 3550 on CPU score alone. Higher CPU score will give you higher video card scores as well. You might ned to get a good CPU cooler to keep it cool past 3.4+.

 

[50bmg]

Cooling: My cpu cooler is currently a Thermaltake golden orb 2. I have 2 80mm ultra case fans on a fan controller and a 40mm NB fan. Is that enough cooling to push the e7200 to between 3.0- 3.2Ghz?

FPS: I have looked at Tom's cpu charts many times. I do not have any applications that tom's uses for the charts. Well, i do have quake 4, but not installed. Here are some FPS's to start with: COD4 i get 50-60FPS at 1200x900, 4xAA, 4xAF, all setting high, Legions:Fallen Empire i get 80-200FPS 1200x900 default settings. (legions is a new 3d browser game, i am in the beta)

Resolution: my old build i played at 1100x800, low settings because i had to. My monitor will go 1600x1000. I play most games at 1200x900 with this build. i would rather play with higher setting over higher res.

about the 10,400 score. At stock clocks and speeds, is that score expected, bad, good, ???? I understand it is a benchmark.

 

[50bmg]

@SirCrono

I was looking at the COD4 benchies in the article you linked. They had a 8800gt 512m + e2160 1.8Ghz @ 1200x1000, 2xAA,8xAF, max setting playing at 98FPS. I am only getting 60FPS same settings with my e7200 and 3870.

What the hell? Why am i getting 30FPS less? I will have to check that again.

 

[dagger]

@SirCrono

I was looking at the COD4 benchies in the article you linked. They had a 8800gt 512m + e2160 1.8Ghz @ 1200x1000, 2xAA,8xAF, max setting playing at 98FPS. I am only getting 60FPS same settings with my e7200 and 3870.

What the hell? Why am i getting 30FPS less? I will have to check that again.

Because COD4 is light on cpu and heavy on gpu, like more other current games. The e2160 is a lot slower, but it's not the bottleneck for COD4 anyway. The g92 8800gts is a far more powerful card than 3870.

 

[50bmg]

are those fps in that article from Fraps or from the game. I am gettin my fps from the ingame console command. Is that fps an average or peak. I get 90-100fps at peak for a while but i dip to 55fps for big fire fights.

 

[50bmg]

Because COD4 is light on cpu and heavy on gpu, like more other current games. The e2160 is a lot slower, but it's not the bottleneck for COD4 anyway. The g92 8800gts is a far more powerful card than 3870.

The specific FPS in that article i am talking about is the 8800GT 512M. It to is a better card than the 3870, but not that much better.

 

[dagger]

are those fps in that article from Fraps or from the game. I am gettin my fps from the ingame console command. Is that fps an average or peak. I get 90-100fps at peak for a while but i dip to 55fps for big fire fights.

The fps cited in benchmarks should be average. It looks right, nothing strange about it. A g92 8800gts should outperform 3870 in just about everything, the gap is quite large.

See this benchmark, scroll down to 2nd chart for COD4. First is Crysis. It's done with 4x AA and 16x AF, so fps count will be lower across the board:
http://www.guru3d.com/category/vga_2/

 

[50bmg]

I was speaking of a 8800GT not 8800 GTS G92. The 8800GT is better but not that much better. I know the 8800GTS G92 is a next level higher gpu than mine. I am not comparing my 3870 to a 8800GTS G92.

That benchie was 4xAA and 16xAF. I will never runn 16xAF.

from my specs above i am obviously building a budget gamer with some future room to grow. I did not want to spend the extra $90 on a 8800GTS G92 or another $90 for a q6600 or another $80 on another 4G RAM.

this is off topic. I aske "what the hell". forget i asked. I would just like to get some help determining my next adjustment to "MY" component to get the most out of MY current hardware.

Should i add another 3870 or OC my cpu? Or wait until next gen cards come out and get a ati 4870 or nvidia 9800Gxx( or what ever nvidia has next year)?

 

[cisco]

That is probably about right for that CPU, 3dmark puts more emphasis on CPUs than it should. That is why many people think it is an inaccurate benchmark. 06 gives better benchmarks for OCing the CPU than it does for a faster video card, and in real world conditions obviously a faster video card has more impact than an OC'd CPU.

 

[50bmg]

I was looking at the link Dagger posted. It reminded me that the 38xx performance drops with higher AA. I may drop my AA to 2x and see the difference.

I really dont know why i am worried about it. I like the image quality of my system while playing COD4 and legions. I do think i will get another 3870, especially with the prices dropping. I should be able to get one under $150 in june(my b-day). That should handle my gpu requirements for another 12-16 months of games.

edit: I like my GA-EX38-DS4 and E7200. I wanted to keep an option open for xfire or sli. since i bought the x38, i had to stick with Xfire. I like the image quality of the 3870, i just wished i could get a steady 70FPS. I probably wouldnt even notice.

Thanks guys.

 

[roadrunner197069]

OC that cpu 3.5 if temps are good keep going.

Your cpu is running 266x9.5.

266 is a weak FSB compared to what she can do. That cpu can do 400 with proper cooling.

Higher fsb= higer performance.

 

[50bmg]

i have successfully OC'd my e7200 to 2.53Ghz to 3.16Ghz by upping my FSB from 266 to 333. my cpu temp never exceeded 48 degrees celcius after 30 minutes of gaming with COD4 and legions. The OC also game me 20FPS or more in COD4.

My golden orb 2 is ok for now. If i decide to OC more i will get a good Tower/heat pipe heat sink.

should i run prime95? I don't think i really need to. This OC seems very stable. My mobo auto set my voltage at 1.22.

It also set my DDR voltage to 2.13v. I am puzzled by the ddr voltage. I have 2v patriot pc6400. I guess it is ok.

my gigabyte x38 mobo is sweet.

 

[50bmg]

I ran 3dmark with the new cpu and fsb clocks. It scored 900 points higher at 11,300.

My max temps in the test: cpu-47c, system-48c, gpu-73c,

question about hwmonitor. What is the difference between cpu temp and core1/core2? I am assuming the cpu temp is entire cpu temp and the core temps are the true internal core temps.

 

[effel]

You have a lot of headroom on that processor. And I'm fairly sure that the 3870 overclocks quite nicely too. You can pull another 10-20 fps if you bring your cpu to 3.5+ and do maybe a 20% overclock on the gpu clocks. That's just meer speculation from personal results with my hardware.

**Edit: On second thought, don't do much more of an overclock on your gpu. That thing is roasting. After taking another look at the 'x38' in the title, you should definitely be able to exceed 400 fsb. rape that processor and mobo for all its got lol **

 

[partninja]

question about hwmonitor. What is the difference between cpu temp and core1/core2? I am assuming the cpu temp is entire cpu temp and the core temps are the true internal core temps.

Core1/Core2 temps come from a diode inside the cores, CPU temp comes from a diode in the CPU socket. Unfortunately, these 45nm wolfdale chips have faulty temp diodes in the cores and can't be relied on, so use cpu temp as a more solid reference if your core temps seem way out of whack in comparison with the CPU temp.

 

[50bmg]

**Edit: On second thought, don't do much more of an overclock on your gpu. That thing is roasting..................**

This is my second 3870. From my experience 73c is not that hot. I OC'd my last 3870 and it would hit 85c and never had a problem. I got rid of it because i was on a HP with a pentium d at the time and the 3870 was overkill. I was happy with 73c especially considering the card is OC'd from the factory. What temps should i expect from the 3870. I noticed the 3870 fans are still jacked up. My wont speed up fast enough. Rivatuner's auto speed up still doesnt work. I dont want to run the 3870 at a high speed all the time. I guess i could set up a Rt profile. Has anyone read about any fan speed fixes for the 3870s? Has Omega drivers done anything with it?

I am thinking about trying 400fsb. Will my thermaltake golden orb 2 handle the extra heat. It seems to be handling now with ease.

I have always had either cheap mobos or bad ones, like HP. So i have never been able to OC. This ga-ex38-ds4 is really a nice board to OC. The bios is idiot proof, well as long as you read Tom's C2D OC tutuorial. I am learning a bunch about OCing. Thanks for all the tips.

Core1/Core2 temps come from a diode inside the cores, CPU temp comes from a diode in the CPU socket. Unfortunately, these 45nm wolfdale chips have faulty temp diodes in the cores and can't be relied on, so use cpu temp as a more solid reference if your core temps seem way out of whack in comparison with the CPU temp.

Thanks partninja. Cool so, cpu-47c is what i will go with. That was at load. So i have some room to bump up my fsb.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This is my second 3870. From my experience 73c is not that hot. I OC'd my last 3870 and it would hit 85c and never had a problem. I got rid of it because i was on a HP with a pentium d at the time and the 3870 was overkill. I was happy with 73c especially considering the card is OC'd from the factory. What temps should i expect from the 3870. I noticed the 3870 fans are still jacked up. My wont speed up fast enough. Rivatuner's auto speed up still doesnt work. I dont want to run the 3870 at a high speed all the time. I guess i could set up a Rt profile. Has anyone read about any fan speed fixes for the 3870s? Has Omega drivers done anything with it?

I am thinking about trying 400fsb. Will my thermaltake golden orb 2 handle the extra heat. It seems to be handling now with ease.

I have always had either cheap mobos or bad ones, like HP. So i have never been able to OC. This ga-ex38-ds4 is really a nice board to OC. The bios is idiot proof, well as long as you read Tom's C2D OC tutuorial. I am learning a bunch about OCing. Thanks for all the tips.



Thanks partninja. Cool so, cpu-47c is what i will go with. That was at load. So i have some room to bump up my fsb.

Have you tried Real Temp? http://www.techpowerup.com/realtemp/, and 73c on the GPU is roasting huh?, I've seen 90c+ on my 8800GT's with standard coolers so 73c isn't even trying IMO.

 

[50bmg]

I bumped my fsb to 400Mhz. Then i ran 3dmark. I gained another 400 points to 11,700+. The cpu temp maxed at 54c. the vcore is 1.33v. Here is a screenshot of speedfan temp graph(red cpu, green system), hwmonitor, cpuz all during the test and 3dmark score for the test.

http://www.freewebs.com/dermking/3_8%20OC%2005-20-08.JPG

From what i read in tom's c2d oc tutorial, 1.33v and 54c for the e7200 is acceptable, especially the temps. The max temp for the e7200 is 74c.

I kept my patriot pc6400 at 800Mhz, 2xfsb. I will play with it later, but i am in no hurry.

I am happy. I am now going to run COD4 and see FPS, cpu temps and cpu usage.

I am done with cpu OC. The 1.33v is as high as i want to go. The temps are great.

3.8Ghz on air at 54c. yay. My first cpu OC.

 

[50bmg]

Ok after COD4 @ 1200x900, 4xAA, 8xAF, on max settings. cpu-55c, system-48c, gpu-69c, 80fps average and only went below 60fps twice in huge firefights. Most of the time it hovered around 90fps.

The e7200, ga-ex38-ds4 and 3870 is an awesome combo. I spent less than $800 to build this pc.

Once the 3870 prices drop after the 4870s come out, i will snatch one up and xfire them and see what happens.

 

[roadrunner197069]

Very nice. I got 3 more e7200s commin this week. Bad ass chips. Cant wait til they go to $113.