Better mobo + CPU = lower graphics score?

[gbgt2]

I upgraded a few bits on my PC and was surprised to see my graphics score in 3dmark11 has actually gone down? Previously I had a P6X58D-E with a 930 @ 3.8Ghz and 6GB RAM, now I have a P8Z77-V DELUXE with a 3770K @ 4.3Ghz and 8GB RAM.

Old score = P11735 (13947 graphics score): http://3dmark.com/3dm11/2833333

New score = P12267 (13348 graphics score) http://3dmark.com/3dm11/3899898

In both cases GTX 580 SLI @ 900 MHz core clock

The only other thing I have changed is the primary hard drive (Intel 520 from a X25-M) and I am using the latest beta drivers 304.79 instead of 295.73

Guessing the motherboard just doesn't work quite as well with the cards? Unless these drivers aren't as good?

 

[Orcvader]

P6X58D-E = PCI-E 2.0 x16/x16 SLi

P8Z77-V DELUXE = PCI-E 2.0 x8/x8 SLi (580 is only 2.0)

That's what's probably causing the benchmark difference. In terms of gaming performance though I doubt you'll hardly notice any difference at all. The overall score is still higher on the 3700K system anyway.

 

[gbgt2]

Ahh, all the years I had the P6X58D-E I never knew it ran x16/x16. And yes I agree the difference is pretty negligible, I was just curious what the cause could be. Thanks for the quick reply.

 

[Kaapstad]

You may want to try a run with the older drivers. I tried 304.79 on the heaven 3.0 benchmark and got a drop in performance so I went back to 301.42.