my 8800GTS SLI AMD X2 6400 only scores 10700 on 3dmark06 ??? - Tech Support Forums

patrick21x · September 2nd, 2008, 07:39 PM

Hey Guys, My old rig was running SLI EVGA 8800 GTS 640 MB ram cards, and an Opteron 180 949 socket @2.4 GHZ with 2 gigs DDR Ram. I was scoring a 9800 on 3d mark 06

Now
I upgraded my MOBO to an abit A9n 32x , AMD X2 6400 @ 3.2 Ghz and 4 gigs DDR2 ram, with the same 8800 640 MB GTS's in SLI.
My score only went up to 10700 ??????????

It seems everyone else with similar set ups are hitting at least 13000+
Is this normal, can anyone help me out here ?

KarmaKiller · September 2nd, 2008, 07:51 PM

Hmmm...
I dropped a quick search to see what the Mobo was about. And I found LOTS of people having issues with SLI on that board. Most people were having issues with it just not wanting to run dual GPU's, and obviously that's not your problem.

But I have kind of a weird request. Could you remove 2 gigs of your RAM, and rerun the test again? I bet your scores will improve.
I can't really explain why, but my system got lower scores when I had 4Gigs of RAM in. When I switched back to 2gigs, my scores actually raised.
I think the extra 2gigs just adds stress to the NB, causing lower scores.
Try that and see what happens.

ShyguyXPC · September 3rd, 2008, 01:49 AM

also if your running Windows XP or Vista 32-bit, your only going to have at max, 2.8GB's of that 4Gigs anyways, to use for the system. (not sure if it actually tests the excess unused memory or not, if it does, could be making an impact on system, as Karma sort of mentioned above)

overall though the only thing that will REALLY bump up the score, is the CPU score.

Edit: I think I might try that myself tomorrow, take out my extra 1GB out of my game rig & test it again on only 2GB, see what I score now, doubt it will make much impact, as I still have to stick in the Quad (wasn't able to do any work on the PC's this past week, since I had to deal with some issues... Kidney Stone related

)

patrick21x · September 3rd, 2008, 02:41 AM

Well I disabled cool n quite, I also tried to run only 2 gigs of ram. The score dropped 90 points

I go to nvidia control panel and make sure that SLI in enabled and it is
I dont understand why guys with a single 8800gt are scoring more than my sli set up.
Is there anything else you guys would recomend i do?

ShyguyXPC · September 3rd, 2008, 04:50 AM

hmmm, could be a drivers issue?

MegalosSkylaki · September 3rd, 2008, 06:21 AM

The Opteron controls memory from the CPU, I recall.
TheAthlon64 am2 doesn't do that I think.
So maybe the chipset is just overburdened.
I wonder if you would have had better resultswith the 2nd generation Opteron.

For now, have you tried other benchmarking tests?
These test often give ideosyncratic results.

DOOOOG

ShyguyXPC · September 3rd, 2008, 07:18 AM

no, as far as I remember, All Athlon 64 based chips (Including Opterons), have On-chip Memory Controllers, Socket 754, 940, 939, 1207, AM2, AM2+, etc. that was one of the big performance selling points of the series when it debuted, aside from the "64-bit" aspect of it.

Opterons are based on same tech as Athlon 64's, its like Pentium/Core 2 series vs Xeon's, many are more or less the same, just some enhancement features & thats it.

but yeah, like Dooog said, maybe try running some other benchmarks & see how they compare, if your running Vista, Try Futuremarks newer one, Vantage or something like that, also give some others like Lightsmark a try, somewhere around here we have a thread for that one too LIGHTSMARK - next generation lighting benchmark

but also like I mentioned earlier, as to the drivers.

which versions are you using?

KarmaKiller · September 3rd, 2008, 07:41 AM

Drivers could prove to be the problem. Also, make sure in the nvidia options you set it to single monitor performance mode. That made a difference on scores too.
Your score should raise with that CPU. It is faster then the opty.
What's your CPU score in the test?

patrick21x · September 3rd, 2008, 05:29 PM

I installed the 177.92 Nvidia drivers today and it uped my score over 1000 points. I still feel there is something missing and it should be doing much better.

I did not reinstall windows and every since I switched to this new Mobo. It will sometimes boot to a black screen( I believe this is due to all the old drivers and such that were installed to run the old mobo causingconflictss). I tried to reinstal windows and format drive and boot to disk, But when it says press any key to boot to disk, my usb key board does not have power so at that time the keys dont work so i can not get it to boot from disk.

Here are first results with opteron 2.4 ghz and sli 8800gts
ORB - Compare

and heres the best score of 12020 with X2 6400 3.2 ghz and SLI 8800 gts
ORB - Compare

My power supply is an Nvidia 800 watt SLI (i believe it has plenty of power)

My motherboard is an ABIT AN9 32X
Universal abit USA - Products

I have updated the Bios to the lastest Ver 18 and i have installed the latesest drivers for it also.
Thanks for all the input and help guys. Ill take all the help i can get.
How do i get it to boot from disk if my keyboard is not powered on at the time it says press any key to boot from disk?

KarmaKiller · September 3rd, 2008, 05:35 PM

Get a USB to PS/2 adapter thing. Most any PC store has one, and they should be cheap. Or try another keyboard if you have one.
Look in your BIOS and make sure "Legacy USB" is enabled.

But I would say 100% that is your problem. Do a fresh install, get the updated drivers for everything.(chipset/GPU/sound/etc) and then rerun 3D Mark. I bet you'll score will increase.
Also in nvidia control panel, make sure you set it up. There are some things you can change to increase your performance. I mentioned one earlier, but there are a few I know.
Good luck!