KV7 Speed and DXDIAG ratings...

Hey folks,

I just did my annual 'roll' where I get a new mobo and graphics adapter
for my machine, and 'roll' the old one down into my wifes machine. (I'm
not a bad guy...all she does is email, and doesn't even notice the
perfomance improvements when she gets a new machine, so shut up!) :)
Anyway:

The OLD: ESC K7S5A with Athlon XP 1700+
ATI Radeon 9600SE 128MB DDR (I got this new for her also)

The NEW: ABIT KV7 with Athlon XP 3.0GHz+
Asylum GeForce FX 5600 Ultra 128MB DDR

So, everything seems to be working ok, until I load up Halo, and the
performance sucks. (MaxPayne 2 and IGI-2 and GTA3 work great) I go to
the MicroSnot website, and lookup performance issues for Halo, and they
say run DXDIAG, to match your system specs with the minimum
requirements. When I do that I get:

Processor: AMD Athlon(tm), MMX, 3DNow, ~1.3GHz

If I do the same thing on the OLD machine, I get:

Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 1700+, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.5GHz

The BIOS says that it's running at 3.0, and I have chosen the 'Optimized
Defaults' settings.


Then, I thought that there might be some sort free, downloadable
benchmarking tool, and I found one called 'FreshDiagnose'. I ran it on
both machines, and got:

2,487 MWIPS on the NEW machine
3,043 MWIPS on the OLD machine

when running the 'Processor' benchmark test. Something is apparently
wrong. Anyone have any clues? I would appreciate any any all thoughts.

Thanks,

Jeff.

Do you know if your Athlon has a "locked" multiplier? If it is not
locked, do you know what the multiplier is set to?

Do you know what your FSB is set to?

Do you know what speed your memory is rated?

Forrest

Motherboard Help By HAL web site:
http://home.comcast.net/~hal-9000/


On Sun, 04 Jan 2004 21:35:05 GMT, Jeffster
wrote:

Hey folks,

I just did my annual 'roll' where I get a new mobo and graphics adapter
for my machine, and 'roll' the old one down into my wifes machine. (I'm
not a bad guy...all she does is email, and doesn't even notice the
perfomance improvements when she gets a new machine, so shut up!) :)
Anyway:

The OLD: ESC K7S5A with Athlon XP 1700+
ATI Radeon 9600SE 128MB DDR (I got this new for her also)

The NEW: ABIT KV7 with Athlon XP 3.0GHz+
Asylum GeForce FX 5600 Ultra 128MB DDR

So, everything seems to be working ok, until I load up Halo, and the
performance sucks. (MaxPayne 2 and IGI-2 and GTA3 work great) I go to
the MicroSnot website, and lookup performance issues for Halo, and they
say run DXDIAG, to match your system specs with the minimum
requirements. When I do that I get:

Processor: AMD Athlon(tm), MMX, 3DNow, ~1.3GHz

If I do the same thing on the OLD machine, I get:

Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 1700+, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.5GHz

The BIOS says that it's running at 3.0, and I have chosen the 'Optimized
Defaults' settings.


Then, I thought that there might be some sort free, downloadable
benchmarking tool, and I found one called 'FreshDiagnose'. I ran it on
both machines, and got:

2,487 MWIPS on the NEW machine
3,043 MWIPS on the OLD machine

when running the 'Processor' benchmark test. Something is apparently
wrong. Anyone have any clues? I would appreciate any any all thoughts.

Thanks,

Jeff.

- HAL9000 wrote:
Do you know if your Athlon has a "locked" multiplier? If it is not
locked, do you know what the multiplier is set to?

The Multiplier was set at X13

Do you know what your FSB is set to?

FSB was set to 166Mhz
Ratio(FSB:AGP:PCI) 5:2:1

CPU Fast Decode was set to 'Normal'

Do you know what speed your memory is rated?

I am not positive, but I think that the RAM is 2700.

Anyway, my processor speed was set at 3.0, but when I selected that from
the BIOS setup, it gave me an option of 3.2, so I set it at that. I also
changed the CPU Fast Decode to 'Fast'. When I rebooted, now both
DXDIAG and the "My Computer" Properties show the processor as and Athlon
XP 3200+, and the speed at 2.23GHz. I also reran the FreshDiagnose
Processor Benchmark, and came up with 7,122 MWIPS.

So, I don't know if these settings are recommended. And I don't want to
shorten the life of the processor. Are the 'Optimal Settings' from the
BIOS not the 'best' for the processor/Mobo combo?

Thanks, Jeff.


Forrest

Motherboard Help By HAL web site:
http://home.comcast.net/~hal-9000/


On Sun, 04 Jan 2004 21:35:05 GMT, Jeffster
wrote:


Hey folks,

I just did my annual 'roll' where I get a new mobo and graphics adapter
for my machine, and 'roll' the old one down into my wifes machine. (I'm
not a bad guy...all she does is email, and doesn't even notice the
perfomance improvements when she gets a new machine, so shut up!) :)
Anyway:

The OLD: ESC K7S5A with Athlon XP 1700+
ATI Radeon 9600SE 128MB DDR (I got this new for her also)

The NEW: ABIT KV7 with Athlon XP 3.0GHz+
Asylum GeForce FX 5600 Ultra 128MB DDR

So, everything seems to be working ok, until I load up Halo, and the
performance sucks. (MaxPayne 2 and IGI-2 and GTA3 work great) I go to
the MicroSnot website, and lookup performance issues for Halo, and they
say run DXDIAG, to match your system specs with the minimum
requirements. When I do that I get:

Processor: AMD Athlon(tm), MMX, 3DNow, ~1.3GHz

If I do the same thing on the OLD machine, I get:

Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 1700+, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.5GHz

The BIOS says that it's running at 3.0, and I have chosen the 'Optimized
Defaults' settings.


Then, I thought that there might be some sort free, downloadable
benchmarking tool, and I found one called 'FreshDiagnose'. I ran it on
both machines, and got:

2,487 MWIPS on the NEW machine
3,043 MWIPS on the OLD machine

when running the 'Processor' benchmark test. Something is apparently
wrong. Anyone have any clues? I would appreciate any any all thoughts.

Thanks,

Jeff.

So it sounds like things got straightened out when Fast Decode was set
to Normal?

The 3.2 setting sounds like your getting the 13.5 multiplier and
therefore your cpu is unlocked.

The only way to shorten the life of the cpu is to overheat it. You
can check it in the bios after the system has warmed up. Anything
under 60 is safe and typical. As you get up closer and closer to 70
then consider it a problem to be fixed.

I'm not familiar with the exact differences between optimal and
default settings. I doubt if its significant.

If the system isn't crashing and its not overheating then there isn't
anything to worry about...

Forrest

Motherboard Help By HAL web site:
http://home.comcast.net/~hal-9000/


On Mon, 05 Jan 2004 00:29:59 GMT, Jeffster
wrote:

- HAL9000 wrote:
Do you know if your Athlon has a "locked" multiplier? If it is not
locked, do you know what the multiplier is set to?

The Multiplier was set at X13

Do you know what your FSB is set to?

FSB was set to 166Mhz
Ratio(FSB:AGP:PCI) 5:2:1

CPU Fast Decode was set to 'Normal'

Do you know what speed your memory is rated?

I am not positive, but I think that the RAM is 2700.

Anyway, my processor speed was set at 3.0, but when I selected that from
the BIOS setup, it gave me an option of 3.2, so I set it at that. I also
changed the CPU Fast Decode to 'Fast'. When I rebooted, now both
DXDIAG and the "My Computer" Properties show the processor as and Athlon
XP 3200+, and the speed at 2.23GHz. I also reran the FreshDiagnose
Processor Benchmark, and came up with 7,122 MWIPS.

So, I don't know if these settings are recommended. And I don't want to
shorten the life of the processor. Are the 'Optimal Settings' from the
BIOS not the 'best' for the processor/Mobo combo?

Thanks, Jeff.


Forrest

Motherboard Help By HAL web site:
http://home.comcast.net/~hal-9000/


On Sun, 04 Jan 2004 21:35:05 GMT, Jeffster
wrote:


Hey folks,

I just did my annual 'roll' where I get a new mobo and graphics adapter
for my machine, and 'roll' the old one down into my wifes machine. (I'm
not a bad guy...all she does is email, and doesn't even notice the
perfomance improvements when she gets a new machine, so shut up!) :)
Anyway:

The OLD: ESC K7S5A with Athlon XP 1700+
ATI Radeon 9600SE 128MB DDR (I got this new for her also)

The NEW: ABIT KV7 with Athlon XP 3.0GHz+
Asylum GeForce FX 5600 Ultra 128MB DDR

So, everything seems to be working ok, until I load up Halo, and the
performance sucks. (MaxPayne 2 and IGI-2 and GTA3 work great) I go to
the MicroSnot website, and lookup performance issues for Halo, and they
say run DXDIAG, to match your system specs with the minimum
requirements. When I do that I get:

Processor: AMD Athlon(tm), MMX, 3DNow, ~1.3GHz

If I do the same thing on the OLD machine, I get:

Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 1700+, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.5GHz

The BIOS says that it's running at 3.0, and I have chosen the 'Optimized
Defaults' settings.


Then, I thought that there might be some sort free, downloadable
benchmarking tool, and I found one called 'FreshDiagnose'. I ran it on
both machines, and got:

2,487 MWIPS on the NEW machine
3,043 MWIPS on the OLD machine

when running the 'Processor' benchmark test. Something is apparently
wrong. Anyone have any clues? I would appreciate any any all thoughts.

Thanks,

Jeff.