Does the P8400 hold the system back?

Quick question. Im running into a bit of a problem with my M860TU with a 9800GT. With everything turned off (anti-virus off, undervolting off, 181.22.1 dox optimized drivers) I can only get a score of 9000 3dmark06 points at 1280x1024. Is it possible the CPU clock of only 2.26ghz is the cause of this?

also note: with undervolting on and stock 176.XX drivers I was only getting ~8450 3dmark06 points which seems low for a 9800GT.

 

It might be holding 3dmarks06 scores back a bit, but it should not be holding back your gaming performance, and even if it did maybe to a very low extent.

 

If anyone has Crysis warhead and wants to compare scores:

Average FPS: ~21

Settings:
Resolution - 1680x1050
AA - Off
Textures - Custom
Objects - Mainstream
Shadows - Gamer
Physics - Gamer
Shaders - Gamer
Volumetric - Mainstream
Game Effects - Mainstream
Postprocessing - Mainstream
Particles - Gamer
Water - Mainstream
Sound - Mainstream
Motion Blur - Off

 

If your absolute only concern is the 3dmark score, its definitely holding you back as 3dmark06 scores take the cpu into account a lot more than older 3dmarks did. In the real world your concern would be gaming performance. You might want to try running similar settings at a much lower resolution like 1280x800 or something in that range and see how the FPS does. Ultimately the CPU is only a bottleneck until you exceed the performance of the video card, at higher resolutions typically the video card will hold you back as much as the CPU. If you don't get that good a frame rate at lower resolutions you can be more confident the cpu is a problem. Frankly the P8400 is a pretty good performer and I don't think it will hold you back that much. FWIW I got a 9801 on 3dmark06 with the 9800M GTS and P8400 on my laptop running Windows XP.

 

I think the P8400 is quite capable... and bang for the buck Core 2.

I was happy with a 2.0GHz dual core for gaming purposes... as long as you have a high-end videocard with at least a 2.2GHz CPU, it should be fine.

 

this is a touchy issue... people have way to many opinions on what performance is..

when you benchmark for speed and not quality. then you set everything to performance mode and run the stock drivers and you do not under volt.
you will need to experiment when running 3dmark06 because it varies. and it has a bit more to do with just turning off some back ground processes that probably aren't even effecting anything. usually the only 3 things doing that are windows search/windows areo/windows superfetch. a 9800m gt is capable of running a 3dmark06 score of around 12k with a high end dual core cpu, tweaking settings and over clocking the gpu. to answer your first question...yes, your cpu is holding you back.

best over clocking drivers are 176.09 and 176.25 which you can vbios mod them for over clocking. or you can try the 179.28 over clocking drivers from nvidia. they hold your cpu back a few hundred points and lower your score considerably when over clocking in sli mode, but seem to work fairly well in single gpu mode. give those a try. they seem to work for gaming and benching. 181's are more quality orientated than performance. so lose them if you want speed. the 185.20 seem very well for gaming quality graphics, but you lose a bit on the cpu and other performance tweaks for the smoother frame rate and better looking picture.

you really need to run vantage mark to see what your card is made of. it's gpu or cpu intensive. it rely's very heavily on your gpu's performance

 

Hi mate,

I have a P8600 (2.4) with a 9800 GT. Here is what I have noticed.

When playing old or not-so-intensive games, the processor will be the bottleneck, but it won't affect game performance at all because it will be the difference between 150 FPS and 250 FPS.

When playing newer games (I'm thinking Bioshock, Far Cry 2, etc) the video card is always the bottleneck. Don't forget: you 'only' have a 9800M GT. While it is of course a crapload of power, it's not like you're wielding dual 9800 GTX's
If you did, then the processor would be the bottleneck in those high-end games.
But with P8600 and a 9800 GT, I don't have any problems with Warhead or any other game. And neither should you with a P8400

P.S. You might want to try some optimised configs for the 9800M GT. They work like a charm for me.

 

yop link ill take a look on crysis warhead on those config

i usualy get 20-30 FPS on gamer with 9800gts lol

 

As noted, the P8400 may be holding your system back in 3DMark06 but it's not holding it up in games.

This is a long post but you should take the time to read it:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=122013

 

Well 1680x1050 with ALL settings on gamer i only get about 15.5fps.