What's your computer specs and 3dMark?

[Balemur]

So after weeks of computer related issues I finally found out my problem was my memory. I bought some new memory, installed it today, and EVERYTHING runs perfectly fine so far. I'm also able to overclock my CPU on vista now.

My current system:
CPU: Q6600 2.4GHz
Motherboard: GA-EX38-DQ6
Memory: 2GB Kingston Hyper X PC2-9200
Video Card: VisionTek ATI Radeon 3870 OC edition.

I boosted my Q6600 from 2.4GHz to 3.0GHz. I'll later try for 3.4/3.6GHz.

My new 3dMark06 is now 12623.
SM 2.0 Score: 5012
SM 3.0 Score: 5604
CPU Score: 3957

I'm curious as to what all of you run and what your 3dMark scores are.

[TheGuy]

3dmark is a benchmark with no purpose other than to sell you hardware.

[Sivias]

Owned

[DJ Double S]

umm, lets see... Can I just say really really really LOW... and just leave it at that?

[Balemur]

Originally Posted by TheGuy

3dmark is a benchmark with no purpose other than to sell you hardware.

Maybe true but it's a benchmark that utilizes user-submitted benchmarks and works with nearly all video cards. If you have something better for benchmarking nvidia/ati cards then I'd like to see it. The best but most non-practical solution I see is using "real-world" benchmarking meaning you'd have to test 100+ games on at least 10+ nvidia and ATI video cards to even start understanding how your system/video card compares to others, including seeing its overall average in games. This also doesn't include all the times you update your drivers. 3dMark may not be very accurate in "real-world gaming" but at least it gives you some measured reasoning to all the madness.

It's nice to see when you increase this or that that something actually does get better. Something else that helps is when you're trying to get your memory timings set. If you lower the MHz to get a better FSB to RAM setting then 3dMark can help show that. Increased numbers don't always give you increased results.

[Heimdal]

you're overclocking with windows? why?

[Balemur]

Originally Posted by Heimdal

you're overclocking with windows? why?

Using emulators in other OS's such as Linux eats more resources and can cause more hang-ups/crashes. And since Windows has the market for gaming it's usually preferred, even if overclocking. I currently have 3 HDDs in my computer. My 750GB and 500GB are both used for gaming on Windows. My 320GB HDD runs my Fedora OS.

[Heimdal]

Originally Posted by Balemur

Using emulators in other OS's such as Linux eats more resources and can cause more hang-ups/crashes. And since Windows has the market for gaming it's usually preferred, even if overclocking. I currently have 3 HDDs in my computer. My 750GB and 500GB are both used for gaming on Windows. My 320GB HDD runs my Fedora OS.

no I meant why aren't you using the bios to do it, I don't care if you're using linux whatsoever.

[Balemur]

Originally Posted by Heimdal

no I meant why aren't you using the bios to do it, I don't care if you're using linux whatsoever.

I never said I wasn't and I never said anything about overclocking using some dumb windows program. 3dMark can't overclock anything anyways. It's purely a benchmarking program.

All my overclocking is done through my bios and since the bios can't benchmark all my benchmarking is done through windows. 3dMark lets me see what those overclocked changes actually do.

[Heimdal]

Originally Posted by Balemur

I'm also able to overclock my CPU on vista now.
.

I must have read this wrong, forgive my illiteracy.

[Balemur]

Originally Posted by Heimdal

I must have read this wrong, forgive my illiteracy.

Oh that. I posted sometime back in June saying I had errors while overclocking. I could overclock through my bios and my comp would run fine on xp but crash on vista. I later found that it would randomly crash on both but more likely on vista. After changing out my memory both OS's work fine but I don't use XP anymore.

[TheGuy]

Well I'm just saying the numbers that 3d mark gives are useless next to the actual in game performance of your current game of choice. What good is 10 gaziillian mark points when you want to know how it performs in game... Benchmarks are just benchmarks...

[SoBe Green]

I agree. Benchmarks only satisfy you and anyone who gets jealous over your benchmarks needs to buy a pet turtle or maybe a kitten to hold them in place in the world.

[Balemur]

So anyways, it looks like this thread is going in the wrong direction since I'm the only one to have posted anything the title asks for. My purpose for this thread was to have us overclockers discuss possible ways to improve our/your PCs, but instead I got a bunch of people bad mouthing this or that which really had nothing to do with this thread.

Having a few off-topic replies is acceptable but 12 (all but the first) totally pointless replies is a waste of time. People would rather repeat what others say and act as it's their own ideas instead of seeing the bigger picture. A benchmark is useless unless it can be compared to multiple systems in several different categories. If I were to have a 3 Terra-Hertz CPU with DDR20 800GHz RAM then having a video card of today would be utterly useless when rating my computer's FPS on a game like TF2. What a benchmark like 3dmark shows you is 3 categories which are useful when overclocking your own system. Every little thing you change, whether your computer's new or old, can increase your overall system's performance.

Yes, seeing a simple 10k here or 30k there doesn't mean it'll run 100+fps on every game you load but a 30k system vs. a 10k system would have an incredibly better chance at it. Seeing a FPS measures nothing but your FPS in a game. 60 fps is 60 fps and you wouldn't see a difference running at 120 fps or 60 fps. Also if I were to up my CPU by 100-200 MHz I'm sure you wouldn't see much of a FPS difference anyways, however in 3dMark you would notice a change by about 200-800 MHz. Much more if your system is currently bottle-necked at its CPU.

How about posting something useful instead of these immature attempts at "trying" to make yourselves seem "smarter". That's what we have the "E-Peen" thread for. =P Asking questions is always fine but there's no need for useless responses. Please, stay on topic or don't post at all.

[G2]

For the record, they're right about 3DMark, its useless because a lot of times the stats are skewed because of custom drivers written by the company.

Anyways, heres my desktop:

• Gigabye GA-EP35C-DS3R LGA 775
• CORSAIR XMS2 DHX 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0GHz
• ATI Radeon 3870HD 512MB PCI-E
• Antec P182 Special Edition (ooh shiny)
• Saitek Eclipse Keyboard
• Logitech G5
• Raidmax Volcano RX-630A 630W
• Vista Business edition.
• 2TB of storage over 3 Internal HD's and 1 External

The machine screams, but I don't use it all that often. My laptop does pretty much everything I need it to do, including playing TF2 @ 45fps with medium settings.

Dell Vostro 1500 w/ 256mb dedicated 8600M with 4gb of memory