drop in 3dmark06 performance

[footman]

When I first build this rig about a month ago I tested it with 3dmark06 and got a result of 5789. Since then I have changed to the latest Cat drivers and obviously installed more applications.
In the past week Ive noticed a drop in gameplay performance ie choppy in COD2 and CODou. I ran 3dmark06 and got a result of 5148. After turning off applications in the tray and a defrag i got 5150!
Im curious as to what may have happened, is it the new drivers or some other process? I dont know much about task manager but I think that turning off some processes might help

any ideas gratefully received.

 

[Jimbo Mahoney]

Quality settings?

AA?

AF?

Vsync?

 

[footman]

Quality settings?

AA?

AF?

Vsync?

I've kept all the settings for 3dmark06 exactly the same as for the 1st test. The ingame settings are at max. which is what they were when things ran smoothly.