What is the baseline 3DMark05 benchmark for my SLI System??

R

Rudager

Gawd
Joined
Oct 31, 2005
Messages
520
Pentium 4 3.6 HT
MSI P4N Diamond
2 gigs of 533 DDR2 Ram
160 gig HDD 7200 RPM (RAID 0)
Dual eVGA 7800 GTX KO (490/1350)
Win XP PRO
550 Watt PSU (ANTEC TRUE POWER)

I only get around 8657 when I run the benchmark on defaults...this score is a composite score of this benchmark ran three times
 
Something is up with the config. Looks a little low. Single card territory.

You should get around 11K.

Not familiar with the new AMD chipset and the Intel. Is there any power saving option enabled? Someone out there has probably experienced something similar and will end up helping you out.
 
Yeah I do...I can't believe my score...I don't really know what to do next...
 
One thought. That PSU has 2 x 12V rails, correct? If so, you may be loading up one too far and the other too little. So, you end up running your SLI system on 350 Watts.
 
I have a dual 7800gtx ko with 4800+ setup. My 3DMark05 score was around 8500 with one KO card, dual gave me 10,450 with the 77.79 Nvidia drivers. Installed the 81.85 drivers and my score dropped to between 7900 and 8500 with several runs. I reinstalled to 77.79 drivers and my score is 10,330.
 
That's very interesting...I'll have to try a roll-back from the newest driver...thanks alot...I have a feeling this might help.
 
c1001 said:
I have a dual 7800gtx ko with 4800+ setup. My 3DMark05 score was around 8500 with one KO card, dual gave me 10,450 with the 77.79 Nvidia drivers. Installed the 81.85 drivers and my score dropped to between 7900 and 8500 with several runs. I reinstalled to 77.79 drivers and my score is 10,330.
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I uninstalled the new drivers and installed the 78.01...now it says that I have to remove cards that aren't SLI compatible for SLI to run...I have two of the same cards, so that doesn't make sense...the only thing that I can think of is that I have two different color cards...man WTF that wouldn't even remotely cause problems
 
HeavyH20 said:
One thought. That PSU has 2 x 12V rails, correct? If so, you may be loading up one too far and the other too little. So, you end up running your SLI system on 350 Watts.
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I've never tweaked the rails before...how would I go about doing that...if you don't mind me asking
 
Sorry for asking the obvious, but have you set it to SLI in the Driver?
 
the 78.01 will not even let me switch on the the SLI mode...it says one of my cards is incompatible...btw I have a digital SLI switch on my P4n Diamond motherboard..so it automatically switches over
 
If your graphics drivers and chipset drivers are from the same company, you should reinstall the chipset drivers first before you install any graphics driver.

Your dual 7800GTX cards on your nForce4 SLI Intel Edition should have supported SLI with the 75-series drivers.
 
Ether said:
Sorry for asking the obvious, but have you set it to SLI in the Driver?
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Also make sure your bridge is on tight, and check the power cables to your cards I had the same problem found that one of the power cables was only in half way in :confused: Take the cards out and reseat them. Hope this helps :D
 
If you get that message on the older driver. Your KO's have two different BIOS revs. One is probably 02 and the other 03. They need to be the same.

Also, I have got better performance with SLI on the newer 81.85 than previous versions. I get around 12,000 with no OC on the cards. With an X2, that should be around 13,000.
 
HeavyH20 said:
If you get that message on the older driver. Your KO's have two different BIOS revs. One is probably 02 and the other 03. They need to be the same.

Also, I have got better performance with SLI on the newer 81.85 than previous versions. I get around 12,000 with no OC on the cards. With an X2, that should be around 13,000.
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Yes, I am expecting more from my very expensive setup. So far, I am less than impressed with not only these benches, but with choppy, performance in both GPU and CPU intensive games like FEAR and RTW.
 
HeavyH20 said:
If you get that message on the older driver. Your KO's have two different BIOS revs. One is probably 02 and the other 03. They need to be the same.

Also, I have got better performance with SLI on the newer 81.85 than previous versions. I get around 12,000 with no OC on the cards. With an X2, that should be around 13,000.
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I'm emailing eVGA about the BIOS's ...is there any place that you know of that will let me download the newest one?
 
Rudager said:
I'm emailing eVGA about the BIOS's ...is there any place that you know of that will let me download the newest one?
Click to expand...

Too bad. You can get an updated BIOS version only by e-mail from the graphics card manufacturer: You either e-mail the manufacturer's technical support or call that manufacturer's support line, and they will send the latest BIOS to you by e-mail.

Also, when you flash the graphics card to the latest BIOS, be sure to have only a single card in the system at a time. The two cards must be flashed separately.
 
it does sound like your gpu bios is to blame but why the hell get an intel sli mobo when the amd sli boards are so much more mature and their issues known? not trying to flame here just inserting some common sense.
 
I had the same problem once with two GT's as I forgot to flip the jumpers on my DFI mobo to SLI mode.

You said there is some sort or of digital switch on your mobo that does this automatically?

Seems strange as some people want dual video cards and want to have nothing to do with SLI.

Check your manual and make sure there are no jumpers to switch... also, go into your BIOS and make sure you dont have to change a setting that enables SLI.

That it what I imagine, it's something in your BIOS.

Actually... I suggest calling the maker of your mobo, not the video card maker.

Like I said, I got the EXACT same error before when I had forgot to switch my motherboard jumpers.

Give them a call.

EDIT - Oh yeah... and dont listen to these people telling you to worry about your video card bios. Actually, with the 80.XX series of nvidia drivers there is NO NEED to have the same bios on your cards... in fact, you dont even need the same card!

It's part of the revisions with the new drivers and has been tested time and time again.

Trust me, it's your motherboard.
 
spaceman said:
it does sound like your gpu bios is to blame but why the hell get an intel sli mobo when the amd sli boards are so much more mature and their issues known? not trying to flame here just inserting some common sense.
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because I didn't want to buy a new CPU
 
E4g1e said:
That's a poor excuse for cheaping out on upgrading to SLI. You see, the nForce4 SLI Intel Edition chipset is still not mature enough, even today. In fact, given your current CPU, at this point you will likely attain nearly the same 3DMark05 score with a single-card configuration on an Intel 955X chipset-based PCI-e motherboard as you would with the dual-SLI setup on your current motherboard.
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*applaudes* You're right
 
E4g1e said:
That's a poor excuse for cheaping out on upgrading to SLI.
Click to expand...

The cost of a new mobo and CPU in the real world with real constraints is a pretty good excuse to cheap out on SLI. We do what we can within our budget and priorities.
 
GRAFiZ said:
EDIT - Oh yeah... and dont listen to these people telling you to worry about your video card bios. Actually, with the 80.XX series of nvidia drivers there is NO NEED to have the same bios on your cards... in fact, you dont even need the same card!

It's part of the revisions with the new drivers and has been tested time and time again.

Trust me, it's your motherboard.
Click to expand...

True of the newer driver. He was getting the error message on the older 78.xx driver which he was trying to use. Just because you can does not mean that you should. You will get less performance with two diffrerent cards than two matched cards. I have a BFG GTX OC and a Leadtek 7800 GTX Extreme, so I able to test this scenario first hand. 10,800 with the stock BIOS on each. 12,000 with the same BIOS. While using two different cards does work, it is less than optimal. Besides, since he has the same cards, might as well make the BIOS the same. It is easy enough. And, you can flash both cards while installed in SLI. I do it all the time. You can choose which card you want to flash or simply do both.
 
HeavyH20 said:
True of the newer driver. He was getting the error message on the older 78.xx driver which he was trying to use. One item, you will get less performance with two diffrerent cards than two matched cards. I have a BFG GTX OC and a Leadtek 7800 GTX Extremem, so I tested this. 10,800 with the stock BIOS on each. 12,000 with the same BIOS. While using two different cards does work, it is less than optimal. Besides, since he has the same cards, might as well make the BIOS the same. It is easy enough. And, you can flash both cards while installed in SLI. I do it all the time.
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I stand corrected, in this case. And I previously mentioned flashing the BIOS of the two cards separately - that is, unless the user wants to flash both cards to the same BIOS version. In that case, the user may leave the two cards connected in SLI when flash-updating the video BIOS.

As for obtaining the update BIOS, most video card manufacturers restrict the availability. As a result, there is no public download site which has the video BIOS updates available for all cards; the user must e-mail the graphics card manufacturer's technical support, and then the manufacturer will e-mail the updated BIOS back to the user.
 
UPDATE:
According to eVGA there is no BIOS revision for this card...so they have to be the same...crap. Also, I went into the BIOS and made sure everything was enabled/disabled as they should be, no change...crap. I have SLI enabled, no change...crap. I guess I could test the 12V+ rails as HeavyH20 suggested...hopefully that's it.I have the newest BIOS for my mobo..and the newest drivers. I'm definitely at a loss right now...because I might as well not have bought another GPU and a new motherboard if I'm getting these results.

If anyone has anymore suggestions...I thank you in advance
 
so...with 2x video cards inserted, how can you check what their individual BIOS versions are? Device Manager doesn't show BIOS version. In the Display -> Advanced Settings -> Adapter, only one video card and BIOS version (version 5.70.02.11.01) is shown.
Do I physically remove and test each card individually?
 
c1001 said:
so...with 2x video cards inserted, how can you check what their individual BIOS versions are? Device Manager doesn't show BIOS version. In the Display -> Advanced Settings -> Adapter, only one video card and BIOS version (version 5.70.02.11.01) is shown.
Do I physically remove and test each card individually?
Click to expand...

I didn't do anything...I just called up eVGA and they told me there was no new update
 
Well... Intel performance is rather poor compared to AMD these days, but those numbers still seem way too low.

Remember though, 3d mark 2005 is not a very good inidicator of gaming performance.

Try this though... remove one of the cards and run 3dmark05, if you get lets say 6XXX or something, then after putting the second card back in you get your previous results you'll know for sure SLI is enabled and that would lead to just one thing... CPU bottleneck.

At which point you'll have to decide, stick with it or switch to an AMD64 system.

Frankly, you're the ONLY person I know using Intel with SLI... SLI is very CPU dependant and the Intel stuff just doesnt cut it these days with gaming situations.

Sorry bro.

Oh yeah... one last thing, there is no way it's your power supply... seriously, sometimes the people around here come up with the oddest things. Poor 12v rails would not keep the second card from working right, it would instead create instability with your system. The second you were to load a 3d app, the system would crash if your power supply wasnt up to snuff.

Trust me, you're barking down the wrong tree worrying about power supplys or bios's. That aint it... it's either a simple setting that is wrong... or more likely, your two cards are maxing out your P4's ability.

Try what I suggest... remove the second card and run the test, I'll bet you get 6XXX something with 3dmark. Thinking about it, I'll bet your score is essentually the best you're going to get with a P4.
 
GRAFiZ said:
Well... Intel performance is rather poor compared to AMD these days, but those numbers still seem way too low.

Remember though, 3d mark 2005 is not a very good inidicator of gaming performance.

Try this though... remove one of the cards and run 3dmark05, if you get lets say 6XXX or something, then after putting the second card back in you get your previous results you'll know for sure SLI is enabled and that would lead to just one thing... CPU bottleneck.

<snip>

Trust me, you're barking down the wrong tree worrying about power supplys or bios's. That aint it... it's either a simple setting that is wrong... or more likely, your two cards are maxing out your P4's ability.

Try what I suggest... remove the second card and run the test, I'll bet you get 6XXX something with 3dmark. Thinking about it, I'll bet your score is essentually the best you're going to get with a P4.
Click to expand...

Actually, I've tried comparing my 7000-ish score to those of the Intel 3.8GHz P4's which also use the same GPU as mine (a single 7800GT). Every single one of those Intel systems beat my score (according to the submitted projects on the Futuremark ORB site) - but every one of those systems also overclock their GPUs and graphics memory. Thus, this particular comparison is meaningless.

By the way, 3DMark05 has a bug which reports the clockspeed of a GeForce 7800 series GPU as 40MHz higher than its actual clockspeed. Thus, treat 3DMark's report of 510MHz to be the same as an actual 470MHz clockspeed for the 7800GT and 7800GTX GPUs.
 
E4g1e said:
Actually, I've tried comparing my 7000-ish score to those of the Intel 3.8GHz P4's which also use the same GPU as mine (a single 7800GT). Every single one of those Intel systems beat my score (according to the submitted projects on the Futuremark ORB site) - but every one of those systems also overclock their GPUs and graphics memory. Thus, this particular comparison is meaningless.

By the way, 3DMark05 has a bug which reports the clockspeed of a GeForce 7800 series GPU as 40MHz higher than its actual clockspeed. Thus, treat 3DMark's report of 510MHz to be the same as an actual 470MHz clockspeed for the 7800GT and 7800GTX GPUs.
Click to expand...

Actually... I just did some checking and his scores are exactly as they should be for a P4 of his speed with two 7800GTX in SLI.

Check this review out:

http://www.pcmoddingmy.com/content.php?review.294.6

They got nearly the same score with nearly the same specs.

Frankly I'm shocked by it... hell, I was getting over 10,000 with my AMD64 at 2.5ghz and dual 6800GT's.

I have reached 13,4XX with my newer 2.7ghz X2 and dual 7800GT's.

So, what this says is either Intel's use of SLI is VERY poor... which I assume is a driver problem that will be fixed later... or, the P$ just doesnt have the juice to use SLI as it should.

Either way I'm shocked.

EDIT - Oh, by the way... I believe 3dmark05 is reporting accurate core speeds as the GTX utilizes something called "geometric clock" which increases the speed by 40mhz... most of the GT's have the same feature and it has in fact created many reports of graphical glitches as the core simply isn't capable of running at such a speed. This is why several companies have released bios updates for the GT's, just to turn off the "geometric clock" feature which removed the glitches... although, it also lessens the performance a touch.
 
GRAFiZ said:
Actually... I just did some checking and his scores are exactly as they should be for a P4 of his speed with two 7800GTX in SLI.

Check this review out:

http://www.pcmoddingmy.com/content.php?review.294.6

They got nearly the same score with nearly the same specs.

Frankly I'm shocked by it... hell, I was getting over 10,000 with my AMD64 at 2.5ghz and dual 6800GT's.

I have reached 13,4XX with my newer 2.7ghz X2 and dual 7800GT's.

So, what this says is either Intel's use of SLI is VERY poor... which I assume is a driver problem that will be fixed later... or, the P$ just doesnt have the juice to use SLI as it should.

Either way I'm shocked.

EDIT - Oh, by the way... I believe 3dmark05 is reporting accurate core speeds as the GTX utilizes something called "geometric clock" which increases the speed by 40mhz... most of the GT's have the same feature and it has in fact created many reports of graphical glitches as the core simply isn't capable of running at such a speed. This is why several companies have released bios updates for the GT's, just to turn off the "geometric clock" feature which removed the glitches... although, it also lessens the performance a touch.
Click to expand...

That just confirms that though there is *some* improvement in performance scores on an Intel (nForce4 SLI Intel Edition) platform with SLI enabled, it's the Intel platform itself which makes poor use of SLI. That is a hardware issue, and cannot be fixed with a driver update. Intel stubbornly continues to refuse to incorporate an integrated memory controller in their high-end CPUs; as such, the memory controller is on the motherboard, where the data from the CPU must travel through the long, inefficient FSB pipe in order to get to and from the memory controller.
 
Rudager said:
I uninstalled the new drivers and installed the 78.01...now it says that I have to remove cards that aren't SLI compatible for SLI to run...I have two of the same cards, so that doesn't make sense...the only thing that I can think of is that I have two different color cards...man WTF that wouldn't even remotely cause problems
Click to expand...

LOL!! shit get the spray paint out. If your cards are different colors you can't use them in SLI. And that won't be fixed until Det 90.xx come out! :eek: ;)

You probably have different BIOS revisions and thats why with the 7x.xx drivers it says incompatible cards for SLI. Use the official WHQL'd 81.xx drivers and you should be ok.

Next use the search & compare thing on futuremark. Now here's the thing. The first few pages are going to be people with probably water cooled GPU's and even if their CPU is also 3.6Ghz, it might be an overclocked 630 (3Ghz) chip with a much higher FSB, and faster ram, etc... so if you're not overclocking anything DON'T expect to be in the top few pages of results for similar set ups. Then 2nd your system is probably kind of "rare" If anyone has an SLI Intel system, they're probably going to be in to overclocking, etc... so there probably won't be many results in the first place, and the few people that do have similar systems will probably be tweakers with better performance.
 
chrisf6969 said:
LOL!! shit get the spray paint out. If your cards are different colors you can't use them in SLI. And that won't be fixed until Det 90.xx come out! :eek: ;)

No, they are the exactly the same cards from the exact same company. There's no way they could be different...My cards come with these weird heatsinks...and they allow you to choose a color...plus eVGA says there is no BIOS revision out yet.
Click to expand...
 
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