Why is my system below average?

Specs are in my sig. So i ran a 3dmark 11 test earlier, when i had a HDD and normal dell drivers, and i got a score of 5858 which was below average, now i tried to overclock my system, and i have dual ssd's in raid 0 instead of a HDD, but my score went even lower (with upgrades AND overclocking). i also installed the latest (non-beta 13.1) drivers for my 7970m. What's up with my system?

the 5858 was on 5th Jan, and the 5849 is now.

This is a link to the first test. AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3740QM Processor,Alienware M17xR4 score: P5858 3DMarks

And this one is for the second. AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3740QM Processor,Alienware M17xR4 score: P5849 3DMarks

 

Can't help you with your benchmarks, but your 2+2 is under the keyboard and you have to disassemble the laptop to replace those. It's easy to do and there are plenty of guides here on the forum that can help you. Look at the link in Mr. Fox's signature for more info.

 

I know I have a different card than you, but under windows 8 I think it has an impact on benchmark scores being lower I got 6100 for my GTX 680m. Have you logged/checked your temps?

Also dell latest drivers are usually behind the latest AMD drivers, so just update to the latest catalyst which is 13.1 or even try the latest BETA

 

Your GPU seems to be throttling. How hot is it getting? You should be having scores ranging from ~6100 to ~6400 for stock clocks.

 

sange, what temp checking software do you recommend? i used speedfan but it doesn't detect my GPU for some reason.

 

GPU-Z is the simplest one I know of, HW info 64 is good too.

 

With 12.11+ I normally score around 6500 on stock clocks, not sure why your scores are lower unless it's throttling. Are you monitoring temps and utilization while gaming and benchmarking?

 

Failed, no i'm not monitoring anything, not sure how to.

 

With the new 13.1 drivers in I am pulling 6603 so I would say something is def not right. I would check your clocks and make sure everything is where it is supposed to be first and go from there.

 

Mog, what do you mean by check my clocks? I'm looking at ur sig and you have the same specs as me pretty much with .3 ghz less on ur processor tho i doubt that makes a significant diff.

 

Go into MSI Afterburner, click "Settings" then the "Monitoring" tab, and checkmark GPU Temperature, select "show in on-screen display," now do the same thing for "Core Clock" and "Memory Clock." Now you can watch the graph and see if your clocks are throttling (they will drop below 850/1200 while benchmarking or gaming.) Also pay attention to your temps, if they start getting into the mid-high 80s or into the 90s, then something is wrong. May need to repaste.

 

This! heh, I use a gadget on the sidebar but same idea, just get a program to monitor what clock speeds your GPU is running at and that could tell you if it is underclocking which would explain the low scores. The CPU shouldn't make that much difference. I had to do a reinstall of Windows last week because I tinkered to much and my GPU wouldn't move above 40%

 

Okay i'm gonna check that out, if there's throttling i'll just contact dell and ask them what to do because i really don't wanna self-diagnose this. in the last month i've reinstalled windows at least 7-8 times.

 

5800+ is perfectly normal for you card at stock clocks, btw.

Does it perform well in games? BF3 should be pushing max settings at around 30-40fps, perhaps more.

 

Here is how you monitor the temps.