3D bench05 scores low ?Please help optimization wizards!!!

[BASPro]

Im new to the benchmark and other utilities .compared to other people i am seein it seems that my score is pretty low,its a 3506 in 3dmark05?I built my PC about 9 months ago and i dont want to think its to outdated yet,my system(Thermaltake tsunami dream case,p5ad2 premium mb,3.4g intel lga775 proc,sony dvd/rw,Hyper48 heatsink.audigy2 zs gamer,geforce 6600gt pci express 128ddr3,1g ddr2 kingston valueram).I really havent tried any overclockin to speak of and i mainly want to make sure i have everything running as optimal as possible.Been makin minor changes but have never really known how to tell if my system is running at its full capacity,without overclocking,yet.For instance,not sure if somethings wrong or not but in task manager for example,when i play sof2 ,all i have to do is open soldier and when i look at task manager it shows 51%cpu usage without me even playin the game?I have updated bios,all drivers,etc.Just curious as to if there a problem and if there not how to fully optimize my system.I mean,soldier of fortune 2 shouldnt use 51% just when i start(not even playing)on a 3.4g cpu,should it?Please help.Thanks!

[BASPro]

Hey pop,do u have AI booster installed,came w my mobo and pretty cool interface to monitor cpu speed,fan speed voltages and rpm

[pop pop]

Benchmarks are fun but I don't put much stock in them. Maybe some of the guys here who do--and overclock--will respond to that. I did benchmark my system once using AquaMark and it blew the doors off :D Don't ask, I don't remember the numbers. Also keep in mind that it has been revealed that the P5AD2E Premium is OC'd by default--Asus didn't make this public but it is true and helped them win some of the benchmark wars. Maybe the only thing holding you back a bit is the 6600GT. It's a GREAT "value" card, but can't keep up with a 6800GT--which can't keep up with a 7800.

Don't worry about the "burst" in CPU usage. Download Konfabulator off of MajorGeeks. Install it and put the CPU widget on your desktop. It works like a tach and will show you CPU usage by you (user) and the system at all times. Amazingly, just opening up a folder cranks up the CPU in a burst WAY above what you would think. It drops off though. It's kind of like popping the clutch in a sports car only to go across the street. The RPMs go to redline but you barely moved. :p

[i an not a nerd]

Ok, if you are having a 51% cpu usage while the computer is idle, that suggests that some spyware or virus is at work here....

Download Spybot S&D from one of these download sources : http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html

Update the program and everything, turn off the program, start it up, run a scan, and get rid of anything that is there (unless you need it).

[BASPro]

If not http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

[BASPro]

No spyware on here,but thanks anyway

[pop pop]

I think AI Boost came with mine. I haven't used it.

[BASPro]

Pretty cool interface,kindda looks like a tachometer,shows ur cpu fan rpm,speed ur cpu is at,cpu temp among other things,u should give it a try,thats about the only software i liked that came w my mobo :)

[BASPro]

and of course w the program u should be able to easily overclock ur system,but im not sure enough about it to be messin w it to much.I like to learn as much as i can about something b4 i go changing things,got 2000.00 in this pc to go burnin it up.

[pop pop]

Neither version of Asus Probe (2004 original/2005 beta) will work. My system sees the original (installer?) as a 16-bit program and tries to run it in a shell, which fails. The beta is for XP 64. Oh well.

[BASPro]

Did u try the AI booster?As far as cpu monitoring goes,i prefer it over the probe anyway.

[saphalline]

Im new to the benchmark and other utilities .compared to other people i am seein it seems that my score is pretty low,its a 3506 in 3dmark05?It's difficult to keep track of score ranges with all the different vid cards and versions of 3DMark. I don't even try anymore. Can you post some links to other scores? Just so we can see similar systems and how they perform.

Also, keep in mind that there are tons of different options when running any version of 3DMark. In order to compare your score with another, you must be running in the same resolution and with all the same options chosen (like AA at 8x or none or whatever). If you don't do this, the comparison is invalid.

Another thing that can affect 3DMark scores is the image quality chosen. If you've installed the latest NVidia drivers already, you can go into the NVidia control panel and see what's set as default for both OpenGL and D3D. Some people who run these benchmarks will artificially boost their scores by going into that control panel area and turning image quality all the way down. I prefer to keep my image quality to a very specific set: Best Image Quality, Vsync on by default (I hate screen tearing even if it dips the fps), and then I choose certain AA and AS settings per my vid card. Right now I have AA and AS set to 4X by default. This will affect older DX7 games with no such options and will improve the look of the game. For newer games, like BF2 and Doom3, the defaults for AA and AS set in the driver package are overridden, mostly because these options are available in the game itself. 3DMark will also override the defaults for AA and AS because you can set them when you run a benchmark. But the image quality setting for OpenGL and D3D will always remain untouched by 3D apps (these settings refer to the GPU/VPU mode and are independent of a generic API-based 3D rendering engine).

I mean,soldier of fortune 2 shouldnt use 51% just when i start(not even playing)on a 3.4g cpu,should it?Yes it should. Any game running in the background will eat up CPU cycles even when paused or just at the main screen. It will jump to 100% if you Alt-Tab out of the game during game-play. This is the nature of any app. In order to attain the most performance, any proirity app (like a game) gets most/all of the remaining CPU power. It makes sense if you think about it - why would any game reduce the main menu to say 25% CPU usage and run slower just to save on CPU power? Games will use all your CPU cycles if it needs them. In fact, 2D games typically will use 100% of your spare CPU cycles at all times, because they're 2D. 3D games are a bit easier on your CPU because they off-load the majority of the rendering to the vid card.

[i an not a nerd]

Ah, i was under the impression that he had a 51% idle with nothing running....

[pop pop]

I installed AI Booster and it's...well...very pinball machine looking...and big...and starts on boot...everytime :mad:

The numbers are all the same as I see with my other less realestate intensive applettes. I disabled it but will keep it around for the day I decide to OC--if that ever comes.

[BASPro]

I like pinball machines,i got one on my cell phone and play it whenever im taking a dump at work.Sorry about the boot on startup,i forgot,i disabled it on startup a while ago i guess.