whats holding back my system

[watchinthewheels]

i just bought a new graphics card (7800gt) and hoped that it would bring my system up to the bechmarks posted on toms hardware. unfortunatly its dropping far below what i expected. I know there are no reviews of the 7800 up yet but going by what the other cards are getting im a bit dissapointed. my 3d mark score is 6400 which isnt bad but it should be higher shouldnt it? is there something holding it back?

CPU:3GHZ P4
GPU:7800 GT
RAM:1gb ozc platinum ddr2
PSU:600w (non-brand named)
MOBO: epox EP-5LWA+

i know its not bleeding edge, apart from the gpu, but i dont see what could be holing it back that much cpu?

any advice on this would be greatly appreciated, thanks a lot.

 

[SoDNighthawk]

What speed Hard drives are you using ? What type ? 4 or 8 mb cache on them ?

If you have 2 hard drives put your Cache on the second drive and remove the cache off the first one. Having your virtual cache set on the second hard drive speeds up the OS installed onto C:\ drive. Therefore speeding up overall system performance.

I don't think your system is scoring that low you have to remember that guys that spend lots of time running benchmarks spent hours on fresh operating system installs tweaking everything from cooling systems to overclocking everything they can on the motherboard.

Liquid cooling gurus or guys that air cool with like 8 cooling fans. I have 5 cooling fans in my new rig above the CPU and MoB fan's not including the Power supply.

Unless you go to the extreme's your not going to post bench scores the same as some of them.

Just look at the guys that run about the same rig as you do and your system is the kind of system many end up with. If you score an average comparable to the generic then your right on track.

REM your hard drives will hold you back if they are not 8mb cache drives or not in the 7200 rpm range most if not all are now. OR better if you are running SATA. However SATA is not as remarkable a performance boost as many would like to think because the fsb on any motherboard is was really dictates your overall speed. 400MHz or 800MHz or AMD 64 motherboards exceeding those older fsb speeds.

|(\__/)
|(='.'=)
(")§øÐ(")
<font color=green>So far</font color=green> <font color=blue>God has missed</font color=blue> <font color=red>Canada.</font color=red>

 

[pickxx]

Whats holding back your system?

YOU!

__________________________________________
Chaintech VNF3-250/A64 2800+/1GB(512x2) OCZ VX GOLD 2-2-2-5/BFG 6800GT/Thermaltake 420W/WD 200GB/Maxtor 300GB

 

[shawnlizzle =]]

darn! i was gonna say that =[

@ other dude, your CPU is the only thats holding you back, i wouldn't think you would want to ditch that rig yet... so buy a si-120 or big typhoon and OC that sucker!

<font color=red>gforce mx100/200 @ 230/440 =]</font color=red>

 

[liquidpaper007]

athlon 64's lead in gaming right now.

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(") bunny pwns j00

 

[greenmachineiijh]

Try runing your tests right after you boot up your system. Also try it a few times in a row. They are right, your scores are in line with what they should be, give or take. Try a few different tests as some rely more on the processor than the video card for its processing.

P4c 3.4GB @ 3.6
BFG GeForce 6800GT OC @ 380\1100
WD Raptor 74GB
ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe
OCZ PC3200 Platinum LE 2\2\2\6\8 1T
Audigy 2ZS, Logitech Z5500

 

[BirdRobin]

P4C 3.4Ghz? Where you get that?

AMD A64 3200+ Newcastle @ 2.4 Ghz
MSI K8N Neo Platinum
1GB Corsair DDR400 ValueSelect (CL2.5) @ DDR440
GeCube R9800XT 128mb @ C400Mhz/M700Mhz

 

[pickxx]

The reason you arn't getting a lot of help is this...you are asking why your benchmarks arn't higher.

Who cares? I would take a syastem that got fourteen markson 3Dmark05 as long as it runs everything at 16x12 all on high at 100+ fps.

Benchmarks are nice to kind of give you an idea of whats going on but they dont dictate how good orbad your machine is.

i would say you have exactly what you should have performance wise. Play games, be happy, and unless you are getting huge slowdowns in games i would say you are fine.

just as a double check i would check these:
Spyware/adware (Spybot S&D, Adaware, Spyware guard)
Check what programs startup automatically and close anything you dont want to start up all the time.

clearing spyware, and making sure stupid programs arn't running the in the background you rarley use will free up CPU cycles and help your graphics.

Either way....Be happy, frag or be fragged.

_____________________________
Chaintech VNF3-250/A64 2800+/1GB(512x2) OCZ VX GOLD 2-2-2-5/BFG 6800GT/Thermaltake 420W/WD 200GB/Maxtor 300GB/Soon to include Z-5500...any ideas on which SC??

 

[chillyman]

Why do you need 100+ fps..?? Your eyes won't even see a difference. Anything that goes higher than 60 becomes just just what it is - frames. Nothing more than that. I think it's such a waste of time when people go around braggin or ranting about fps or whatever. There is just no point.

Personally I never saw what the big deal is with rates over 30 fps. Not that I've ever care about it anyway. To be honest, I've sincerely come to enjoy the "old-school" feeling of a movie-like image (kinda like old western-movies)

* hearts chunky frames *

 

[pickxx]

Why do you need 100+ fps..?? Your eyes won't even notice a difference at anything higher than 50 - if that. I think it's such a waste of time when people go around braggin or ranting about fps or whatever. There is just no point.

well there are a couple things....1 i was saying, as an example, that if i got a score of 14, just 14, on 3dmark05 but got 100+fps at 16x12 with everything turned up i would love it. I was making the example that real world is what its about....the benches are for general tool but just because you dont have the higest score ever...doesn't mean you dont have a good gaming maching.

Also you are not correct, the human eye can tell the difference above 50fps....shockingly enough. Our eyes dont work like a regular scanner where we take pull pictures, it takes random samples and if you focus hard enough you can see it.

Braggin about what your computer can do in games is like bragging about how fast your car goes 0-60 and all that. its just a measurement, take it or leave it...its a measurement not a holy grail of "who has the best computer"

Another thing....if you have an average FPS of 50...that means on average half your frames are below 50. Some benchmarks, like the fear one, will list what % of the time you are above your average and what % you are below it. Because two machines could have an averages of 40fps, but one machine may never dip below 35 and one could get down to 5fpsand jump up to 100. One would be a better situation then the other....

One last thing...if you think comparing scores and fps is a waste of time then dont partake in it. There are some things it does do...but its nothing that should be focused on.

Play games, be happy, and shut the hell up....OK? if you dont like these conversations, stay out of them.
Bye

 

[chillyman]

the benches are for general tool but just because you dont have the higest score ever...doesn't mean you dont have a good gaming maching.

You are preaching to the choir, dude.

Also you are not correct, the human eye can tell the difference above 50fps....shockingly enough. Our eyes dont work like a regular scanner where we take pull pictures, it takes random samples and if you focus hard enough you can see it.

Not that I wouldn't want to believe such a remarkable fact, but.. you may want to proove this theory to me a bit closer?

One last thing...if you think comparing scores and fps is a waste of time then dont partake in it. There are some things it does do...but its nothing that should be focused on.

Matter of the fact is, I don't actually compare scores to fps... Nowhere did I mention doing such a thing, in my previous post.

Play games, be happy, and shut the hell up....OK? if you dont like these conversations, stay out of them.
Bye

Relax, take a pill, or go out and get some fresh air. Didn't say I didn't like them, nor did I try to upset anyone. I have nothing against benchmarks, but I do object when people tend to use it as a rule of thumb because it is, as you pointed out yourself, a very questionable way to show actual real life performance. Besides, it was my own personal view of things. If you didn't like it, then maybe it's you who should be taking a hike... pal.