New computer, acceptable framerates?

[hobbitlauncher]

So I just built my machine on Monday and I have been running it through the paces, burning it in and testing it with various games and benchmarkers. I'm curious as to what scores I ought to be seeing as some of these seem very low. Also (other than Crysis, as that's on my list of things to buy for testing purpsoes) what other software/games I ought to look into that would both support the power of my machine and also serve as good benchmarking tools?
(I have done no overclocking on it yet, I'm looking for numbers as is)
my build:
Asus mk241h 24 inch lcd monitor at 1920x1200 res.
intel quad core i7 920 nehalem @2.66ghz
asus p6t deluxe (with oc palm, although its rather useless)
TWO sapphire radeon hd 4870x2 graphics processors - 4gb vram
1000 watt coolermaster psu
6gb corsair dominator 3x2gb
onboard audio
pioneer bd-rom/dvd-rw/cd-rw
xclio supertower (i forget the model name, the one with the two 250mm fans on the side panel)
Saitek eclipse keyboard and Razer copperhead "First Edition" wired mouse (love those two peripherals, even though I've had them a while)

I feel like I forgot something in the list of components, but I can't say for sure

What I tested on:
3dmark Vantage (this program honestly infuriates me, its like propaganda for ageia) ~60fps in extreme mode, 2300 ops per second, 23 plans/sec. in Extreme mode it gave me a score of 0 apparently, but in performance mode I pulled only a p18000 but I'm not sure how that score holds up (and alot of it was due to poor cpu scores... dunno if its poor quad core support or that massive scoring bias for physx)

counter strike source stress test: 279.74 fps

counter strike source online: between 100 and 210, with brief 1-10 second stutters in the 60 fps range

team fortress 2: about hte same as css 110-230 with similar stutters

World of Warcraft: 60 fps in stormwind with few players around, 20-24 fps in dalaran, 26-45 in 1v1 fight against an 80 elite as a priest.

Warcraft 3 TFT DOTA map: 17-19 fps (found an errant setting, corrected) now get 60 fps tops, I found mention of there perhaps being an upper cap to the pc version of 60fps? my friend was pulling 140 fps on a mac pro with osx.

Also, for reference I am running windows 7 rc1 64bit with latest drivers I can find (which probably accounts for a small bit of the possible discrepancies.

This is my first multi core processor and my first multicore gpu / crossfirex experience so I may be pulling things out of my arse, but from monitoring fan speeds, temperature, and core usage (and just the feel in game) it seems none of these are really even taxing my machine and yet the framerates aren't as ludicrously high as I had expected.

Again, any tips on what ot use to benchmark (preferably free or cheap, demos are good) or numbers from similar configurations would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

-Hobbitlauncher

There is no shame in not knowing, the shame lies in not finding out. -Russian Proverb

 

[chrhadden_94]

im going to assume that your running high resolution with everthing maxed.if you have cod4 post what kind of fps your getting from it.oh by the way nice rig man are you a doctor or something?lol

 

[hobbitlauncher]

No, but I am working on a doctorate... this purchase is my attempt to stimulate the economy, lol. I do no thave CoD 4 as I've always felt the cod series to be much more enjoyable on my 360. I did see on a few overclocking forums that that is avery good one to test the 4870x2 with though, so I may have to bite the bullet and grab it.

yes, every game/benchmark was run in 1920x1200 at 60hz refresh, native for the mk241h. All settings set to max for the given game or software

 

[chrhadden_94]

No, but I am working on a doctorate... this purchase is my attempt to stimulate the economy, lol. I do no thave CoD 4 as I've always felt the cod series to be much more enjoyable on my 360. I did see on a few overclocking forums that that is avery good one to test the 4870x2 with though, so I may have to bite the bullet and grab it.

yes, every game/benchmark was run in 1920x1200 at 60hz refresh, native for the mk241h. All settings set to max for the given game or software

i still think those are respectable numbers.and cod4 on the 360?boo the keyboard and mouse own especially a saitek cyborg and a logitech g9!

 

[hobbitlauncher]

in any case, if anyone has a similar setup and can post their scores or at least le me know if im in the ballpark it would be much appreciated.

 

[ssguy24]

your CSS numbers seem though, being that I am a seasoned veteran of that game it seems as though your frames should be a lot higher in the stress test (my personal scores are different, but so is my res)

I guess it could be due to win7 and driver support, have you tried benchmarking with just 1 of your gpu's in to see how your system scales?

 

[hobbitlauncher]

well, the fewest I could do would be 2 gpu's, as it is 2 x2 cards, I haven't tried that due to busyness and due to lack of caring quite so much. so you think the actual online play numbers of 100-200 are good but the stress test seems low? I'll have to see if there's something i can find on that. Any other notes and/or thoughts?

 

[hobbitlauncher]

New info, crysis demo, all settings at very high, max AA, 1920x1200. fps between 30 and 60, seems a bit low, and also VERY choppy, it didnt feel like that fps range at all, idk if theres a transfer rate somewhere or what. clouds gave me a weird flicker and also tended to echo images from previous frames, one cloud was the image of a laptop i looked into during the mission, and stayed that way until the demo ended. I also noticed that my fans reverted to auto control apparently and hadnt spooled up (heat on the first core of first card was up to 70/80 c) put manual fan control back on and set to 60%, cooling was fine, however I noticed that only that first core showed usage, using 99% of it's "horsepower" the others showed no activity. Didn't check processor usage.

Does anyone know why my cards would not be crossfiring despite all of my crossfire x stuff being set up properly? ( as far as i can tell? )


((EDIT: just ran UT 3 on it completely maxed, a perfectly steady 61.9 fps, lower than i expected but far far far steadier than i expected))

 

[hobbitlauncher]

Sigh, I just apparently completely deleted a post i was editing.

anyway, x11000 score in extreme 3dmark vantage, 10k gpu and 17k cpu. Comparabale machines appear to be much higher than me esp in gpu scores, but I cannot tell thanks to futuremark's terrible specification page whether they have one card or two, but either way their scores are much much higher, 20k+. someone with a comparable rig please let me know some numbers?

also, my submissions are considered unofficial for futuremark because my graphcis drivers are whql but not fm qualified? It says I am using version 8.6, I tried installing 9.3 and all it did was say "your devices are up to date" and then my next test still says 8.6

edit: http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-4870-x2-review-crossfire/18 the 3dmark scores do look about right compared to this guys post, but I don't see much in the way of waht else his machine is running, and they do still seem low. perhaps im missing something?

 

[chrhadden_94]

is there any way you could install windows xp or vista and then try all your benchmarks again?your setup should be pleasing not disappointing.it makes no sense

 

[Outlander_04]

take one of the gfx cards out and run your benchmarks .

It might be interesting to see what percentage gains the excesses of your economic stimulus package produced

 

[hobbitlauncher]

i do not have any money remaining to get myself a legit copy of either, and my old xp pro disk has walked off =/ it was a 32 bit os anyway.

Outlander, I am hoping to do that sometime soon, I am just in a very lazy mood after dealing with neweggs ludicrously bad customer support during this order, it took a week longer than it should have.. and then the frenzied building, testing, cheating death (my drivers do NOT like windows 7) and of course gaming.

that's a plan on my agenda, perhaps this weekend.

 

[svetz]

Hey hobbit,

I'm curious what the errant setting you had to fix to get the war 3 dota fps up was, as I've recently switched to a 4870x2 and my in game fps has dropped to such a degree that the game is unplayable at a competitive level :/

- Svetz

 

[hobbitlauncher]

i dont recall what it was, it was something that I had accidentally changed earlier in the CCC, but after redoing everything it is now sitting at 60 fps with no variations at all (again i think it caps at 60)

 

[redsweater]

what do you mean by CCC?
i'm having the same issue, with FPS below 20,

it'd be very useful to know the setting, maybe it'd help a lot of wc3 community members.

 

[hobbitlauncher]

ccc= catalyst control center. but as i said i have no idea what the setting was i switched. it is now hovering at 60 no matter how intense fighting gets. I found it while browsingfor framerate fixes on wc3, just a stock google search