3dmark 03 and UT2003 bad scores?

[darthmahon]

Hey,

Just wondering if my 9600pro is actually working properly, seems to be a bit low on the ol benchmarking.

Spec of the system is:

+ AMD Athlon 1800+
+ 512mb DDR Generic Memory
+ ECS K7S5A Motherboard
+ Tyan G9600 Pro 128mb

3dmark03 score came to a grand plop of: 2974

UT2003 benchmarks are as follows:

Flyby: 98.167343
Botmatch: 40.445084

Resolution of 1024*768, everything turned up nicely in UT2003.

I'm not sure if these are low scores for my spec of machine, but I just feel like the 9600 Pro isn't giving me enough. Or do I need to upgrade other things to notice the difference.

I've gone from a GeForce 2 Pro 64mb card btw.

Cheers,
Chris

[MetalStorm]

They are not exactly the most powerful cards in the world, but if you want to see more performance in games like Ut2k3 then overclock that CPU some, because its the botmatch performance that counts (it runs the benchmarks at max quality btw) so the card can easily handle up to 90fps its just your cpu is having trouble with the bots.

As for 3dmark03, that sounds reasonable, as I said, its not exactly a powerhouse.

[darthmahon]

ahh ok

I was thinking of upgrading my CPU anywho...

Any truth behind game architecture being designed more for Intel chips than AMD? I heard that was the case a while back but I've never had an Intel chip...

[MetalStorm]

don't upgrade the CPU just yet, find out what type it is, if its a palomino then yeah, get a new cpu but if its a t'bred B then just get a new mobo and overclock that mofo!

[darthmahon]

I'm nearly 100% sure it's a t'bred, but I don't know whether it is a or b?

Any idea on how to check?

[MetalStorm]

If you have a look on your CPU there is a black label, on which will be printed the batch codes and various other things, if it says xxxxA then its a T'bred A - for example AROIA or AGOIA, if it says something like JIUCB or JIUHB then its a t'bred B.

If its an A then you can still get them to about 1.9GHz, so you could still try.

[MetalStorm]

I think you can use CPU-Z or WCPUID to find if its an A or B as well (dont have to take the heatsink off to use those ;) )