not getting 100% out of quadcore

[rage]

hi,

i have build a new rig recently, but i just noticed something that bothers me.

first, here's the specs :

asus rampage extreme

intel q5500 2.6 GHz @ 3.2 Ghz fsb 400/1600

4 GB kingston hyperx 2 dimms 7-7-7-20 @ 667 Mhz

2x sapphire HD4890 vapor-x o.c. edition 870/1050 1 GB in crossfire

ocz agility 60 GB ssd

ocz 600 watt powersupply

os win7 x64 with latest cat

after the build, on stock clocks i ran 3dmark06 and give me a score of 17154

ok fine with that. and no problem running new games @ 1920x1080

cpu load doesn't seem high, nearly almost around 30%(average of the 4 cores)

but, i dicided to play with the fsb and stuff and i came to the above speeds.
sure it can go much furter but i must upgrade my cooling first. ran 3dmark again, not expecting any increase due to the low cpu load. i didn't change the GPU's.
result: 19242 3d marks

ran an other session of 3d mark, now watching carefully what happens.
it seem that cpu 0 is @100% load, the other 3 are just fluctuating in load, not getting above 25%. used gpuz to monitor the 2 gfx card's , they just go only 50% load each

it seems that they are using just one core, instead of al 4.

anyone noticed this before? or is 3dm06 not supporting for multiple cpu's?
or is there a way to fix this so i can get the full potential from the rig?

any idea's or tips are welcome, this quad and crossfire stuff is new to me.

 

[newtekie1]

3DMark06 is not optimized to use more than 1 core, that is one of the many reasons it is a shitty benchmark.

3DMark Vantage should utilized at least two of the cores, if not 4, but it still isn't really a great benchmark. And to be perfectly honest, most games don't even use more than 1 or maybe 2 cores. Though there isn't a single game out that will be held back by a Q9550@3.6GHz.

 

[sneekypeet]

if you want to be sure they are all functioning, get OCCT, Prime95, IntelBurnTest (IBT) or LinX and use taskmanager to see what the cores do then

 

[GREASEMONKEY]

If you really want to see them all get used to the max........http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=85784
Crunching for TPU will do it.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

If you really want to see them all get used to the max........http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=85784
Crunching for TPU will do it.

that's my Q9650's daily workout.

 

[newtekie1]

Meh...all the cool kids know CPU SMP Folding is where it's at...

 

[Mussels]

25% load 'average' (task manager) means one core is fully loaded (25%) plus a little extra.


You wont get any gains in programs that dont use four cores.

 

[rage]

3DMark06 is not optimized to use more than 1 core, that is one of the many reasons it is a shitty benchmark.

3DMark Vantage should utilized at least two of the cores, if not 4, but it still isn't really a great benchmark. And to be perfectly honest, most games don't even use more than 1 or maybe 2 cores. Though there isn't a single game out that will be held back by a Q9550@3.6GHz.

i got the vantage edition, came with the mobo.
hmm in this way it indeed is a crappy benchmark, any performance gain on the GPU's won't show. in game the 1 or 2 gpu setup realy makes a differance, in 3dmark only a few points..less than a 100.starts making sense now:shadedshu

any suggestions on other benchmarks?

by the way: when using prime95 al the cores go to 100%, so thats just fine
i can see the loads on my G15 keyboard, realy nice when running fullscreen stuff.