Low 3dMark06 score!

Why is my system only getting 1506 3dmarks tops?? check sig below, it should be getting 3000+ correct?

 

Is it on battery? Are drivers up to date? What resolution for 3DMark06?

You should be getting 2800~3100.

 

Check that powermizer is not set to max battery, that would lower the clocks and thus give you a lower score.
EDIT: You may have also gotten shafted if Dell majorly underclocks their cards.

 

yea make sure your on ac power and power options are set to max power.

one thing that I dont understand is that why do you guys suggest to disable powermizer.....doesnt powermizer only come into play when your on battery power, if your on AC power then powermizer doesnt do anything at all, does it?

also what options in the XP power menu correlate to vistas max performance options??

 

running 163.74's and the res is default (i forget what it is) but my scores used to be way better, i could get 3800 at 1280x800 res!

 

It's advisable that you use 1280 x 1024 resolution on 3DMark06, as it's the most commonly used benchmark resolution and is the default; running 3DMark on WXGA resolution sorta inflates the result.

 

I think I know the problem, or have a good guess.

Try to use the default drivers that came with the dell for your video card then try again. I dont know if all notebooks have this problem with the 8600gt 256mb GDDR3 but the Asus C90 does, if you use any drivers other than the stock ones performances goes way down for some reason.

 

But it used to be fine? I was installing / uninstalling drivers to get the best performance possible, got 3800 with the legendary 158.45's now i get around 2000+ with the exact same drivers???

 

Alrite ive figured it out! I had to uninstall the 8600m gt altogether n reinstall new drivers now I'm getting around 2900!

Thnx 4 all the help, much appreciated!

 

2900 is still low by several hundred marks if you're running at 1280x800. What drivers did you get that score with?

 

couldnt let him just be happy eh odin?

if he has a GDDR2 8600 with 256mb memory that sounds about right actually because my 512mb version with a better cpu gets just over 3000 with default res, so it would only get maybe 3300 with a lower one.

If its the GDDR3 one yeah its low, but I know dell underclocks there cards too on some models.

 

you should fix your sig, incase someone wants to compare thier 8600GT to yours but didn't know you ran it in only 1280x800..

 

A DDR2 8600M-GT should get 3300-3400 (regardless of 256mb or 512mb) at 1280x800. He's getting 2900, which is exactly right for 1280x1024, but pretty low for 1280x800.

 

3445 with the default test settings with the rig in my sig. 163.75 drivers.

 

That's happened to me 2 guys. I have Dell 1520/8600GT with driver 163.75 and Iam on AC power. I got 3299 in 3d mark. I tried 163.44 and I got 3388 I don't know why.??? Also,Riva tuner can't monitor my core temp on driver 163.69 and 163.75 , but earlier release it went through. I used driver cleaner and I uninstalled my old driver b4 I install the new one. Any advice?

 

Those scores sound normal, I'm not sure what you're asking about?

 

When I tried the 163.44 driver it scored 3388 in 3d mark 2006 , why when i used the 163.75 driver it scored less

 

The difference is negligible. You're in the ball park. Doubtful you will see any real world difference.

 

second that. don't worry about 3dmark scores so much. unless ur in-game performance goes down, i would not be concerned.

 

blah, I just hit 2982 on 3dmark 2006......for some reason I score LOWER when I set the computer to high performance. I do my best scores on the balanced setting. Granted, I don't have the updated drivers either.