Getting Lower 3DMark05 Score.

[Azn Tr14dZ]

A few months ago, when I last ran 3DMark05, the score I was getting was ~5900 with my Athlon 3200+ @ 2.75Ghz, and my X800XL @ 441 Core/543 Mem and EMT. Now, a few months later, I ran 3DMark05 and instead of getting ~5900, I'm getting a score in the Mid 5600. I don't know what could've caused a lower score than usual. In CCC, AA is off, AF, is off, and I really don't know what's lowering my FPS. Even in Oblivion I can tell that my FPS is a lot lower than what it used to be.

[mullered07]

What Drivers You Using ? Have You Defragged Recently, Emptied Temp Files And Disabled All Startup Items Etc And Got The Same Oc On Your X800 (all Im Sure Of Which Youve Done? :d) Also I Set Ccc To Perf See If That Helps

Aside From That I Find A Clean Install Of Xp Every 4-6 Months Is Needed Anyway. My 2 Cents

[Azn Tr14dZ]

Originally Posted by mullered07

What Drivers You Using ? Have You Defragged Recently, Emptied Temp Files And Disabled All Startup Items Etc And Got The Same Oc On Your X800 (all Im Sure Of Which Youve Done? :d) Also I Set Ccc To Perf See If That Helps

Aside From That I Find A Clean Install Of Xp Every 4-6 Months Is Needed Anyway. My 2 Cents

I did most of that stuff. But the last time I re-installed Windows XP, I had to re-activate the code from MS, which was a HUGE hassle. I'm afraid (not really) to re-install XP and find out that I have to call MS again and re-activate the code.

[DOM]

Do you register yours cuz after I do that I dont have to call them and mines oem

And I re-installed it lots of time but a while back I did have to call them but now I just register then it re-activate when I finish the register

Also what cat are you using have you changed it since your last bench ?

[Azn Tr14dZ]

Do I HAVE to register so that I don't have to re-activate it?

And any other ideas as to why my score just drops 300 Points? I didn't really change anything between those few months when I didn't run 3DMark.

[Kreij]

It's highly likely that some background process is running now that was not running then, and it is eating up some CPU cycles

[Azn Tr14dZ]

Originally Posted by Kreij

It's highly likely that some background process is running now that was not running then, and it is eating up some CPU cycles

Should I turn off my Anti-Virus and others as well?

[Kreij]

I would shut off anything that wasn't required to run 3DMark.

[Azn Tr14dZ]

What else?

[Tatty_One]

Originally Posted by Azn Tr14dZ

What else?

Shut down everything in the sys tray M8 that is not neccesary and go into task manager and stop any processes that are not system that you can relate to that you dont need. You can try this little beastie if you want, I use it all the time and it saves you the hassle, it just auto shuts down any non essiential services, you still need to close your items in the sys tray but this looks after all your unnecessary windows processes, you can just double click on "start service" when done to enable them all again:

[Tatty_One]

Forgot to say, only other things I can think of is you are eithewr using different drivers for the card....have you updated since your old test? and are your memory timings/speeds the same?

[Azn Tr14dZ]

Originally Posted by Tatty_One

Forgot to say, only other things I can think of is you are eithewr using different drivers for the card....have you updated since your old test? and are your memory timings/speeds the same?

Yeah, the Enhanced Memory Timings are the same, the speeds are similar, maybe within a few Mhz of each other. The only thing that's been updated was the Catalyst Drivers, and the CPU overclock of 2.75Ghz hasn't changed one bit. I'm planning on just re-installing Windows XP, but I don't want to call MS to re-activate my number/code.

[Azn Tr14dZ]

One more question:

Before I re-install Windows XP, should I return my CPU's Overclock to stock speeds, or would it be OK at the Overclocked speeds when I do the clean install?

[theonetruewill]

Originally Posted by Azn Tr14dZ

One more question:

Before I re-install Windows XP, should I return my CPU's Overclock to stock speeds, or would it be OK at the Overclocked speeds when I do the clean install?

I've reinstalled twice with no problems with my system when it was overclocked. But perhaps to be on the safe side you could bring it back to default. But to be honest, if it's stable there's really no need.

[Azn Tr14dZ]

Originally Posted by theonetruewill

I've reinstalled twice with no problems with my system when it was overclocked. But perhaps to be on the safe side you could bring it back to default. But to be honest, if it's stable there's really no need.

I was just about to return it to stock, but I realized that my DFI has CMOS Reloaded, so I just saved my OC Profile, and I'll load it after the re-install. Thanks!

Just in case my code/number doesn't work, will MS give me a new one to activate XP?

EDIT: Well, I'll just do a clean install of XP again just to make sure, then bring my CPU and GPU overclocks back.

Thanks, I'll post later to see how it goes.

[theonetruewill]

If you paid for XP (which you have) then they have to give you a new key if your one doesn't work, but more often they'll just reactivate it if you phone. As you've said before it's a hassle, but they've got no right refusing to allow you to activate.

Hope the reinstall fixes your problems, they're a hassle but are generally necessary.

[Azn Tr14dZ]

I'm getting frustrated, can you help me one more time with one more problem...I need to install RAID 0...

[theonetruewill]

http://forums.kustompcs.co.uk/showthread.php?t=9069

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=830

Hope those help.

[Azn Tr14dZ]

Thank you...I'll be back in a bit to either 1) ask more questions or 2) tell you that I succeeded.

[Azn Tr14dZ]

Well, I got ~5750, and that's with the overclock and without the EMT.

EDIT: With EMT, I got 5921. Thanks for the help.