7900GTX Sli & 3DMark

[Stax10]

I have bench marked my SLI'd 7900GTX's, and I reckon the score of 5900 in 3DMark06 is too low. This seems like the score of one card on it's own. I should be scoring about 8000, shouldn't I?

Do you have to set up something in the nVidia drivers to get SLi working properly for 3DMark?

When I play games, it works perfectly as far as I can tell. I know that there is different ways of using SLi, but I dont have any experience with it.

Any help appreciated.

 

[MeatLoaf]

Yeah thats low, my 2 7800GTs used to get over 7k ( 6k stock )

 

[man_from_uncle]

I get 5.5k with a single 7900gt and that's with a single core processor. Yep, you are well under what you should be getting.

 

[THC_SsSsSnake]

6480 on a single 7900gtx here.

so have you got vsync enabled if so expect a lower score?

 

[Doppleganger]

Are you using a profile when running 3DMark 2006 or the Global profile?

You could enable coolbits to make sure that 3DMark is using SLI when you run it. Sounds like a single GPU score to me although I can't see the rest of your spec to confirm this.

 

[wellibob]

somethink isnt right there m8, enable the sli band meter testers to see if indeed its working

 

[Stax10]

Right, the rest of the spec is

AMD 64 3700+ @ stock
OCZ Platinum 1024Mb RAM @ stock
ASUS Premium mobo
Seasonic S12 600W PSU

I know the single core CPU will limit the score, but not by that much!

I have coolbits enabled, and as far as I can tell, SLi is on for 3DMark06.

The SLi band is also on, and tells me that both cards are working.

I didn't bother disabling all the rubbish running in the background though. I didn't think it would make that much difference.

I know that 3DMark is a synthetic test though, and doesn't reflect real world performance. I had been using an X1900XT-X GPU at 1920x1200 with COD2. This really struggled at high settings, dropping down to 10-15 fps in places.
The 7900GTX's in SLi seem to be working though, as I have everything maxed out in COD2, and the fps is great, never notice any slow down at all.

It just puts a little bit of doubt in your mind when using these bench marks. I reckon I will have to have a play with the sytem, and disable all the stuff I dont need running while I bench, and see what this produces.

Any more help appreciated

 

[man_from_uncle]

Well, that might actually be right then (if very much on the low side). 3dmark06 is very CPU sensative so you might find that your 3700 really is bottlenecking you. I'd also suspect you've got 'high quality' selected in the nvidia control panel. Switch that to high performance you'll add a fair wack.

I don't think a single 7900gtx will score that high with that CPU, you I guess it must be just a low score with both cards (because of the above reasons).

 

[Doppleganger]

My 3DMark 2006 score is as below:

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=276493

There's no doubt that the 3700+ is giving you a lowish score as dual-core adds a fair bit to your overall score. Still think your score should be higher than mine given your cards.

 

[Stax10]

My 3DMark 2006 score is as below:

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=276493

There's no doubt that the 3700+ is giving you a lowish score as dual-core adds a fair bit to your overall score. Still think your score should be higher than mine given your cards.

Thanks for that mate, gives me something to aim at. Will have a play with the sytem today if possible and see how much I can ramp up the score. Seems like the CPU is responsible for some of the problem, could do with overclocking it a bit.

Will post back with some results later

 

[Stax10]

Well, for what it's worth, I got 6224 in 3DMark06 with the following spec:

CPU @ 2387MHz @ 217 FSB x 11 multiplier
GPU's @ stock with SLi on

My original score was 5910, so an increase of 314 overall.

It seems that the CPU is the bottle neck in this test for me. I want to wait for conroe before changing the CPU though.

When I benched using one 7900GTX at stock with CPU at stock, I scored 4935, a difference of 975. Not exactly huge

However, real world performance in COD2 is excellent with SLi, compared to one card. I will probably just have to live with knowing this now. My system is an HTPC with Dell FPW2405. I cant really overclock it a lot due to heat and only one 40mm exhaust fan, plus the PSU 120mm exhaust fan.