High End 980x Build, wondering about performance.

I just recently finished building what I consider a high end build, the components are as follows:

Windows 7 64 bit
Intel 980x 6 core processor running at stock speed of 3.33ghz (Liquid Cooled)
Asus Rampage II Extreme Mobo
CORSAIR XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
Two 5970s in crossfire (Liquid Cooled)
Sound Blaster Audigy X-Fi Titanium Fatality Soundcard
Two OCZ Vertex Series 120gb SSD's Raid (Strip)
1600 Watt Ultra X4 PSU
All of it in a Thermaltake Sword Case with 2 Intake fans & 4 Output fans (120mm)
The CPU at idle stays around 37-40C, but thats also because the computer is next to a 55" LG TV for a monitor.

The question I have is this, what should be the expected the score in 3d Mark 06? I ran all the tests in 1920x1080 at stock settings no AA or anything changed, and my score was 24140. So I was just wondering if thats what I should be getting or not. I would really appreciate all the feedback. In crysis the FPS stay around 40 FPS with 1920x1080 at everything very high and 2x or 4x AA.
So anyone who can give me some feedback on if I am getting the performance I should be getting or I am not. Thanks guys.

PS: In Windows 7 Rating index I get a base of 7.7
My Processor & Ram both get a 7.8 and My Graphics, Gaming Graphics & Primary Hard Drive all get 7.7.

Recently win the lottery or something? Thats like my dream system right there. Anyways your getting ripped off unless you made an error and that 40 is 400 fps. Do you have a legal copy of Windows ? You don't need to admit it but that could be part the problem. Also whats your front side bus at and multiplier?

1. WEI index is useless. Utterly useless so dont worry about that score.
2. 3dmk06 run outside of its stock settings, will not help gauge performance.
3. I would imagine you should be getting better FPS than that with two in Crysis though... Are you sure Crossfire is enabled?
4. Your system for that meager resolution is tremendously overkill and will leave you mostly CPU limited. ONE 5970 is good for 2560x1600. Two is good for twice that.

EarthDog said:

1. WEI index is useless. Utterly useless so dont worry about that score.
2. 3dmk06 run outside of its stock settings, will not help gauge performance.
3. I would imagine you should be getting better FPS than that with two in Crysis though... Are you sure Crossfire is enabled?
4. Your system for that meager resolution is tremendously overkill and will leave you mostly CPU limited. ONE 5970 is good for 2560x1600. Two is good for twice that.

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You just reminded me and this could account for a few extra frames but are you using both crossfire bridge connectors? You only need one other wise you can lose some performance

check to see if you have crossfire enabled (you probably don't). next overclock ur cpu and ram by quite a bit. then overclock ur cards quite a bit. with water cooling you will be more than ok and that overclocking will remove any possible bottlenecks. cpu at 4.4ghz and ram at 1555mhz if u can manage. get the timings to 8-9-8-22 or lower if you can as well.

Out of curiosity, what're your liquid cooling parts like?

Sounds like your crossfire is not activated properly.. Post some CPUz GPUz 3Dmark screenies..

Also, do a Crysis bench and post result screenies...

-D

Hey guys....

Thanks for the feedback, I just got freed up from work, I am gonna get 3d mark vantage and PC mark vantage, and will test crysis as well and will post screenies. Thanks for all the feedback, getting on the task asap.

3d Mark Vantage Results

I have just finished running 3d mark vantage and it gave me a score that has gotten me worried. My processor score seemed fine to me and my GPU score seemed way down there. PLEASE HELP!!!

And someone give me a good utility that will test crysis.

Here's a link to the Crysis Benchmark Tool, which is what most people use to get decent performance numbers:

http://downloads.guru3d.com/Crysis-Benchmark-Tool-1.05-Final-download-1791.html

I'd check that Crossfire is enabled, as diaz and Earthdog mentioned. Hope that helps.
-Drew

Drew@PSU said:

Here's a link to the Crysis Benchmark Tool, which is what most people use to get decent performance numbers:

http://downloads.guru3d.com/Crysis-Benchmark-Tool-1.05-Final-download-1791.html

I'd check that Crossfire is enabled, as diaz and Earthdog mentioned. Hope that helps.
-Drew

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Well man, crossfire has been enabled and I double checked that myself. I really don't know what the issue is. The other weird thing is that the damn thing didn't give me a general score. The score was 0 for that. So I am just really lost on what the whole deal is, windows 7 is legit and up to date. So what I am doing wrong I don't know.

First, don't change the resolution in benchmarks. They are benchmarks so that you can compare systems. if you ran it at 1920*1280 and I ran it at 1440*900, of course I would get a better score. Keep it at the default resolution (1024*768) and then rerun both 3dmark 06 and 3dmark Vantage.

Second, I concur with Earthdog, you shouldn't realistically see an increase in frame numbers from a single 5970 to dual 5970's since the bottleneck in both cases would be the 980X.

Intel 980x 6 core processor running at stock speed of 3.33ghz (Liquid Cooled)

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As sick as that CPU is, it is also part of the problem. You should be able to OC that sucker to at least 4.2Ghz, and you will be amazed at the increase in both scores. You can probably push that thing to 4.5 or higher!

Also, what Catalyst drivers are you running? Hopefully 10.3,.. or is 10.4 out? I thought I heard of some bugs with dual 5970s..

Parad0x420 said:

As sick as that CPU is, it is also part of the problem. You should be able to OC that sucker to at least 4.2Ghz, and you will be amazed at the increase in both scores. You can probably push that thing to 4.5 or higher!

Also, what Catalyst drivers are you running? Hopefully 10.3,.. or is 10.4 out? I thought I heard of some bugs with dual 5970s..

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True story. I just can't for the life of me remember where I found what they were.

Alright

Ill do that guys and also i was looking through motherboards last night and i found one with it saying supports quad-crossfire. Since the 5970 counts as two gpu and nothing in my motherboard says about supporting 4 gpus. I was gonna yank one of the cards out and give the benchmarks a try. Another possibility could be the fact that the damn motherboard is fubar. Something else i was wondering is if it is a possibility of the primary pci-x16 port malfunctioning. Well anyways i am gonna do what youbguys asked me by running it at default and seeing what i get. And yeah i am running it 10.3.

Another thing that has been bothering me is that the damn 3d mark gives me a general score of 0. So i dnt know whats the deal with that. And also that i habe spent over 6.5k on this build to still deal with this problems. Thanks for all the feedback guys, will get on it as soon as im back home this evening.

Sent from my iPhone

Update

Here are the recent 3d mark vantage result that I ran at default. I did not touch anything, it was set at performance and it gave me this score.

GPU 27892
CPU 31768
Avg P28769



My next step is going to be to drain the coolant and remove one of the video cards and then test the performance in 3d mark vantage. I am starting to think that more and more the motherboard PCI X16 slot might be screwed up because even after this major upgrade I have not seen steady fps in crysis period, far too much bouncing around to feel like this is a 700$ video card. And both video card tested the same when tested seperate.

Final Update

I am really getting frustrated guys, I ran the test with a single video card after changing my liquid cooling system around and the score went lower. So now I am gonna test my video card on my friends quad core (not i7) rig to see if the video card is the issue or the motherboard, guys tell you the truth if its the motherboard I am just gonna switching to sli setup, I have like ati for the faster rendering cards but this is just ridiculous. Please all help will be appreciated, I check this post every hour. Here are the latest single card test result.

rabbia_ed_amore said:

I am really getting frustrated guys, I ran the test with a single video card after changing my liquid cooling system around and the score went lower.

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Weren't you running dual 5970s in the first shot, and a single now? Of course the score would be lower removing 2 GPUs... The drop looks minimal too.. Have you OC'd your processor yet? If not your REALLY need to! Otherwise the CPU is really bottle-necking those cards.

What kinda resolution are you gaming at? Dual 5970s is quite overkill unless you're running like 3x 24" monitors using Eyefinity.

Hey man, it was motherboard after allot of testing I did...so yeah. Just a couple of more questions real quick man. I am getting rid of the 5970s and getting two 480s. So I was wondering if it is possible to run two 480s(Fermi) & a 260GTX(for PhysX) in a 3 way sli mode. Help will be appreciated.

SLi is only with the same gpu's. What you would do it connect the 480's and the 260 should be left alone IIRC.