Differences in screen res on 3dmark results

[Creosote]

My first post, well second, I just did a post rating service.
As a newish customer of Kustom PC I recently found these forums and have been reading through postings, and really enjoyed seeing peoples systems, so despite being a bit ignorant when it comes to the technical side I thought I ought to dive in and post to the forums myself.

Anyway... I took delivery of a system from Kustom at the weekend and was messing around just now with 3dmark01 which Thomas had installed on the system.
In the options you can change the resolution, so I tried it at the max my TFT will run at 1280x1024 32 bit, and got 16,100, then switched to the lowest resolution in the tests of 640 x 48 at 16 bit and got near 19,000.

This I dont understand (along with most of life) - surely 3dmark weights the test results according to resolution so that shouldnt I get a very similar figure independent of what I select in resolution?

I also wondered that when people post their test results is it common practise for them to post results from the best result they can get, or their max desktop size?

I cant get 3dmark03 to complete, it bombs out on the final test saying it cant find a certain sound file, anyone else had that problem?

Cheers
Joe

[slartiBardfarst]

the lower the resolution you run the tests at, the less pixels the graphics card has to work out each time. (a pixel being the small dots on your monitor if you look closely)

640x480 = 307,200 pixels to render each pass
1280x1024 = 1,310,720 pixels so obviously it has to work harder

all 3dmark does is time how long it takes to complete each test. it then calculates your score when finished. the quicker it runs through the tests, the higher the score.


the standard that's used is 1024x768x32 so that is what you need to run when comparing your score with other reviews.

[MetalStorm]

It is not a matter of how QUICKLY it runs through the tests, its simply how many frames are rendered over the duration of the set test period, more fps = better score... pretty simple.

What rig were you running on, 16,000 3dmarks isnt bad!

[Mattooooo]

I was gonna say, 16,000 is a great score. The 2nd machine in my sig scores 15,700ish, and everything is overclocked.

Looks like the guys did a great job building your PC anyway :D


Oh, and the guys are right, £Dmark works out your score depending on how many frames per second (fps) your machine produces during each test. The lower the resolution the less pixels the PC has to move around, so the higher the fps.