Marathon Benching Competition Rules

Overview: The Marathon Benching Competition will be an on going points based competition. Points will be awarded dependent on placement. There is NO limit on cooling, CPU speed, memory speed...etc... This is going to be an all out competition, in order to make it fair there will be separate divisions for AMD and Intel in both 2d and 3d benches. This means someone benching an FX-8350 won't be directly competing against someone with a 3770k, except in points, not with direct scores/times. The competition will be comprised of four months 2d, then four months 3d, with a different benchmark being focused on each month. 3D will be split into two divisions single GPU core and multi GPU core and on CPU dependent benches it will be split into AMD and Intel. Points will be tallied after conclusion and a winner announced, if it is a draw there will be an added two weeks for those tied to battle in a tie breaker (selected in a week long poll). Any disputes will be handled by the judges.

The Marathon Benching Competition Rules:

Points:
- will be awarded the same in both the Intel and AMD divisions
2D
- First place 3 points
- Second place 2 points
- anyone who takes part gets 1 point
3D
- Points will be awarded on how far above or below the average score your score is.
-Formula: your points = ((your score/average score)*3)
-below average get less and 3 points, above average score get more than 3 points.

General Rules:
- Must use current competition background (posted in current competition thread)
- Must follow Hwbot rules for submissions (here for reference)
- Only allowed to compete in either the AMD or Intel division any given month (can't try and win both divisions in the same month)
- Submissions made via the form in the current thread and post a screen shot of your submission in the current months thread.
Prize:
Coming soon
Judges:
- bmwbaxter
- xsuperbgx
- more coming soon

When does this start? Edit: Nvm. It already has

Leegit said:

When does this start? Edit: Nvm. It already has

Click to expand...

You can still join in anytime, it lasts for a long time

I should be all set up around end of July

Can we go back and do all of them for points, or if we started late we can't compete?

You can submit going forward but the deadlines are up for the previous months, just have fun with it. There's always another one

I'm considering some changes for point calculations and would like some input. The wjhole idea IMO for the marathon is involvement and fun in a small competition. Now I realize that not everyone can afford the best of the best but would still like to compete. ATMINSIDE mentioned this last year when it comes to the GPU portion the scoring gets a bit skewed when people can get more than 3 pts for top position. I do like the way it was set up with multi tied score though so I have a proposal which could also apply to the CPU section.
Current scoring is (your score/average score*3) SO to visualize 32000/30000 *3 = 3.2 assuming the average of all scores was 30,000 the score in question gets a weight of 3.2
My proposal would have only the top score getting 3 points and all the rest weighted against that with a minimum score of 1 here is my proposed formula (your score/ top score * 3) or 32000/38000 * 3 = 2.53. I think this would stop the excessive points from the GPU part of the marathon. I'm also considering a per core type system for the CPU leg of the marathon similar to what I trialed in the summer. Some benchmarks really favour multiple cores/threads and make it impossible for an i5 to compete against a 5960x.
Any input/suggestions/ideas are welcome

Well, you know my answer...

1. separate divisions (AMD/Intel)
2. eliminate sub ambient cooling
3. put a cap on cores (in multi threaded benchmarks) for CPU benchmarks.

This takes away basic matheseseses to make it fair.

On the GPU side, there is nothing you can do that wouldn't limit participation I can think of.

I'm always hesitant on the cooling side. I think it give our members a reason to experiment. As for GPU I was just trying to keep the scores more in line with the CPU portion of the marathon.

I think I live on top of a hardware handicap, never have the best gear. but I try to fight through whatever we have going on

Johan45 said:

I'm always hesitant on the cooling side. I think it give our members a reason to experiment. As for GPU I was just trying to keep the scores more in line with the CPU portion of the marathon.

Click to expand...

It also gives others a reason not to compete. Its discouraging, even for me, to put my best foot forward on ambient, only to get stomped by LN2 or a $1K processor in something like this. I can't imagine what that does to some others (or maybe its just me, LOL!). Understand that, those that go cold, will go cold without encouragement from a non boint bearing forum friendly competition(s). We encourage new members to test on ambient in the forums before going cold... that is what I feel these are... warm ups so there is no need for sub ambient and that potential 'why should I bother to compete when I get rolled by $1K processors and LN2'.

I think I live on top of a hardware handicap, never have the best gear. but I try to fight through whatever we have going on

Click to expand...

That's the spirit to have.. but not everyone shares in it.

So , no extreme cooling is what you would like to see. I'm thinking of doing something possible November or December which is geared more toward HWBot points and I wouldn't want to limit people that way. I realize that may hamper some ambient/H2O coolers but I was looking more toward a boost in team points.

And a core limit.

You are in a pickle though with that... you need to determine if the point of these comps are for boints (then limiting cooling and cores would be counterproductive), or a friendly forum competition. If its the latter, then yeah, cap cooling and cores. If its the former, no holds barred. That isn't to say you can't go back and forth as you wish of course. But if the point is to get people interested and tweaking, then limits on cooling and cores is a must IMO. Akin to bringing a gun to a knife fight.

For the most part I'm always hoping that people can improve their standings at the bot with every months competition. I was mostly looking for a way to alter the scoring to try and keep it fairer. How a bout a cold handicap?

Im always down with that in friendlies like this.

As far as the math, that works too... I just caution you again on your LOE to do these things... K.I.S.S.

What would the formula be for cold handicap?
just steal the golf handicap formula?

EarthDog said:

Im always down with that in friendlies like this.

As far as the math, that works too... I just caution you again on your LOE to do these things... K.I.S.S.

Click to expand...

OK you lost me on the LOE lack of enthusiasm?

NZKshatriya said:

What would the formula be for cold handicap?
just steal the golf handicap formula?

Click to expand...

Not sure yet but 20% might be reasonable. That wil take some thought ya know 4790k at 5.0 ambient 6.0 LN2 is a 20% speed gain.

hehe, me on ambient aka less hot air blowing on hot chip..........God Bless Texas???? Heck No!

Johan45 said:

OK you lost me on the LOE lack of enthusiasm?



Not sure yet but 20% might be reasonable. That wil take some thought ya know 4790k at 5.0 ambient 6.0 LN2 is a 20% speed gain.

Click to expand...

Level Of Effort.

Keep. It. Simple. Stupid.

I always knew what K.I.S.S. was man I was born before the internet but so was that saying. That's why I said it needs some thought. I don't want it too complicated then the scores may be questioned do to a lack of understanding. Just trying to encompass as many people as possible in every situation and still make it competitive.