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    Underperforming 7900GS - any ideas?

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by Spamtek, May 31, 2006.

  1. Spamtek

    Spamtek Newbie

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    I just got a Dell Inspiron e1705 the other day and so far the ride's been pretty smooth but I've noticed that my 3DMark05 scores for my GeForce Go 7900 GS are waaaay below average. From what I've read I should be getting a score of about 6000 minimum with stock settings, but my card only seems to be pulling a 4059. Here's my notebook's main specs:

    -1.83 Ghz Core Duo
    -1 Gb Ram
    -80Gb 7200RPM Hard Drive
    -GeForce Go 7900GS 256Mb
    -Glossy WUXGA+ screen or whatever the silly acronym is.

    The laptop came with XP MCE which I wiped and reinstalled with XP Pro. I've got v8.4.9.2 Forceware drivers installed and Directx 9.0c. I'm not sure how to read the video card's temperature - Sandra did the job on my desktop computer but it tells me on this laptop that there's no monitoring hardware or something silly, so I haven't the slightest clue what temp my card's running at, although the bottom of the device isn't all that hot.

    Anyways, I was looking forward to overclocking this mofo eventually but with such a pathetic number out of the box it'd be a waste of time to try. Is there some magic switch I'm missing that'll make my video card perform like everyone else's? Aside from this speedbump everything else has been relatively fine (aside from having to scrounge around online looking for the correct drivers).
     
    Spamtek, May 31, 2006
    #1
  2. Charles P. Jefferies

    Charles P. Jefferies Lead Moderator Super Moderator

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    I don't own an Nvidia card, but check in the settings panel and see if it is set on battery power - move the sliders to optimal performance.

    If that doesn't work, then try the drivers from www.laptopvideo2go.com and see how they work.
     
    Charles P. Jefferies, May 31, 2006
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  3. Spamtek

    Spamtek Newbie

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    Aha - while the updated drivers really didn't do anything, when I changed performance vs. quality settings from application-controlled to maximum performance, the score shot from ~4000 to 6300. I noticed the profile for 3DMark05 had display quality set at maximum - so is setting performance to max for this test just an assumed thing (and thus this entire thing just a giant n00b question) because max performance = max score? Other people reported their scores as right of of the box with no tweaks... so I can only assume their settings were what mine was when I was getting a far lower score than them... but oh well. As long as I can match numbers, I at least feel as good as the rest. Thanks for the heads-up.
     
    Spamtek, May 31, 2006
    #3