*LOWER* 3DMark06 scores when overclocking?

I recently download EVGA Precision v2.02 to overclock the GPU on my Alienware M11x (running v266.58 GPU drivers from nVidia's website)

Using stock speeds, I get a 3DMark06 score of around 7180
- 450Mhz GPU Clock (stock speed)
- 1080Mhz Shader Clock (stock speed)
- 790Mhz Memory Clock (stock speed)

When I use eVGA Precision in any way, my 3DMark06 score drops to around 4500 (even if I am using stock speeds). eVGA Precision's on-screen-display shows I am running at:
- 405Mhz GPU Clock (should be 450Mhz)
- 810Mhz Shader Clock (should be 1080Mhz)
- 324Mhz Memory Clock (should be 790Mhz)
- 99% GPU utilization
- GPU temp at 58C under load
- CPU temp at 45C under load

Anyone else notice this weird behavior?

 

It looks like your card is stuck on 3D clocks instead of Extra clocks (3rd clock level vs 4th clock level). Try a different overclocking program like nvidia performance tools (straight from nvidia), or nvidia inspector (3rd party). I am personally a fan of inspector since it's faster and more lightweight.

NVIDIA Inspector 1.94 download from Guru3D.com

 

I would recommend trying MSI Afterburner to overclock.

MSI Afterburner

 

Did you restart your m11x after the overclock?

When I do an overclock without restarting it, my FPS are greatly decreased, but after restarting it everything works fine and it keeps the overclock.

 

Thanks for the help everyone.

dtd00d was absolutely right on the money about EVGA Precision not setting the clocks properly. I tried using nVidia Inspector, and it correctly set my clocks and gives me the appropriate performance boost.

I am now using MSI Afterburner recommended by kosti, because I like the interface better than nVidia Inspector.

 

Sweet, glad you found the solution. I'll try out MSI Afterburner myself if you say the interface is superior

 

Wow, just like when you overclock the CPU and see your performance plummet when you're running CPU intensive tasks! The perfect pair. :]

EDIT: interesting that Precision is buggy, but Afterburner works. It was my understanding that they're both RivaTuner under the hood.

 

I usually run my card on the default clocks, I see that a lot of people overclock so it must pretty safe. I was wondering if anyone could recommend a program that helps you attain stable clocks (e.g. showing artifacts) The only one I have now is the ATI Tool..

 

Furmark is typically the stability test standard, but it tends to stress your card much further than any real-world applications/games.