Under-Performing?

[Nicko]

Hi guys, I recently got myself a new PC and supposedly top of the range (see specs in sig), but I'm a little worried that it may be under-performing. I did a 3D mark benchmark and my score seems quite low.

Result: http://3dmark.com/3dm11/895497
Screenie: http://tinypic.com/r/2i78mrt/7

Also, it was very odd, I played Half Life 2 yesterday, and I experienced some lag at some arbitrary places. However, I enabled the "show fps" command and it showed that I had 70+ constantly.

What do you guys think?

 

[GreyBush]

Um, you see how on that graph you and 74 other people have similar results. That means you are not underperforming. The other bar is probably overclockers or unlocked 6950's.
Not sure about the lag in HL2, probably a CF driver issue.

 

[stroebs]

What version of graphics drivers do you have?

Also, make sure all the drivers for your motherboard's chipset are installed and up to date.

 

[Chevron]

Hi guys, I recently got myself a new PC and supposedly top of the range (see specs in sig), but I'm a little worried that it may be under-performing. I did a 3D mark benchmark and my score seems quite low.

Result: http://3dmark.com/3dm11/895497
Screenie: http://tinypic.com/r/2i78mrt/7

Also, it was very odd, I played Half Life 2 yesterday, and I experienced some lag at some arbitrary places. However, I enabled the "show fps" command and it showed that I had 70+ constantly.

What do you guys think?

It's your hard drive. Get an SSD.

 

[stroebs]

It's your hard drive. Get an SSD.

My specs:
i5-760
Sapphire HD 6870
Corsair 4GB DDR3-1600 CL7 XMS3
HDD: 1TB Seagate 7200.12 partitioned 3 ways (System, Ubuntu and Storage respectively)
MB: Asus P7H55-M/USB3
PSU: CoolerMaster GX650

Mine doesn't lag as described above? Max graphics

 

[Nicko]

What version of graphics drivers do you have?

Also, make sure all the drivers for your motherboard's chipset are installed and up to date.

All my drivers are fully updated, the reason why 3Dmark is complaining is because I am using the version after theirs.

Um, you see how on that graph you and 74 other people have similar results. That means you are not underperforming. The other bar is probably overclockers or unlocked 6950's.

Oh wait so everyone on that graph are people with the same rig as me. Ok that is good to know.

Do you think it could be a problem with Half LIfe 2 itself (Altho, its fully updated, cuz got it on steam), as more graphics intense games like Metro 2033 works fine on my PC (on max graphics).

 

[stroebs]

Do you think it could be a problem with Half LIfe 2 itself (Altho, its fully updated, cuz got it on steam), as more graphics intense games like Metro 2033 works fine on my PC (on max graphics).

What I've noticed with some older titles and newer hardware is that the game runs so quickly that it ends up slowing itself down. No jokes though, as I've had an experience where the game lags if you don't have it set on absolute maximum.

Oh, and try disabling VSync

 

[GreyBush]

Oh wait so everyone on that graph are people with the same rig as me. Ok that is good to know.

Yep one of the most useful things about it. You can also go into those scores and see what settings they were running, OC's on CPU,GPU and RAM...etc. I believe it is the sole purpose of 3dmark... that and e-peen measurement.

 

[Nicko]

What I've noticed with some older titles and newer hardware is that the game runs so quickly that it ends up slowing itself down. No jokes though, as I've had an experience where the game lags if you don't have it set on absolute maximum.

Oh, and try disabling VSync

Thanks stroebs it was the VSync, running smoothly now and avg 200 fps. All I can say is WTF would anyone enable VSync.

 

[stroebs]

Thanks stroebs it was the VSync, running smoothly now and avg 200 fps. All I can say is WTF would anyone enable VSync.

It may be a problem with AMD GPUs as I see that some games disable it automatically for me.

 

[killadoob]

It's your hard drive. Get an SSD.

Sorry dude but this is just such poor advice i cannot even begin to go into why.

How does half life go with crossfire disabled? Some games don't like crossfire. I had similar issues with bfbc2 running 5770 crossfire, the game felt lagged or slow but i was getting 100+ FPS dipping to no lower than 40FPS, disabled crossfire and it never helps it still felt lagged even though the FPS was in the 50's. It may not like the ati cards either.

Suggestions:

Disable crossfire because you honestly don't need the extra power to run that game max, you are wasting energy using crossfire for half life 2. If you can get an nvidia card somewhere to test if it suffers the same problems.

I tried it on a 7200rpm, raptor and ssd exactly the same problem so i cannot possibly see how the ssd would make any difference to gaming. I could of course be totally wrong.

 

[Rock Bottom Computers]

Your pc is very high spec, you ought to play all the latest games in full resolution and very good frame rates.

Except for the test results...are you personally satisfied with your gaming experience?

 

[stroebs]

Sorry dude but this is just such poor advice i cannot even begin to go into why.

How does half life go with crossfire disabled? Some games don't like crossfire. I had similar issues with bfbc2 running 5770 crossfire, the game felt lagged or slow but i was getting 100+ FPS dipping to no lower than 40FPS, disabled crossfire and it never helps it still felt lagged even though the FPS was in the 50's. It may not like the ati cards either.

Suggestions:

Disable crossfire because you honestly don't need the extra power to run that game max, you are wasting energy using crossfire for half life 2. If you can get an nvidia card somewhere to test if it suffers the same problems.

I tried it on a 7200rpm, raptor and ssd exactly the same problem so i cannot possibly see how the ssd would make any difference to gaming. I could of course be totally wrong.

My advice worked, disabling VSync

 

[Nicko]

Your pc is very high spec, you ought to play all the latest games in full resolution and very good frame rates.

Except for the test results...are you personally satisfied with your gaming experience?

Generally I am pleased with my gaming experience like Metro 2033, Crysis 2 etc etc runs fine, but Half Like 2/TF2 seems to be problematic.

My advice worked, disabling VSync

It sorted out my Half Life 2 woes, but TF2 is still acting up. With VSync disabled, its mostly fine but when I do sudden movements like switching quickly between my weapons, the weapon would be all over the place, the top section would be further than the middle section etc. And with VSync enabled, I get the occassional lag.

Thanks for all the help so far guys, tomorrow I will try it with crossfire disabled.

 

[Rudimental]

With VSync disabled, its mostly fine but when I do sudden movements like switching quickly between my weapons, the weapon would be all over the place, the top section would be further than the middle section etc. And with VSync enabled, I get the occassional lag.

The v-sync lag is probably a Crossfire issue. What you describe in the first part is what is called 'tearing' and is the main reason why you want v-sync enabled in the first place. In Source engine games (HL2, TF2, etc), you should be able to set your maximum frame rate. I'm going to assume that your monitor refresh rate is 60hz, so set your max fps (I forgot what the variable is, something like fps_max) to a multiple of this (60, 120, 180, etc...) that you won't drop below often and that may help with the tearing.