3DMark2000 = Random number generator

[Monaco]

This is a very strange problem I am having. I recently fried my trusty BE6-II ( turned on power with CMOS jumper in "clear" position-doh!) and had to upgrade immediately. My only choice at the time was a Soyo SY-6VBE-133, Apollo Pro 133 chipset. I am very happy with it, except- My 3dMark scores are now never the same twice. Not at all the same. Same with Q3.

For example, I did a 10 run test, with reboots in between all of them. My scores ranged from 4500 to 6000, with most around 5200 or so. Q3 varies a lot too, but I have not tested it too much at low res, where the scores really jump around.

I have reformatted and reinstalled win98, and the problem persists. I run the tests at a SETI-overnight-stable speed, and card at default.

besides the mobo I have 1- 128MB stick of Crucial, running with the "+33" BIOS option on for 143mz.
old SBlive
NIC
56K
GF2 GTS
o yeah a celly 566 at 8.5 x 110FSB
and I have gotten the same thing with just the vid card alone plugged in, and with CPU at default speed . .

I asked around and the the only response I got taht made sense was , " the Pro133 is whacked, hence the pro133A chipset." There has gotta be more to it then this I think!!

Any help or ideas would be mucho appreciated!!

 

[Paiynn]

I'd like to know why I'm only getting 1400 from 3D 2001 on my system.
Thats with the latest video and VIA drivers, and even running it overclocked a bit at 175

 

[asmodean]

Welcome to oc.com forums, Monster of Rock!

Do you have any programs running in the background? That could cause the variations. One other is the amount of free memory when running 3DMark. If it's swapping, that will affect the scores quite horribly.

Paiynn, do you have VSync enabled? I just ran 3DMark2k1 with vsync enabled and got ~2100. That's a 600 point drop from the usual. I have an MX too, it's now @205/215MHz.

Might also want to check RivaTuner and Geforce Tweak Utility, they're both very good programs for tweaking nVidia based cards. And the only ones in develpment, afaik.

 

[Monaco]

Thanks for the advice asmodean.

There is nothing but Explorer and Systray open for me, plus whatever WPCRSET uses up.

There is no hard drive access during the test either, according to Windows System Monitor and my ears; I have even tried it with 2- 128 mb sticks and virtual memory off and gotten the same weird results.

Gosh this is a weird problem.

Paiynn- wish I could help, but till 2000 works right I'm not gonna bother with 2001 ; )

- The Monster

 

[Pinky]

Monster of Rock (Jul 27, 2001 01:36 a.m.):
I asked around and the the only response I got taht made sense was , " the Pro133 is whacked, hence the pro133A chipset." There has gotta be more to it then this I think!!

Any help or ideas would be mucho appreciated!!

I had nothing but problems with the Pro133 motherboards, I ended up coughing up $90 for my current Apollo 133A board and all my memory related issues magically disappeared... hmmm, maybe there is some truth to those statements.

 

[Monaco]

yeah pinky, the more I think about it the more I think you are onto something- this board is pretty badass except for the memory issues and the less-than stellar AGP implementation. As I understand it those were the only 2 major improvements on the "A" chipset.

Guess I can chalk this one up to flaky hardware- I appreciate all the help.

Time to upgrade anyway! I hear AMD makes some pretty decent stuff nowadays ; )

-the monster