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Poor performance with a 4890

GingaNinja

GingaNinja

GingaNinja

Associate
Joined
21 Oct 2002
Posts
645
Location
Maidenhead
Hi all. Just wanted to get your thoughts on this. My sys is as follows (nothing overclocked manually):

  • PC Power and Cooling 910W PSU
  • Q6600 quad core at 2.4GHz
  • 2Gb ram
  • XFX 4890 black
  • 9.6 Catalysts (set to balanced)

Just swapped out my 8800GTX for the above card, but my 3DM06 score has barely changed (form about 12K to 12.5K). Any initial thoughts? I was wondering whether there are any hotfixes or anything that I should be applying to release the potential of this card.

Cheers

Ginga
 
Yup - CPU needs some attention, but I nevertheless expected some improvement. Ran 3DM06 at default resolution. Also, I'm on WinXP 32.

Any thoughts? I'm considering re-installing the opsys, as it's been ages since I did this.

Ginga
 
Oh OK - thanks guys. Didn't realise what an important factor CPU speed is in 3DM. Will try Crysis this evening.

Inthe longer term I guess I ought to get a better mobo, that will allow me to OC the CPU. I've heard of people getting well over 3GHz with these, which should make a difference.

Cheers

Ginga
 
@ gurusan. I know I know. Criminal isn't it? My cheap mobo's letting me down. Must invest in a decent one with good OC potential. Can anyone recommend a good OCing mobo, preferably with Xfire capacity?

Ginga
 
So I had a go at overclocking the CPU. Any higher than 2.7GHz and computer says no. However, I remembered that I hadn't optimised any other settings in the BIOS at all. After tightening the ram timings and overclocking the CPU to 2.7, I got a 3DM06 score of just under 15K, which is a bit more like it. I'm sure that if I could OC my Q6600 to 3GHz, then I'd get a score of about 17K.

I know it's not the RAM holding back my efforts at OCing, because I left them at default clocks. Also, I just got a pretty beefy PSU, so that leaves either the CPU or mobo. I'm inclined to suspect the mobo. Buy cheap, pay dear!

Ginga
 
As long as you play 1920*1080 and above, I don't think a q6600 at 2.7ghz would be that limiting. For older games it might even at high resolutions, but you are running very high framerates anyway.
 
GingaNinja said:
So I had a go at overclocking the CPU. Any higher than 2.7GHz and computer says no. However, I remembered that I hadn't optimised any other settings in the BIOS at all. After tightening the ram timings and overclocking the CPU to 2.7, I got a 3DM06 score of just under 15K, which is a bit more like it. I'm sure that if I could OC my Q6600 to 3GHz, then I'd get a score of about 17K.

I know it's not the RAM holding back my efforts at OCing, because I left them at default clocks. Also, I just got a pretty beefy PSU, so that leaves either the CPU or mobo. I'm inclined to suspect the mobo. Buy cheap, pay dear!

Ginga
Click to expand...

Just keep at it, also remember to loosen your RAM timings etc, dont manually set them until you have got a fairly decent OC on your CPU.

No need for a new mobo tbh.
All comes down to research or pay some cash.
 
Thanks guys. I'll keep playing the OC and see if I can get any further.

BTW, am using a Dell 24" @ 1920x1200. Fired up Crysis last night and got 45 frames/sec. No AA though, but I did have the 'natural mod' applied. Might get more without it. Pretty pleased with game performance!

Ginga
 
GingaNinja said:
Oh OK - thanks guys. Didn't realise what an important factor CPU speed is in 3DM. Will try Crysis this evening.

Inthe longer term I guess I ought to get a better mobo, that will allow me to OC the CPU. I've heard of people getting well over 3GHz with these, which should make a difference.

Cheers

Ginga
Click to expand...

Just a little bit. :p

I've had mine all the way up to 4.05Ghz, though it wasn't comfortable at those speeds and I didn't want to up the vCore anymore.

It was happy at 3.9 though at a moderate vCore.

Oh, on air too of course.
 
Yep will be your CPU, as it is only using one core really, so 1 x 2.4GHz isn't ideal for pushing a 4890.

Should be able to get 3.0GHz+ with a decent cooler, although it'll get pretty hot.
 
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