Top 10 Prep Steps BEFORE Running 3DMark?

[Chuck232]

Dondero a little side note. You have your card at 420/350 and CPU at 3250MHz and yet you only score ~18000?

I'm only at 374/339 and 3172 and I'm getting 18700...

[Colossus]

Nothing wrong with praying to the overclock god in the sky!

I was thinking about changing the order inwhich the benchmark runs... I hear it helps.. So I want to do that and possible break 21.5

[Dondero]

Originally posted by Chuck232
Dondero a little side note. You have your card at 420/350 and CPU at 3250MHz and yet you only score ~18000?

I'm only at 374/339 and 3172 and I'm getting 18700...

Don't get me started!! I didn't really do a "proper" test because I ran all the tests consecutively and had all the other proccess's(sp?) that normally run in the background w/XPpro. Could that be why??

I am basically way to lazy to do it right

How did u run your tests to get 18,7??

[Dondero]

I re-ran the tests and got a 21356 but the 1024x768 res was no longer an option for me??

[Chuck232]

Wha?? You can't run 1024x768 anymore??

I ran the tests backwards, Nature, Lobby, Dragothic then Car Chase. Could be why my car chase is crappy.

[speedyaxon]

how would you run them in a different order?? also, why would this effect how they perform?

[Chuck232]

Well you go to select tests and just select one at a time in whatever order you want to go in. This helps since as you go through the run, memory is taken up as is system resources, so it's better to do the more resource intensive tests first.

[Colossus]

Originally posted by Dondero
I re-ran the tests and got a 21356 but the 1024x768 res was no longer an option for me??

Odd, but that run is not valid... 640x480@16-bit... Is not that standard

If you leave the settings on default it should default to 1024x768

[ranger2992]

Originally posted by Chuck232
Wha?? You can't run 1024x768 anymore??

I ran the tests backwards, Nature, Lobby, Dragothic then Car Chase. Could be why my car chase is crappy.

That is why your car chase is crappy. I bet you saw increases in the other tests though. On average I pick up 10-15 fps in the low detail dragon and lobby, but drop 10 fps in low car with this order. It's still worth it because my end score is better.

[Mr Cherry]

Steps:

1. Uninstall 3dmark
2. Install a real game
3. Benchmark that game
4. Realise that artifical benchmarks are inherently flawed
5. Drink a beer
6. Take a nap
7. Defrag your computer
8. Put a hot-pocket in the toaster
9. Play your new game
10. Eat hot-pocket (WARNING: remove from toaster first)

[Chuck232]

lol @ Mr. Cherry....

@ Ranger: Yeah, I did see an improvement in the low details of Lobby and Drogothic. ~10 in lobby and ~15 in dragothic. So I'll experiment and see what gets me the best score as always!