Lost 1000 points on Timespy Graphics score after MB + CPU upgrade

[wunkley]

Is it possible this is just a Timespy specific issue?

I've just run Heaven Benchmark at 1920x1080 and the settings described on the ocuk board, with my more aggressive 3090 undervolt curve, which gives a constant core clock of circa 1850Mhz. I got a score of 5854.

According to the leader board page for "1 GPU" my score seems exactly in line for what it should be at those setings no?....

Unigine Heaven 4 benchmark

 

[ltron]

Is that why I'm seeing a lower CPU score with my new RAM then?

As I understand it, my old corsair 16GB 3000Mhz is 4x4GB sticks of single rank, which as a foursome acts as dual rank.

My new 3600Mhz Ballistix RAM, also single rank, as it's only 2 sticks acts only as single rank. Is that right?

If so I may as well send this 32GB kit of ballistix back and stay with my 16Gb 4 sticks no? Even though they only run at 3000Mhz I'm seeing better results. And given they are cl15 they probably have overclocking headroom. 6 year old hardware wins again!

What's going on, I'm genuinely thinking there was zero point in me upgrading from my 5930k on x99 with quad channel ram.

Just one last suggestion, try the High Performance Windows power plan in the Windows control panel if you are not using it already, others have said this can make a big difference in Timespy.

Yes, that's correct on the RAM but I'd double check by putting the old RAM back in first and testing before sending anything back (although 32GB will be very valuable over 16GB in the coming years). There are dual rank 3600MHz kits but it's difficult to know which they are, all 16GB modules used to be dual rank but as you've found out that's changed.

Also, Timespy is particularly sensitive to dual rank (probably the most sensitive) whereas from tests I've seen most games may well prefer the much faster 3600MHz clockspeed so it's worth keeping the 3600MHz Crucial regardless and you get double the capacity. You can always buy two more modules in the future and get dual rank with 64GB of RAM if your CPU's IMC can run it.

 

[ltron]

Is it possible this is just a Timespy specific issue?

I've just run Heaven Benchmark at 1920x1080 and the settings described on the ocuk board, with my more aggressive 3090 undervolt curve, which gives a constant core clock of circa 1850Mhz. I got a score of 5854.

According to the leader board page for "1 GPU" my score seems exactly in line for what it should be at those setings no?....

Unigine Heaven 4 benchmark

It could well just be Timespy, it's probably a quirk of the new Intel 11th gen CPUs/teething problems and is very likely not indicative of overall performance where I'd expect the 11700 to be far superior to your old CPU. They really struggled to backport it to 14nm after all and motherboard makers are prioritising AMD as it's far more popular at the moment which means a higher chance of bugs on Intel; how the tables have turned.

In summary it seems that your system is fine after all , your Heaven score is very good. This Timespy issue, if it really is an issue rather than a consequence of architectural choices, will probably be fixed in time with a 3DMark patch or a BIOS update.

I only get a graphics score of 17200-300 in Timespy on my RTX 3080 and AMD 3900X, maybe if I put it in my old X99 system I'd get higher too. In fact I think it's quite likely, it's just that no one has tested it before you .

 

[dmfg]

Check what background processes you have running. Time Spy is really sensitive to weird things, both expected (eg I can randomly lose 200-300 CPU score if Google Drive does a sync) and the unexpected (having Rainmeter open costs me nearly 1k GPU score).

Not to mention various system utilities like monitoring software or fan controllers can have a surprising impact. Go through task manager line by line.

 

[wunkley]

Ok, a wee update for anyone interested....

I took the advice and ordered a cheapo small ssd and have done a fresh install of the latest windows on it. Not run any updates, used the Nvidia drivers Windows installed by default (456.71) and then downloaded 3d Mark Timespy.

I'm running my 3090 at stock as I can't be bothered setting up an undervolt etc. My first run produced a graphics score of 19,131. (I used to get 19,297 on my x99 5930k as described way back. So almost back to the same).

For reference the 3090 at stock on my previous Windows install (that I've done a 'repair in place' on to keep all data etc) got a graphics score of 18,767

Fresh windows install: https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/61189305

'Old' windows install: https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/61161925

So, mixed emotions here really. On the one hand, glad that things do appear normal as GPU score is almost back to how it was. However, it's now making me think I should do a totally fresh install and nuke everything, but I have so many progs and apps and stuff it would literally take me days to get back up and running.

Is it really worth the pain and hassle? Thoughts? Especially @ltron - you've been such a help mate!

 

[ltron]

Ok, a wee update for anyone interested....

I took the advice and ordered a cheapo small ssd and have done a fresh install of the latest windows on it. Not run any updates, used the Nvidia drivers Windows installed by default (456.71) and then downloaded 3d Mark Timespy.

I'm running my 3090 at stock as I can't be bothered setting up an undervolt etc. My first run produced a graphics score of 19,131. (I used to get 19,297 on my x99 5930k as described way back. So almost back to the same).

For reference the 3090 at stock on my previous Windows install (that I've done a 'repair in place' on to keep all data etc) got a graphics score of 18,767

Fresh windows install: https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/61189305

'Old' windows install: https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/61161925

So, mixed emotions here really. On the one hand, glad that things do appear normal as GPU score is almost back to how it was. However, it's now making me think I should do a totally fresh install and nuke everything, but I have so many progs and apps and stuff it would literally take me days to get back up and running.

Is it really worth the pain and hassle? Thoughts? Especially @ltron - you've been such a help mate!

Thanks, wunkley, I'm trying my best to help. Is that CPU score with the new Crucial RAM because it's back up to around 12k, how did you fix it? Did you try using the high performance power plan in the Windows control panel? In Windows Settings make sure that Send Diagnostic and Usage Data to Microsoft is set to Basic and not Full, that can cause weird performance problems, it's in the Privacy section.

Do you have anything particularly demanding running like Corsair ICue? I would think there's something running in the background causing this, maybe look in task manager and see if anything is using lots of resources. There is also the Sysinternals suite, Process Explorer and Process Monitor may help: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/sysinternals-suite

What you could do before you nuke everything is try a clean boot to test whether it is a program in the background causing the problem or something deeper which would actually require a reinstall of Windows (simply reverse the steps once you've finished testing): https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...-windows-da2f9573-6eec-00ad-2f8a-a97a1807f3dd

If that still doesn't work or you can't work out which program is responsible you can try uninstalling programs one by one in date order (you can sort by date in Add/Remove programs).

 

[JediFragger]

but I have so many progs and apps and stuff it would literally take me days to get back up and running.

Then just ignore the synthetic score and just enjoy your games until you have an ideal opportunity to do it, at best it'll be a couple of fps here and there that you're losing if that.

 

[wunkley]

Thanks, wunkley, I'm trying my best to help. Is that CPU score with the new Crucial RAM because it's back up to around 12k, how did you fix it? Did you try using the high performance power plan in the Windows control panel? In Windows Settings make sure that Send Diagnostic and Usage Data to Microsoft is set to Basic and not Full, that can cause weird performance problems, it's in the Privacy section.

Do you have anything particularly demanding running like Corsair ICue? I would think there's something running in the background causing this, maybe look in task manager and see if anything is using lots of resources. There is also the Sysinternals suite, Process Explorer and Process Monitor may help: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/sysinternals-suite

What you could do before you nuke everything is try a clean boot to test whether it is a program in the background causing the problem or something deeper which would actually require a reinstall of Windows (simply reverse the steps once you've finished testing): https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...-windows-da2f9573-6eec-00ad-2f8a-a97a1807f3dd

If that still doesn't work or you can't work out which program is responsible you can try uninstalling programs one by one in date order (you can sort by date in Add/Remove programs).

For this latest test I've put the 4x 4GB sticks of Corsair back in so it's running in dual rank - even though it's only running at 3000Mhz vs 3600Mhz on the Crucials it gets a much better cpu score and from research I've done dual rank gives a decent game boost in general. I'm sending the x2 Crucial single ranks back. If I feel the need for 32GB I'm going to make sure I get dual rank (but they seem v hard to find) or x4 8GB single rank sticks.

Not running ICue or anything like that.

high power performance plans do nothing, windows or Nvidia.

I'll try the clean boot idea, thanks for that! If that has no difference I think I might just nuke everything you know (it's the only way to be sure, as they might say in Aliens). I've backed up everything I think I can and I don't think it would be a total mare now to get back up and running to how I want.

If I do nuke it, I'm bound to have forgotten something. What are the main things to make sure you back up?

 

[ltron]

For this latest test I've put the 4x 4GB sticks of Corsair back in so it's running in dual rank - even though it's only running at 3000Mhz vs 3600Mhz on the Crucials it gets a much better cpu score and from research I've done dual rank gives a decent game boost in general. I'm sending the x2 Crucial single ranks back. If I feel the need for 32GB I'm going to make sure I get dual rank (but they seem v hard to find) or x4 8GB single rank sticks.

Not running ICue or anything like that.

high power performance plans do nothing, windows or Nvidia.

I'll try the clean boot idea, thanks for that! If that has no difference I think I might just nuke everything you know (it's the only way to be sure, as they might say in Aliens). I've backed up everything I think I can and I don't think it would be a total mare now to get back up and running to how I want.

If I do nuke it, I'm bound to have forgotten something. What are the main things to make sure you back up?

Did you try setting Send Usage and Diagnostic Data to basic in the Privacy section of Windows Settings?

I had a weird performance problem a few years ago where my performance suddenly dropped, a clean install would resolve it for a day but then the problem would always return. I spent weeks trying to get to the bottom of it and in the end by chance I found it was this setting, Microsoft were doing weird things in collecting their data when it was set to Full that reduced performance, in indie Unity games like Tyranny it reduced the performance by about 20% (which is how I noticed) but in most cases it was only around 2%.

As for what you should back up: important files and pictures, also have a thumb drive or external drive with all of the installers for your favourite apps and your drivers ready to go. As JediFragger said I'm not sure it's worth nuking the whole thing for a couple of percent more performance (which is pretty close to the margin of error), but it's up to you and if it bothers you. Hopefully you can find out whether a specific program is causing the issue using my tips so nuking won't be needed.

 

[five8five]

So, mixed emotions here really. On the one hand, glad that things do appear normal as GPU score is almost back to how it was. However, it's now making me think I should do a totally fresh install and nuke everything, but I have so many progs and apps and stuff it would literally take me days to get back up and running.

Glad your scores have improved. Unfortunately windows can "degrade" over time and the best way is to start afresh.

Before nuking it, you could add programs you have running in the background one by one to your test install. One of those might have had a dodgy update that's causes the issue.