Underperforming PC

June 13, 2009 12:08 PM

New PC underperforming, what are the possibilities?

I just upgraded my PC with the following components:

I just upgraded my PC - new motherboard, processor, ram and graphics card:

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.20GHz @ 3.80GHz
Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P Motherboard
Corsair XMS3 DHX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600C9DHX
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

The CPU, RAM and Memory came as a bundle, pre-overclocked and assembled.

The other components in the computer are 1 Western Digital IDE HDD - 500GB, 1 generic DVD ROM Drive and a Soundblaster Audigy 2. Originally I was using my old PSU but the tech support line for the place where I got the components said that it might be causing the problems so I went out and bought a Gigabyte Odin Pro 800W.

So the problem is when benchmarking the system it scores horrendously low - about 4-5 times lower than similar systems/components.

With 3DMark06 my overall score is ~4.8k, with CPU scoring about ~1300. Similar systems on 3DMark06 score 16-20k. Based on my spec (rather than actual performance) VirtualMark estimated my score to be 18.5k.

I've verified with Core Temp that all 4 cores are running at 3.8Ghz and during the benchmarking tests all cores are active (verified via task manager)

Windows is also listing the CPU correctly.

I ran Passmarks's performance test and my CPU score was ~880, in comparison their website shows the benchmarking score for the non-overclocked 940 version of my CPU (mine is the 955) as 3.7k, my boyfriend's 3 year old Intel quad core benchmarks at nearly 6k. The RAM also seems to be underperforming in these benchmark tests.

SiSoft Sandra also shows similar results, that my CPU benchmarks much lower than CPU's that are many generations older.

So, what could possibly be wrong with it?


Other possibly relevant information. The system boots up and is 100% stable with the limited testing I've done (but it stayed on all night doing windows updates without a problem). The only game installed at the moment is Sims 3, which it runs OK but not great, given the system specs I was expecting it to run great. It doesn't run as well as it does on my boyfriend's computer.

The resolution I'm running in is 1920x1080 - my monitors native resolution.

The motherboard was slightly smaller than my old one - about half an inch shorter so there are 2 screws missing on the far corners, but there is one in the middle of the far side, slightly further in than the edge.

There's 2 windows installs on the computer 1 working, 1 not - the old one was from before the upgrade but a repair install didn't work so I did a fresh windows install but left the old one there just in case.

posted by missmagenta to computers & internet (11 comments total)

Is the system recognizing both sticks of RAM, and are they operating at their rated/overclocked speed, or a fallback lower speed?
posted by potch at 1:06 PM on June 13

New hard drives in raid 0 or 0+1, new install of the O/S.
posted by iamabot at 1:06 PM on June 13

New hard drives in raid 0 or 0+1, new install of the O/S.

I know a sata raid would improve my overall performance but can you explain in more detail how that will give me a 4-fold increase in CPU performance?

Is the system recognizing both sticks of RAM, and are they operating at their rated/overclocked speed, or a fallback lower speed?
Windows is recognising 3.2Gb of the 4GB of RAM (32 Bit Windows XP so that is as expected). I'll check the speeds when its finished running another benchmarking utility.
posted by missmagenta at 1:16 PM on June 13

Sandra's a good diagnostic and should help you hunt down all the subsystems. But give CPU-Z a try, particularly the memory tab. Is everything running like you'd expect?

The next thing I'd try as a benchmark is a bootable Linux image running some CPU-bound job like SETI@Home analysis or Folding@Home or something. That should help you isolate whether the CPU is working correctly, separate from the OS.
posted by Nelson at 1:22 PM on June 13

Obvious stuff: Are all the fans spinning? Are you sure the CPU's not running hot? You said "upgraded": Are you actually running the same install of XP you had before the upgrade? That's gonna have all the older driver cruft.

Hairbrained stuff: Have you tried it with half your RAM? I wouldn't push XP (32) past 3G. I'm kind of guessing though. Have you tried not overclocking it?
posted by chairface at 1:28 PM on June 13

Yes the fans are all spinning. CPU temp 35, GPU 50. Yes I've tried not overclocking, I loaded the optimised defaults in bios and it made no difference. No I'm not running the same install of windows, its a new install (in a folder called windows2) the old install is still on the drive. I tried to use unlocker on the old windows folder and it blue-screened.
posted by missmagenta at 1:34 PM on June 13

This is what PC Wizard says about my RAM:

Memory Information :
Type : DDR3-SDRAM PC3-10700
Frequency : 669.6 MHz
DRAM/FSB Ratio : 10/3
Supported Channels : Dual (128-bit)
Activated Channels : Dual
ECC Diagnostic : No
CAS Latency (tCL) : 9 clocks
RAS to CAS (tRCD) : 9 clocks
RAS Precharge (tRP) : 9 clocks
Cycle Time (tRAS) : 28 clocks
Bank Cycle Time (tRC) : 26 clocks
Command Rate : 1 T
Shared Memory (video) : Yes


General Information :
A0 : Empty
A1 : Empty
A2 : Empty
A3 : Empty
A2 (Bank4/5 ) : 2048 MB - DIMM
A3 (Bank6/7 ) : 2048 MB - DIMM

Information SPD EEPROM (A2) :
Manufacturer : Corsair
Part Number : Unspecified
Serial Number : 0012D8804D2C6812
Specification : F
Type : DDR3-SDRAM PC3-8500 (533 MHz) - [DDR3-1067]
Format : UDIMM (133.35 x 0)
Size : 2048 MB (2 ranks, 8 banks)
Module Buffered : No
Module Registered : No
Module SLi Ready (EPP) : No
Module XMP : No
Width : 0-bit
Error Correction Capability : Unspecified
Refresh :
Voltage :
Prefetch Buffer : 8-bit
Manufacture : 2000
Supported Frequencies : 457 MHz, 533 MHz, 609 MHz, 685 MHz
CAS Latency (tCL) : 6 clocks @457 MHz, 7 clocks @533 MHz, 8 clocks @609 MHz, 9 clocks @685 MHz
RAS to CAS (tRCD) : 6 clocks @457 MHz, 7 clocks @533 MHz, 8 clocks @609 MHz, 9 clocks @685 MHz
RAS Precharge (tRP) : 6 clocks @457 MHz, 7 clocks @533 MHz, 8 clocks @609 MHz, 9 clocks @685 MHz
Cycle Time (tRAS) : 18 clocks @457 MHz, 20 clocks @533 MHz, 23 clocks @609 MHz, 26 clocks @685 MHz
Min TRC : 24 clocks @457 MHz, 27 clocks @533 MHz, 31 clocks @609 MHz, 35 clocks @685 MHz

Information SPD EEPROM (A3) :
Manufacturer : Corsair
Part Number : Unspecified
Serial Number : 0012D8804D2C6812
Specification : F
Type : DDR3-SDRAM PC3-8500 (533 MHz) - [DDR3-1067]
Format : UDIMM (133.35 x 0)
Size : 2048 MB (2 ranks, 8 banks)
Module Buffered : No
Module Registered : No
Module SLi Ready (EPP) : No
Module XMP : No
Width : 0-bit
Error Correction Capability : Unspecified
Refresh :
Voltage :
Prefetch Buffer : 8-bit
Manufacture : 2000
Supported Frequencies : 457 MHz, 533 MHz, 609 MHz, 685 MHz
CAS Latency (tCL) : 6 clocks @457 MHz, 7 clocks @533 MHz, 8 clocks @609 MHz, 9 clocks @685 MHz
RAS to CAS (tRCD) : 6 clocks @457 MHz, 7 clocks @533 MHz, 8 clocks @609 MHz, 9 clocks @685 MHz
RAS Precharge (tRP) : 6 clocks @457 MHz, 7 clocks @533 MHz, 8 clocks @609 MHz, 9 clocks @685 MHz
Cycle Time (tRAS) : 18 clocks @457 MHz, 20 clocks @533 MHz, 23 clocks @609 MHz, 26 clocks @685 MHz
Min TRC : 24 clocks @457 MHz, 27 clocks @533 MHz, 31 clocks @609 MHz, 35 clocks @685 MHz

Memory Controller Information :
Memory Controller : Standard, EDO
Number of connectors : 4
Max. Module Size : 1024 MB
Max. Memory Size : 4096 MB
Supported Speed : 70ns, 60ns
Supported Voltages : 3.3v
Error Detection Method : 64-bit ECC
Error Correction Capability : None
Current/Supported Interleave : 1-way/1-way


Could the problem be the listed frequency doesn't match the specification for 'supported frequencies'?
posted by missmagenta at 1:38 PM on June 13

There's certainly something very odd going on; your performance is well below what it should be with that hardware, and you've already done most of the obvious steps.

You've set the optimised BIOS defaults; have you tried the standard ones? Outside chance, but worth a shot. Defnitely concentrate on getting it running at stock speeds first, then try overclocking again once the problem is traced.

The supported frequencies list is very odd. Standard SPD rate for the RAM listed in your original question is 1333 (i.e. frequency 666 Mhz, which it appears to be running at on those figures), though it will also run at 1600 (800 Mhz) with a vdimm of 1.8 - though the memory testing indicates it's only reporting itself as DDR3 1067 (533 Mhz) with the SPD; may be worth checking you have the RAM you think you do, as the two don't add up on first blush - does it look like this? May well be worth testing with a single stick of bog-standard DDR3 RAM if you can lay your hands on one, just to test if that clears up the CPU benchmark problem, which is what appears to be the heart of it. Dodgy RAM can cause all sorts of odd problems.

Also, you've clean installed windows into windows2 - I presume that means you've done a clean install into the same partition as your original install, which does still leave a whole bunch of cruft behind in other folders. I'd definitely recommend backing up your OS partition, and then formatting it and installing a completely clean copy of XP, along with motherboard/chipset drivers, latest catalyst drivers etc to eliminate software as much as possible.

You can backup the OS using acronis tools (my usual choice) but paragon do a basic free version for personal use. Stick it on a US drive, spare hard-drive, or even burn to DVD. They also do a free partitioner if you want to split your drive into a 50GB OS partition and data partition for documents & games etc.

I'm also going to do some digging on the QVL for RAM for your motherboard, and also if there's any bios updates. Corsair is normally solid on gigabyte boards, but I'll just check.
posted by ArkhanJG at 6:27 PM on June 13

Aha! According to a commenter at newegg there is a known problem with this board and the 955 BE and the stock BIOS; it causes the CPU to run really slowly, which appears to be your problem - you need to flash it with the F4 BIOS (or presumably the slightly newer F4G will also work) using the @BIOS tool or the various other methods.

The newer BIOS versions are here, which will hopefully fix it!

Even assuming it does, I'd still recommend backing up your windows partition and doing a completely clean format and install - not having the windows folder in the standard location will cause problems with some software.
posted by ArkhanJG at 6:41 PM on June 13

You might also want to make sure all your drivers are up to date. Phoenix Technologies’ makes a web-based tool called DriverAgent. The free version just reports whether your drivers are current. The paid version will let you download the latest drivers.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 7:37 PM on June 13

ArkhanJG you are a star, I could kiss you! I'm all good now thank you so much... and also, why couldn't you be here before I went to bed ;)
posted by missmagenta at 12:06 AM on June 14