3dMark06 ... is this normal for my m17x?

Hi guys.

As a relative novice here, i just d/l the above and ran it on my stock system as below in my signature.

The score that came back was 13558

Now , as im new, is that good bad or indifferent?.....thought it would be higher than that but not sure so any info would be great!

 

Make sure in the Catalyst Control Panel you have Crossfire enabled. Double check with GPU-Z, it should say Enabled (2GPUs) near the bottom. Also not sure what the specs are on the 720, but I think thats a normal score. Remember that the systems that are pumping out 20K+ 3DMark06 scores are highly overclocked, so don't let those in the benchmarking thread throw you for a loop. The high scores are the results of GPU and CPU overclocking, raising the CPU TDP, cold ambient temps, running a slim operating system, shutting down any unneccesary services and other extreme measures for the sake of number chasing.

Also make sure your running it at the default settings. If you can provide a screen shot of the score with CPU-Z and GPU-Z in the screen shot as well that would help. you can upload it to a site like imageshack.us and link the forum thumbnail. One of the reasons it's low is because 3DMark06 is extremely CPU dependant. So the faster CPU you have the higher the scores will be. Try running 3DMark Vantage. That is a lot less CPU dependant, and it will give a better indication of your system.

 

Hi....thanks for the info, yeah CCC showing x/f enabled. I thought it seemed low as have read some reviews here: Notebookcheck: AMD ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870 X2 (Crossfire) that seemed to show that x/f 4870 in an m17x with 620m scored 15000+

Thought my score would have been higher although appreciate not as high as OC'd results etc.

The other thing i should say maybe is that i only d/l and havent bought the full version as i was just playin about and was interested to see what it would be - i dont think i can adjust ANY settings so i presume they ARE default settings?

 

The downloaded version should still give the same results. Might be other programs running in the background dropping your score taking up CPU cycles. Also read up on the new drivers from ATI. Not dell official, but they bumped my scores up. Although there are some inherit sleep/wake issues with the drivers.

 

Yeah, read up on them drivers! - ouch! - they just cant seem to get it right can they!
Im getting a replacement with an 820qm and 6gb ram so maybe scores will go up....

 

Yea, you should see some good improvement with the 820 CPU. Probably the best CPU if your not into number chasing and benchmarking.

 

Well, i am relatively new to this level of laptop but im not gonna rule out someday wanting to benchamrk and tweak things but for he time being, im kinda happy to run things "stock" and get used to it.

Maybe pick up some pointers from NBR guys/girls like your good self about that kind of stuff once im set - think it would be good to get to grips first before tinkering with things i dont fully understand.

Thanks for your advice

 

Thanks for the info as I was trying to figure out the same thing as to why I cant achieve 20K + scores. The score in my sig is from a stock only second run after recieving my system so I thought I just had to try again in which I will after I purchase a better notebook cooler other than my old targus chill mat hopefully soon. I honestly thought that the 20K scores that I was viewing were being run on stock systems? Thanks for clarifying this DR650SE

 

No prob predetor, Cant remember what a stock run will net for a CPU score in vantage, but I've hit 22K for the CPU alone in Vantage. But that is with the keyboard removed and a frigid A/C blowing directly on the system.

 

Never thought that a cooler environment would affect these scores but now that you mention it, it makes sense as the cpu/gpu would work more efficiently i guess.....as for running a slim OS, i take it that means no a/v , no nothing when you are chasing these 20k+ numbers......(i know i will never get those on this spec or with my 820qm but i do like to keep an eye on things)

Im happy as long as my system runs well, plas games without hitches/glitches and at a decent frame rate.....

Might start OC'ing after im out of warranty (does it void your warranty if you knacker something becasue of OC?)

 

If you mess it up by using anything other than the built in bios overclocking then it could void the warranty. One of the reasons they put thermal limits built in to the CPU. the chip will throttle back if it hits 95*-100*C. But I've had my system for about a month, since it came while I was home on leave. I'm just now getting to setting up another SSD as my everyday use drive. Right now I'm running on a seperate SSD I use for benchmarking. It's a 40GB Intel SSD and has nothing but benching tools and programs on it. the only drivers I have installed are the GPU and wifi drivers. Everything else is a bare windows install. Tommorrow I'll finally have time to set everything else up as I want it since I got most of the benching out of my system...for now.

Also a cooler environment greatly effects the scores. Look at the pros, they bench with dry ice and liquid nitrogen.

Check this vid out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBtdybmsjgA&feature=player_embedded

 

That video is crazy!....i will leave my ice cube tray in the freezer for now LOL - you got some great scores there so hang your "benchamrking boots" up for a bit and enjoy yourself !!

 

Haha thanks. Thats the current plan. I have a ton of games that I'm eager to get to playing.

Yea those guys are crazy, using liquid nitrogen like that, but it would be a lot of fun to, provided you didn't accedentally spill it all over yourself

 

To get 20k+ on 3dmark 06 for everyday use (before I got my 920xm, i was using a 720qm at the time) I had to:

1: Modify the internal ducting of the M17x R2 fans (i have pics and will post a how-to soon, once I fix my ram temps...)
2: Apply arctic silver 5 to all the heatsinks (i was a little heavy handed though - I will lighten it and will get better temps)
3: Use setfsb and rivatuner liberally

My temps were hitting a max of 80ish on the cpu and about 60 on the gpu cores in furmark and intel burn test (100 on the gpu memory - memory cooling in these laptops suck, hence why we get memory artifacts after a while in sc2 I think)

With the new CPU I get slightly higher 3dmark06 scores but my cpu temps are now in the low 90's at load in intel burn test.

I now use throttlestop instead of setfsb and have my 1 core (2 thread) turbo boost level at around 4ghz. (also using the 5% bios oc with the 920xm)

I dont run an antivirus. Im not a watcher/downloader and I dont go chasing after warez, so Im safe from 90% of the malware out there. Also, antivirus programs are mostly junk. The only decent one I have seen is panda cloud antivirus - but again, I dont need it.

I dont have auto updates enabled ever. Again, see above.

I use this machine as a game dev/work machine and occasional games, and nothing else. Its a tight ship and needs to be fast. I have a mac lappy at home for other mundane tasks.

So, as people have said - while this laptop is capable of 20k plus, its not very easy to achieve.

-Ash

 

Thanks Ash,

I gotta keep this system as both work and play, i cant just have it for a gaming rig otherwise i may consider no a/v etc.....although im not a number chaser now, i might be in the future if the bug gets me that way...im sure it will cos i have an inquisitive nature ..... just that i cant afford to use this for that sole purpose atm.

I wonder what kinda scores i would get with the 820qm and 6gb ram im getting in my replacement soon? - what dya reckon?

 

Well, the difference between 720 and 820 arent much unless overclocking.

definately go for more ram though, but keep both sticks the same.

2x2gb or 2x4gb for example.

Otherwise, only 2/3rds of the ram will run at dual channel speeds.

-Ash

 

All they would offer me in my replacemment was max 6gb even though i told them about odd sticks......they told me otherwise (aw that is) but it was either 6gb or nothing so 6gb it was....i had read that as long as thhe latency and speeds were the same that all memory would run in dual channel and not just 2/3rds....have seen some peoples cpuz shownig 6gb running in dual channel so i thought it was fine. (i think it will run in flex mode but have a look here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...2-4-my-system-means-no-dual-channel-mode.html )

After sales , as long as i keep both sticks the same ie 1333mhz, how important is it to match ? manufacturer etc?

Also, does my 64 bit OS benefit from more than 4gb ram??? - heard it doesnt and also heard same goes for games....4gb seemed to be the recommended amount when i bought!

 

I haven't ran vantage yet (cuz it's not free lol!). However, I will when I get some extra cash. 22k in vantage is amazing I am not a hardcore number chaser (yet) otherwise I would definitely try your method for achieveing those numbers. I am guessing I would achieve a high 19k score on a stock vantage run which is not bad considering that I hit a 19k 3d mark 06 run on my second attempt. Basically, I was curious if I recieved a lemon as my replacement and was a bit curious as to the type of performance I would see running extensive apps on this beast

 

Both sticks do run in dual channel.

But.

If you have one 2gb stick and one 4gb stick, only the first 2gb of the 4gb stick is dual channelled.
The other 2gb doesnt have a mirror to "raid" to, so it runs in single channel mode.
So you would have 4gb dual channel and 2gb single channel total.

For each gb of ram it needs a gb in another slot to dual channel with.

-Ash

 

Thx for the info. I have been searching for stock scores inside the benchmark threads. I was hoping to find a few, that way I had a range to work with and 'know' I was falling somewhere inside it. BTW It's very hard to find stock scores. It would be really nice if everyone benched completely stock out of the box and then posted their OC'ed scores along with the stock.
I got a little over 19K my first run on 3DMark06 and was thinking it might be a little low or about right for out of the box. I haven't tried Vantage because it isn't free.
I cut back on all the unnecessary services and startup programs and 3DMark06 came in about 100pts higher. I was going to see if you could run it in safemode and get any better scores like you can with the SSD tests. BUT I stopped myself before I began to chase numbers. Seems like fun and as soon as I get up the courage to overclock for the first time on a laptop... well I hope I don't get hooked. Thx again, it really helps.

 

safemode wont load any video drivers, so that wont work anyway

-Ash

 

Well I just Ran 3dmarks06 and got 13833. My system is all stock and I have had since june 28th but I have not tryed to oc it yet.

 

Stevie, why did you order a replacement system? Just wanted more power?

 

Derrrrr... I knew that. Sheesh where's my brain. Then I guess a really minimal version of Windows is the only way to push it to the limit without overclocking cpu or gpu's.

 

the 13-14k 3dmark06 scores are normal for an i7-720 system with one 5870. that's the exact range the asus g73jh clocks in at. if you guys are in that range it doesn't sound like the ati crossfire is working, at least not when the benchmark is running.

 

Yeah. From memory i was getting something like 15-16k stock crossfire? cant remember.

Been so long ago since I ran stock...

-Ash

 

Would the scores go up if you put it in the freezer and wait till it's done?

 

Was due to the fact that my 3wk old lappy had lots of issues with power a/c and flickering - i wasnt happy with it so Dell gave me thhe option of a refund or a replacement (the replacement having higher spec by way of a sorry from them).
Still using the one below atm, new one (new build) will be here in around a week i hope.!

 

I checked CCC and crossfire was enabled but that doesnt mean to say it was working in the bench tho i guess??? - how would you check it was?

Also, dont the Asus G73 come with 8gb ram as stock?....would that influence the score in its favour? - i only have 4gb in this rig.

Just have a look here: http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5870.23073.0.html That shows G73 3dMark06 scores to be 12k ish on both variants (520m 4gb and 720qm 8gb) with siingular 5870.....

It also shows what i presume to be a stock run m17x with a 920xm to be just over 19000.

Now , as i have crossfire, should my score be much higher??? - surely another gpu would earn more than 1000 points??

 

To check if both GPU's are working, open up two GPU-Z applications and monitor the temps of each card. You should be able to select the card on the bottom of GPU-Z in the drop down menu. If the temps in only one card increase, crossfire isn't working. Make sure to keep them running while the benchmark is going.

 

I ran it a agin and got 13773 and I had gpuz running and it show that the second card was at max core clock was at 700mhz and the memory was at 1000mhz. temps were only at 72c and cpu max at 64c. so it must be the i7 720 keeping the score down.

 

Hmmm...your system is identical to mine (except OS) and my score was 200 ish points lower????

I guess the 3dMark06 is very cpu intensive hence the low scores with 720...think the stock run for a 920 is around 19k.

Did you do anything different to get a slightly higher score? - maybe my a/v running in the back had something to do with mine but i dont know as never done it before!

 

I just ran 3d Mark 06 with Dells new drivers and scored a measly 2000 odd lol. Got over 8000 in Vantage.

 

Dells new drivers? - do you mean Ati 10.7? - only as Dell havent released any new drivers yet, Brian from Alienware Quality is working on some new Dell 10.7 beta's for us but not released yet AFAIK.

2000??? - something aint working right on your system! Id revert back if I were you LOL

 

Um the new Nvidia drivers. The ATI ones aren't gonna be out till before September apparently when i spoke to a dell rep just now. You never know though.

Yeh not sure sups with my scores lol.

 

No, I had everything running including my a/v which’s is Norton Antivirus.
I ran it 4 times and 13773 ever time except for the first run which was 13855 plus don’t know if it makes any deferent but am still on a05 bios..

 

Not sure either....maybe ambient temps play a factor but i dont know....anyway, its not much of a difference and at least im in thhe "ball park" , im not number chasing so atm it dont bother me that much...just was curious as to why the scores are different.

 

Keep in mind there there are a ton of factors that play in benchmarking like background services and programs. Any service in the background that takes up CPU cycles while the benchmarking program is running will draw down your score. Ambient temps also play a part in it as well. There is also a margin of error with the programs which could explain the differance. Rarely will you ever get the exact same score, but it's usually in the same ball park. Also things like drivers will play a part in the score as well.

 

Yeah. Am not number chasing ether but just like you said we know were in the ballpark and for sure everything is work properly. probaly down the road I will upgrade my cpu to i7-840QM. I have a friend sting on one. Or get one off the egg..

 

With my specs, out of the box, about where should I be so I know it works? With stock drivers? 10.7? I was thinking about just turning on the PC, disabling sleep mode, installing 10.7, starting 3dmark06 to test it. Numbers?

 

From what others say, id be expecting 19k ish.....stock.....but im no expert.

 

19k stock would be fantastic. When I got the M15x ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/506876-thinking-scrapping.html) I ran 3dmark 06 and got over 10k. I installed Riva tuner and throttle stop, did the fix, and now can't break 5k. I uninstalled Riva stop after I set all the numbers back to normal and still can't get more than 5k / 20 fps in wow on ultra. Not like it matters because I'm sending it back, but I'd be curious as to why this happened and how to amend it in case something similar happens with my M17x.

 

I just (3 min ago) did a stock run and down clocked my 940XM to 920XM speeds with the BIOS 5% overclock on and scored just over 19K. 19620 to be exact. But I also have a slimmed down OS so results will vary, but I would guess in the 19K ballpark. This was done with out any increase in TDP or anything. Simply stock speeds plus 5% bios OC.

 

wonder what my 820 will score when it gets here....im thinking if 720 is 13.5k and 920 is 19k, the inbetween would be around 16k ish.....

 

you have no idea how helpful that is to someone who isn't into overclocking just yet. Thank you.
Maybe Joker could be persuaded to put some ranges in for each processor, on his wiki. (kinda ballpark ranges since everyone has different configs and some have OS'es with lots of services running.) For us stock benchmarkers just testing systems it helps tremendously.

 

It really does. That way you can determine whether or not your machine works correctly out of the box.

Can anyone answer the question I had above about the M15x?

 

In an hour or so I will dig up one of my stock i5 520M CPU bench runs.

 

I ran 3DMark06 on my new machine (specs below) using A05 and Dell's stock drivers in late June and scored in the 13,800 range (I can't remember exactly - I'm at work and don't have my laptop here). I didn't have the SSD mentioned in my specs installed at the time, but I did verify Crossfire was enabled.

With the SSD, GPU overclocks of 850/1100 and by using SetFSB, I was able to score a 16,200. Scores jumped with the SetFSB CPU overclocks more than anything, so it was apparent 3DMark06 is very CPU dependent. Going from a 720 to an 820 should help scores considerably

Specs: Alienware M17X-R2 | i7-720QM | 4GB 1333MHz | RGB LED | Crossfire 5870 | 160GB Intel X25-M + 500GB HDD | Intel 6300 Wi-Fi | 3 Years CC

 

Hmm, didn't find a stock run on the i5 520M that I had, but my guess is 12-13000 for stock benchmark on 3DMark06. One of the reasons is because 3DMark06 GPU scores are heavily influenced by the CPU at hand.

EDIT: I found a GPU.CPU overclocked run with the i5 520M and scored 17.6K in 3DMark06, which should really how much potential the cards have, based on the CPU. Then again it's a synthetic benchmark and not a real world bench