NP8662 not running as well as it should...

I just recently bought the Sager NP8662 with the P9700 CPU, 260m, 4GB DDR3 RAM, and I also installed Windows 7 Professional that I got through my school. I was starting to feel that it wasn't running as good as it should be. I downloaded 3dMark06, and my score was 9406. I remember seeing around the internet that this laptop with similar specs was getting around the 10500 mark without and overclocking. During the CPU tests I was only getting 0-2 frames per second, which seems bad but I don't know if that is normal or not. What could the problem be? Thanks in advance.

My 3dMark06 score:
http://service.futuremark.com/home.action;jsessionid=C808FA7D498D0FFB5F5076CB805640A6

 

Not sure how its not running well. CPU test is normal to run that low and i doubt everyone gets over 10000 on their tests.

Have you done your test in safe mode or normal?

 

I am running the test in normal mode. I guess that score isn't that bad, I just thought it should be up there in score with the other similar notebooks. And games like Battleground Europe where I am getting 13-20 FPS in battle where other laptop users are getting around 30, I felt like my laptop should be performing at least as good if not better because my laptop has better specs.

 

If nothing else, would it be alright to maybe overclock the machine a little bit? Are there any good OC marks that people are using? Because I've never OCed a computer before and it would be nice to get a ballpark range for some good marks to use.

 

Have you set it to high performance?

 

you dont need to OC it if you can already run your games smoothly..
dont rely too much on synthetic benchmark results...

normally 600 / 900 / 1500 is stable enough....

 

9406...
(this is weird because I have an np8662 with a dual 2.8 and i'm breaking 10,500)

OK, I have a few questions for you.

1. Did you Set the Computer to High Performance for power use, and plug it into the outlet / mains
2. Did you go to BlackViper's website and use his vista tweaks and tweak your system so that the system itself uses as few resources as possible while maintaining stability?
3. Did you use Les's Vista Tweak Guide to tweak Vista further so that it uses fewer resources and thrashes your HDD less?
4. Did you turn down 7's use of "pretty aero things" in themes so the GPU can focus more on gaming, and the CPU on the OS?
5. Did you update your video drivers, your mobo drivers, sound drivers, and BIOS driver to the latest available?

These things should help boost your scores a bit by freeing resources for gaming and benchmarking. Also, the quad should be a bit higher because 3dmark06 is optimized for dual and quadcore systems, and you have a q9000. I wouldn't be surprised if Vista is trying to run everything imaginable while you're gaming / benchmarking, as a result.

Links:
Black Viper's Windows 7 Tweak Guide for services.msc
Les's Vista Tweak Guide for Improving Performance
Nvidia Windows 7 64-bit Driver
LV2G, a great resource for tweaked drivers and realtek sound drivers for your sager
MobileForce Se7en 190.38 Tweaked Drivers <---- my favorite nVidia driver right now... works beautifully.

 

Go into task manager and check how much CPU usage you are getting at idle.

 

I am getting around 0-3% CPU usage at idle. The computer is set to high performance, and I only have a few programs run at startup (with only a couple extra icons in the taskbar). My current driver version for my 260m is 8.16.11.8681, which I think is up to date but it could not be also. Also ganzonomy, I am running Windows 7 x64 with a P9700, not Vista with a Q9000.

 

Well I changed battery performance to high (I can't remember if it was on when I ran the last test or not), closed out of MSN messenger, closed all the sidebar gadgets, and disabled my anti-virus software. I ran the test, and this time: 9281. What is going on here???

 

Run the benchmarking with your Resource monitor on and see if you are hitting full 100% on cpu and mem...

Call where you bought it from and see if there is some troubleshooting you can do.. At the very least you will at document that you are having performance issues.

 

In between tests, where it says scanning system configuration or something like that, I see my resource monitor. It looks like the first core is at 100%, but the second isn't doing much. Could it only be using one core?

 

I start my resource monitor and keep it running then start 3Dmark06 let it run for a min or two , hit ESC and look at my cpu graphs. Both of my graphs cpu 0 and cpu1 will look similar....

I think Joseph over at Xoticpc may know more... : )

 

Well I am playing Battleground right now, and I switch to the resource monitor and it looks like both cores are running about the same, but the second core activity goes down a lot after I am on the desktop for a few seconds.

I also posted a similar topic over at XoticPC, maybe they will be able to help too.

 

What do you guys mean by setting it to high performance? Just so i know when i get it. What exactly does it do by doing this?

 

my bad, did you try the tweaks anyway? I was typing in class reading 4 threads at the same time

Jason

 

It's the button under the laptop to the left. You slide it about an inch to the side and you get a boost in performance.

 

Something is not right. My old 9800m Gts was running at that score no way a GTX 260M should be. What resolution are you running on 3dmark06? What video drivers do you have installed?

 

I would worry more about the fps you get in actual games and not the benchmark. You should install and note frame rates of several games before you start being concerned.

 

Thank you good friend

 

I think he meant under and to the right... and was being facetious.

High Performance is set in Power Options, and FYI, you shouldn't use that mode for benching (or anything other than as a template for battery drain really). Using Balanced mode will automatically scale up the clocks/performance when needed. And not only does High Performance mode *not* perform better than Balanced, in many cases it can be worse (i.e. since your clocks are running full even at idle, the CPU gets hotter than it would had it down-clocked and performance drops)

 

Well I was getting a low FPS in a game called Battleground Europe, and that's what made me want to look at benchmarks in the first place. In the middle of action I was getting about 13-18 FPS, while my buddy was getting around 30. Now I understand that he may or may not be playing on different graphical settings and a different resolution, but the fact that I am getting low FPS and a low 3dMark score in the 9000s where other users with the same laptop are getting in the 10500 is making me think that something is wrong.

Edit:
Driver versions
Video: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260m - 8.16.11.8681
CPU: Intel P9700 - 6.1.7600.16385
Sound: High Definition Audio Device - 6.1.7600.16385
BIOS: Pheonix BIOS - 1.02.16S LS2

Random CPU-Z info that may or may not be relevant:

260m Clocks:
Core: 200 MHz
Shaders: 400 MHz
Memory: 100 MHz

CPU Clocks (Core #0):
Core Speed: 1596.0 MHz
Multiplier: x 6.0
Bus Speed: 266.0 MHz
Rated FSB: 1064.0 MHz

Edit 2:
I changed to a Windows 7 Basic theme with no Aero or transparent windows, rand 3dMark, and I got a score of 9642 or something close to that. Also, I was monitoring my resource monitor and both cores were being utilized pretty evenly. This time I also ran at the default resolution it has, instead of changing it to 1680x1050.

 

Arhh, I Think its lower than the normal, very lower !

 

I posted a similar topic over at XoticPC, and they think that the GPU clocks go down when not being used as much, but go up as the computer needs the extra resources. Either way, I sort of want to mess around with this. How can I change the clocks myself to what they should be? Is there a program I can download that will let me mess with my video card?

 

You can disable the downclocking of the GPU in the Nvidia Control Panel under "PowerMizer settings". If it's not there, go get a latest beta driver at Laptopvideo2go.com (with modified INF), then it should be there. Disabling PowerMizer will force the GPU to stay at 100% full power even when it's not doing anything at all.

 

Well I just went to mess with the PowerMizer settings in the Nvidia Control Panel, but it wasn't there. I used the help to try and find where I had to go. Apparently, I have to go to a tab that talks about Mobile Settings, but I don't have that. Does that mean I may have the wrong Nvidia Control Panel? I just checked again on Nvidia's website, and according to the automatic scan it does I have the latest driver.

Edit:
I just saw what you said, I will check out laptopvideo2go.

Edit 2:
At the website, I assumer you are talking about modifying the driver with the INF enhancer. I don't really know which options I should include. The driver I have now is 186.81, so what options should I select?

 

The latest batch of Nvidia WHQL drivers have removed the PowreMizer menu, yup. That's why if you want full-on performance, you'll get a modified driver from LV2G (or a Dox version if you are using Vista or Windows 7). If you want to see just how much PowerMizer affects you, install RivaTuner, and then check the system monitor on GPU core clock, memory clock, and shader clock speeds. It's fun to watch.

 

Well it looks like there isn't a Dox driver for 186.81 yet. And I go to the page with the regular 186.81 driver and its modified INF version, and it gives me an error when I try to download the INF one (although I can download the regular one). Am I SOL?

Edit:
I downloaded RivaTuner but I haven't changed anything yet. Under driver settings it says forceware detected, and there's a customize button. I go into system settings, and on the first tab (Overclocking), I can look at clocks for three different settings - standard 2D, low power 3D, and performance 3D. Here are the default settings for those:

Standard 2D:
Core clock: 200
Shader clock: 400
Memory clock: 100

Low power 3D:
Core clock: 275
Shader clock: 550
Memory clock: 301

Performance 3D:
Core clock: 383
Shader clock: 767
Memory clock: 301

Now I don't know if those are normal or not, but that is what it is telling me. Any more ideas? Should I download an older Dox driver?

 

Sorry for the double post, but...

YES! FINALLY!

I downloaded the newest Dox driver and installed it, ran 3dMark, and got a score of 10431! I don't know what the problem was but I guess the older driver just wasn't as optimized. So now that that is over, is there anything else I should look into, like overclocking? If so, how exactly would I go about doing that?

And by the way, thanks for all of the help guys. You've been super helpful and I really appreciate it.

 

Drivers man... It always comes down to the drivers.

 

Official 186.81 should give you just as much performance as those Dox ones and you shouldn't need a custom inf to install those.

I found that a few games have issues on Dox optimised 185.85 that disappeared after I changed to 186.81 official.

 

Yeah well I don't know why there would be any difference, but all that I know is that there is a difference, so I will stay with the older driver.