PC Performance Comparison (Observation Notes)

[Mr. Stryker]

I wasn't sure what kind of topic I'd use for this kind of thing, but I've made several observations comparing my PC with other people's machines with similar configurations.

I was starting to wonder if there was something missing in my PC, because my roommate computer is very similar to mine. He runs a Q6600 @ stock, 8GB OCZ Platinum, Abit IP35E, Sapphire 2900XT, and a 600W Seasonic PSU. His monitor is a Samsung 245BW which is 1920x1200 and that's what we both run at. My monitor is a LG L246BW, Samsung 2493HM, and a NEC ASLCD24WMCX-BK that hasn't arrived here yet, and they are all 1920x1200. Right now the LG monitor belongs to a friend, but I'm using it for now.


My computer specs are in sig, but if you want more in-depth specs, I will type it out. I am also running Q6600 @ stock because the AC isn't working and I'm using the stock heatsink until my new HSF arrives tomorrow. The motherboard is a first generation ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi/AP P965 Express chipset which is still a decent one and supports 45nm quads today with a BIOS flash. My RAM is the "Newegg Lanfest2K7®" Edition of Crucial Ballistix with blue LEDs, running in 4x1GB configuration while my roomate is running 4x2GB configuration with his OCZ RAM. My power supply is a Corsair HX 520W (it's over an year old now.) Lastly, my video card is a HIS Excalibur branded HD 3870 with their fancy cooler (IceQ3) which yields pretty good temperatures (38c idle, 58 load) but the card won't overclock that well.

I also almost forgot to mention that we're both running Vista 64-bit (Mine's Home Premium, his is Business) with Service Pack 1. We also reformatted on the same week and we are very good at keeping our hard drives defragged and not filled with spyware or junk programs. Also we're using official Catalyst 8.5 drivers.

Anyway, the reason I'm writing about this is we play a lot of the same games (CoD4, Armed Assault, TF2, Assassin's Creed, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas) and I had noticed several things.

Why does his games run a lot better than mine?

Armed Assault is what we mostly play and it's one of the most 3D intensive games because of viewing distances being up to 10KM away, killer postprocessing effects, and tons of NPC & vegetation in sight. We have the exact same settings in the game, his game is a lot smoother than mine. Mine chugs and FPS dips badly and my card isn't overclocked. Temperatures look fine.

Keep on mind I don't believe in the "Eyes can only see up to 30 or 60FPS" crap, because I CAN actually distinguish the difference between 30 and 60FPS in games I can tell if it's higher than 60FPS because of tearing but the difference between 1 to 60 FPS is very easy to see. I would say mine runs around 35 FPS while his runs 55 FPS, and that can be helpful to me sometimes so I can aim better than depending on the mouse lag to place the crosshairs on a moving target (this can be hard sometimes too.) I noticed when I used a friend's 8800GTX, it wasn't exactly performing as well as a 8800GTX was supposed to. It performed better on his computer than on mine.

Is my computer somewhat run-down or are there any limiting factors that I don't know about? My computer is very stable, I love it, Vista rarely BSODs (in fact, it has only BSOD'd on me twice because of an unstable overclock and once for a corrupted nv4disp.dll file a long time ago)

I still am trying to figure out how to fix my system to be up on par with other computers of similar configuration or am I being ridiculous?

 

[rennyf77]

are you using fraps to determine your frame rates? use gpuz to determine if your pci-e slot is operating at its fill 16x lane.

 

[Mr. Stryker]

We both use the Xfire program and it has a FPS counter, I can see his being at least 10 or 20 FPS higher in same areas.

 

[Atech]

The 3870 is multi-GPU right?

If yes, there is your answer...multi-GPU is buggy and not all games like it...and add the multi-GPU microstuttering to that...

 

[General Crespin]

There are single-GPU and multi-GPU variants of the 3870. OP probably has single-GPU version since he didn't say otherwise and he was fairly specific with the rest of his specs.

 

[Mr. Stryker]

Yes the 3870 512MB.

 

[heatlesssun]

Try running 3DMark06 on both machines and compare the scores.

 

[skadebo]

Get some hard benchmarks of all the games for a real comparison, but seat of the pants comparison.

edit: make sure that everything is default in his driver control panel.

 

[Mr. Stryker]

I get 11008 3DMark and he gets almost 12500-12700 3DMark06. I forgot which.

I turn off Catalyst AI as a force of habit, might that be the problem? Everything else in the control panel is default.

 

[skadebo]

I get 11008 3DMark and he gets almost 12500-12700 3DMark06. I forgot which.

I turn off Catalyst AI as a force of habit, might that be the problem? Everything else in the control panel is default.

That could be it, I forget which mode it comes in: advanced or simple. Either way, put it to default and retest. I've never noticed an image quality difference anyway so I always set it to advanced. I don't know if it will give you 1200 3dmarks but try it anyway.

 

[Mr. Stryker]

I'll do what when I get home, but I just came to work. I don't get home until 2:30AM and I pretty much won't be using my computer until next Monday as I drive 8 hours to visit my family on the weekend. Ah well...