Intel Q8400 odd performance issue

[Surfdudeboy]

I'm very very sorry for the double post, but Mousemonkey closed my first thread for the honest mistake of replying to my own thread. thus i am unable to get help from you guys without creating another thread.
please delete the first one, or delete this one and unlock the first. I am not trying to cause trouble. I'm sorry, honest mistake guys.

Hello! I have a custom PC i built a while back, and i have noticed some games do not run as good as they should be with the part i am using. I have done a benchmark, and the only component that is slower than normal is the CPU.

Passmark Performance test's website says an Intel C2Q Q8400 gives an average of 3,680 CPU marks. Mine only gets 2800-2900.

Here are the relevant specs:

Motherboard: XFX nforce 750i
OS: Windows 7 (SP1) 32bit
Memory: 2.50 Gigs DDR2 RAM @ 800Mhz
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q8400 @ 2.66GHz
Video Card: Asus NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 768 Mb
PSU: Thermaltake 600Watt

Other Thoughts:
a while back, my system was worse and only ran at 667 Mhz FSB by default but i finally changed that to 800 a month ago. It improved performance some. (from 2600 marks to 2800)

In Passmark Performance Test, it reads my CPU speed as 2.044Ghz, it should read somewhere around 2.667 Ghz
http://i52.tinypic.com/28s6deb.jpg

My computer runs perfectly fine (other than im not getting the gaming performance i should be) its a fast, modern computer runs windows 7 beautifully and never hangs.
It plays Portal 2, COD4, Fallout 3, and L4D at around 60 FPS or higher, Maxed settings at 1920x1080 (thanks to the video card)

Several other games give me much lower Framerates, even at the lowest possible resolutions and settings such as NFS Shift (20), Dirt 2 (27), and Crysis Demo (25)
I gather from this it is a Insufficiency in CPU performance that is the cause.



I know i should be getting better results from my Processor, What can i do to Make it run like it should?

Edit: I'm wondering if this is a voltage setting issue? I know nothing about voltage settings, so I'll post my voltage settings as soon as my sister gets off my computer.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

You should go into bios and disable any processor throttling or speedstep settings. You should also check temperatures as when it gets hot and thermal throttling is turned on, it will clock down to reach a safe temp.

 

[venjhammet]

Q8400 may not be fast enough but mine you it can get decent framerate on newer games on medium to high setting. You can Oc that. I had mine to 3.2ghz all on auto including vcore and it's running good until now. Also you should add your ram make it 4gb because it really boost the performance.

 

[jimmysmitty]

The measurement speed can be due to Speedstep. As for your FSB, the memory auto sets to whatever speed the memory is at. The Q8400 has a stock FSB speed of 1333MHz, or 333Mhz quad fired.

You want to make sure that your FSB is set to 333MHz, its also best to have your RAMs FSB speed match the CPU FSB (this gives it a 1:1 ratio). It gives the best performance.

If you want the CPU to run at 2.66GHz consistently, you need to go into the BIOS and disable Speedstep and C1E. My Q6600 is normally at 2.4GHz but I have it clocked to 3GHz. Speedstep drops it to 2GHz when idle. For the most part, Speedstep will not hinder performance.

Also check the temps to make sure they are at good levels.

As for the Passmark score, from what I can tell its using multiple samples. They could include overclocked Q8400s which would throw the stock score off since those do not use the overclocked speed but rather basic info thats embeded into the CPU (the same as Windows sees your CPU at stock even if it was overclocked). So its hard to say thats the stock score.

 

[das_stig]

2.5GB of ram @ DDR800, so not running in dual-channel, performanc hit.
Quad on a Nforce 750i, they did have issues with performance.

 

[Surfdudeboy]

As for the Passmark score, from what I can tell its using multiple samples. They could include overclocked Q8400s which would throw the stock score off since those do not use the overclocked speed but rather basic info thats embeded into the CPU (the same as Windows sees your CPU at stock even if it was overclocked). So its hard to say thats the stock score.

ahah! I think thats why my score is lower than the baseline
I had always considered it before, but didn't think they would include OC'ed CPUs. Thanks for the insight

also: i overclocked mine a little today to 2.9Ghz and i got a score of 3200~ i think I have a better understanding of what going on. My system is running perfectly fine. overclocks give a significant increase in the score and that has skewed the results.
i seem pretty stable at this OC so ill keep it this way and enjoy the boost.

Thanks everyone so much for the help and insight.

 

[PassMark]

The main PassMark results don't include overclocked machines.
There is a separate graph for just the overclocked results,
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/overclocked_cpus.html

There is also a list here of common problems and solutions for low PerformanceTest benchmark scores,
http://www.passmark.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1057

 

[Surfdudeboy]

The main PassMark results don't include overclocked machines.
There is a separate graph for just the overclocked results,
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/overclocked_cpus.html

There is also a list here of common problems and solutions for low PerformanceTest benchmark scores,
http://www.passmark.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1057

lol well this re-complicates things...