3D Mark dropped 1k for no reason.

[Dakker]

I was getting consistent 13.5k with default settings after reformatting and installing the inf driver for AGP correction the other day, which is much improved over the 9.5k i used to get before the inf update.

Anyway, I OC more a bit the other day, and ran 3Dmark to test it out, and my score had dropped 1k. I have uninstalled everything short of windows, including resetting BIOS and reinstalling 2 different versions of display drivers for my card, and nothing seems to want to put it back where it was.

Has anyone else experienced something like this, and if so, what did you need to do to fix it?

Edit: Yes I tried cutting the OC back to where it was.

[CamH]

Maybe you have some background programs that are running and hurting your performance. Open up the task manager and end all non critical processes before benchmarking!

[Dakker]

I tried that already, and it gained me about 4 points.

The ONLY thing I can think of is that I might have had service pack 1 installed. And I reinstalled windows about 3 days ago, and haven't reinstalled SP 1 yet.

Anyone know if that makes a difference?

[leggysoe]

too much overclocking may decrease its performance

[DManeKid]

that usually happens when i install the control panel for the drivers... i dont know if it happens anymore but drivers other than the recent ones had different ways of using the settings... there was no way to turn off the AA/AF you could only set it to application preference and for some reason even though 3dmark01 said it wasnt on, it would still be on, i even tried changing the settings in 3dmark01 and the scored stayed the same... yeah... so i dont know if this will work but it always def lowered my score by about 1000pts...

[Lt. Max]

it might be different drivers.. i had a set of 44.43's and i scored 9700.. now i reformatted and with the latest drivers from nvidia website i score 8800.. its wierd.. and i dont understand why there would be a jump down in performance like that over the older drivers..

[CrystalMethod]

It may be the drivers the Cat's altered when they were installed that may be causing the drop in performance. Try doing a windows repair and see if that cures the problem. It'll reset all the windows drivers back to their original state.