Benchmarking PC - my PC's too slow! Help!
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Benchmarking PC - my PC's too slow! Help!
For a while now, I've thought my home PC was a little more sluggish than it should be. I thought it was down to RAM, only having 512mb, so two nights ago I fitted an extra gig. Made an improvement, but not by much
I ran PCMark05 benchmarking and got 2620, whereas a system like mine on their comparison service, got over 4200, with the difference being he has 2gig RAM, mine has 1.5, his had 128mb graphics RAM, mine has 512Mb.
The system is:-
Pentium 4 3.4Ghz CPU LGA775 (I think its 64 bit with hyper-threading)
1.5Gb RAM - 2x256Mb, 2x512Mb PC3200 DDR ram.
Abit AGP motherboard
Nvidia Geforce 4 6200 AGP graphics card with 512Mb RAM
Soundblaster Live PCI card
Wireless network card
1x floppy
1x DVD reader
1x DVD writer
3x hard drives, 2 IDE, one SATA. One for Windows ©, one for Applications (D), one for data (E). Plenty of space on my Windows drive for swapfile.
Running Windows XP Pro SP2 all patched and up-to-date. Latest drivers.
I left the machine running 3DMark2005 this morning, although the frame rates were pathetic, I'll find out the results later when/if I get home.
Any suggestions of what to do.
I ran PCMark05 benchmarking and got 2620, whereas a system like mine on their comparison service, got over 4200, with the difference being he has 2gig RAM, mine has 1.5, his had 128mb graphics RAM, mine has 512Mb.
The system is:-
Pentium 4 3.4Ghz CPU LGA775 (I think its 64 bit with hyper-threading)
1.5Gb RAM - 2x256Mb, 2x512Mb PC3200 DDR ram.
Abit AGP motherboard
Nvidia Geforce 4 6200 AGP graphics card with 512Mb RAM
Soundblaster Live PCI card
Wireless network card
1x floppy
1x DVD reader
1x DVD writer
3x hard drives, 2 IDE, one SATA. One for Windows ©, one for Applications (D), one for data (E). Plenty of space on my Windows drive for swapfile.
Running Windows XP Pro SP2 all patched and up-to-date. Latest drivers.
I left the machine running 3DMark2005 this morning, although the frame rates were pathetic, I'll find out the results later when/if I get home.
Any suggestions of what to do.
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Graphics card is ****e. Thats the bottle neck. Get a better AGP card - Something like a 6800GT or ultra or a X800XT f you can find one. AGP cards aren;t commonplace these days.
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doesn't stop someone elses system, same mobo, same processor, same gfx card (same chipset but less video ram) having a PC Mark 05 benchmark 60% greater than mine.
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Agreed, the graphics card is worth £19.99, the 512mb ram is no good if the GPU isn't any good. A 128mb card can be a lot faster if the GPU is running faster or is 128-256 bit rather than 64bit.
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Have you got the proper motherboard drivers installed ?
When you go into task manager is the CPU sitting beween 1 and 3% at al times when idle ?
How many processes are running at once ?
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Remember a X1950 pro is only £100 inc vat at the moment, so don't over spend.
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X850XT - where from? Looking at buy-it-now prices on Ebay.
again X1950 Pro £ 100 inc VAT - where from? Edit: found some at Scan.
again X1950 Pro £ 100 inc VAT - where from? Edit: found some at Scan.
Last edited by Pumpkin; 08 February 2007 at 09:55 AM.
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It all comes down to what you want to do, but you could buy these as great upgrade:
ebuyer.com - Graphics Cards » Graphics Cards ATI » ATI Radeon X1950 Range » Product details
X1950pro - £101.22 with dual DVi etc and is crossfire ready (there are cheaper out there)
If not the X800 AGP would do for a while
ebuyer.com - Graphics Cards » Graphics Cards ATI » ATI Radeon X1950 Range » Product details
X1950pro - £101.22 with dual DVi etc and is crossfire ready (there are cheaper out there)
- ATI Radeon X1950 PRO - 580MHz
- 256MB-256bit 8 channel GDDR3 memory - 1.40GHz
- 36 Pixel shader processor
- Ultra-threaded SM 3.0 Engine
- HDCP Ready
- Crossfire2 READY
If not the X800 AGP would do for a while
Last edited by lightning101; 08 February 2007 at 09:58 AM.
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ebuyer.com - Motherboards » Motherboards Intel » Socket LGA 775 Intel » Product details
Even supports conroe dual core for later upgrading £33.95 inc vat with a PCI-E slot and whole raft of features
Even supports conroe dual core for later upgrading £33.95 inc vat with a PCI-E slot and whole raft of features
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my main pc uses, apart from websurfing and email is a bit of gaming when I get some spare time, mainly racing games - eg Toca3, Live for Speed, and fps perspective adventures / shooters, and photography / photo editing with photoshop.
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definately upgrade the gfx card then if you do gaming. Surprised a 6200 would run anything at a decent rate.
with regards to your probs, run spyware checkers etc to see if you something else is hogging your system, also you say you upgraded your memory, is the new memory the same speed as the older memory? maybe try removing the old 512mb and seeing if that makes a difference.
with regards to your probs, run spyware checkers etc to see if you something else is hogging your system, also you say you upgraded your memory, is the new memory the same speed as the older memory? maybe try removing the old 512mb and seeing if that makes a difference.
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I frequently run spyware checkers to make sure there isn't any nasties.
I'll try removing the old memory and just have the new memory and see if there is any improvement.
I'll try removing the old memory and just have the new memory and see if there is any improvement.
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The other thing worth bearing in mind is what settings you have on the graphics card when you run the test.
For example, running the test at 1024X768 with no AA or AF will yield a far higher score than running the same test at 1280X1024 with 4 X FSAA and 8X AF.
All test results really are is ***** waving tools. Real world performance is what matters - If you are happy with the frame rate /effects at the moment, dont upgrade just to get a higher test score.
For example, running the test at 1024X768 with no AA or AF will yield a far higher score than running the same test at 1280X1024 with 4 X FSAA and 8X AF.
All test results really are is ***** waving tools. Real world performance is what matters - If you are happy with the frame rate /effects at the moment, dont upgrade just to get a higher test score.
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I run with AA and AF turned off.
My brother and I play Live for Speed. My typical frame rate is 35 without fancy effect. His is 170 with full effects. He has the X850 Ati chipset.
My brother and I play Live for Speed. My typical frame rate is 35 without fancy effect. His is 170 with full effects. He has the X850 Ati chipset.
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taskmanager at idle 1% 36 processes
3dmark 05
3DMark Score 1193 3DMarks
CPU Score 4189 CPUMarks
Detailed Test Results
Game Tests
GT1 - Return To Proxycon 5.6 fps
GT2 - Firefly Forest 3.8 fps
GT3 - Canyon Flight 5.0 fps
CPU Tests
CPU Test 1 2.2 fps
CPU Test 2 3.6 fps
3dmark 05
3DMark Score 1193 3DMarks
CPU Score 4189 CPUMarks
Detailed Test Results
Game Tests
GT1 - Return To Proxycon 5.6 fps
GT2 - Firefly Forest 3.8 fps
GT3 - Canyon Flight 5.0 fps
CPU Tests
CPU Test 1 2.2 fps
CPU Test 2 3.6 fps
Last edited by Pumpkin; 08 February 2007 at 07:06 PM.
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So the processor is working just fine and the 3D card is no better than an inbuilt freebie. Either go for the AGP x800 for now or try the PCI-E motherboard and an X1950 pro as above, both will make a huge difference both in the test and in real world gaming and 3D geometry processing.
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So the processor is working just fine and the 3D card is no better than an inbuilt freebie. Either go for the AGP x800 for now or try the PCI-E motherboard and an X1950 pro as above, both will make a huge difference both in the test and in real world gaming and 3D geometry processing.
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OK thanks for the advice.
I think I need to find my wallet
Changing to a PCI-E mobo now makes some sense, so will start doing my research.
Andrew
I think I need to find my wallet
Changing to a PCI-E mobo now makes some sense, so will start doing my research.
Andrew
Last edited by Pumpkin; 09 February 2007 at 09:18 AM.
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12,500
You know that there's an 880GTX in the equation somewhere
(as to OP... run msconfig and look at the startup tab, check out the processes that are set to run at startup and see which ones shouldn't be there)
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#30
its more likely the processes running & a pc full of sh1te. So often people at work complain their computer is slow. They got the same as me yet mine is clean & organised while theres is a mess. removed unrequired ****, defrag the HD, check processes, spyware. its makes a hellofa difference.