New build, benchmarks, and OCing

[casola]

Hiya!

 

I just upgraded my PC again. I have been working on this thing for about 2 years, and I'm pretty comfortable where I am now. My most recent addition was switching from my EVGA NVidia 9800 GTX+, to two HIS Radeon HD 6850, set up in CrossFirex (not counting the 800w PSU I needed to upgrade from my 600W).

 

I noticed an increase in my performance, but not really to the level I was excepting I guess. I downloaded the latest drivers on AMD's website just to make sure that wasn't the issue.

 

I'm was wondering, whats the best way to maximize my system. I know a little about overlcocking, but am by no means an expert, so i would like to try that avenue with a little guidance from my friends here!

 

all of my current specs are in my sig. let me know what you think i should do

[Black64]

Is your CPU OCed? How about an SSD boot drive?

Edited September 9, 2011 by Black6464

[casola]

my CPU isn't overclocked currently, however I'm pretty sure i can safely push it to 3.5 or 3.6. and an SDD boot drive? is that like a typo for SSD or something else

[Speedway]

Black is saying what about getting an SSD and using it for your OS (boot drive)

[casola]

hmm, never thought about it. Aren't they mega expensive for little capacity? i wouldn't even think that would be much of a performance boost other then loading the OS faster.

 

Then again, i could essentially just remove 2 of my 3 drives to replace it. (my second drive is barely used and my third is still blank). How big of one would i need?

[Speedway]

When it comes to SSD's, yes they are expensive for the amount of space you get. Yes they will drastically increase your Windows boot times, but they also increase the load time of every program you run! So, when you dbl click a prog to open, with an SSD it will be almost instant! Program load times are w/o a doubt my favorite aspect of my SSD The size of SSD will depend on the programs/games you want to put on it. Windows 7 is right around 15GB alone, so you would just want to figure the size of the rest of the programs and games you would want on your SSD and then start shopping accordingly! Now, an SSD is not necessary, but I will tell you that it is one of the single most noticeable hardware upgrades you can make! I mean, you will feel the speed difference immediately and your system in general just feels so much more "snappy"

[Fogel]

SSD is indeed super nice ...especially when transfering data. I transfered over 500MB to my USB3.0 external drive - it blinked and was done. Some games that read data off the HDD I have also noticed an improvement in.

 

It didn't install my games super quick like I thought it would - still too many things holding it back (DVD drive speed, etc.) and honestly I saw no noticeable improvement in this area where I thought for sure I would.

 

 

I bought a 120GB drive and only after two game installs I was down to 57GB free space, so I removed one game and will re-install it on my platter drive.

 

- Win7 = 14GB

- Pagefile.sys = 6GB ...system file

- Hiberfil.sys = your RAM count - so 8GB for me

 

Since a 120GB is really 111GB free space without anything on it, and 28GB dedicated just to Windows you can go from there. From what I understand you always want to have free space on your SDD to maximize your performance. Think I saw the Patriot Admin guy recommend to not going below 1/3 of your total free space (so 111GB / 3). Which if I am right that means I wouldn't want to go below 37GB of free space. If that is true and I kept both games (only have 1 now) installed that would only give me 20GB to play around with.

 

So ya, good side is... they're awesome!

Bad side is... space goes quick!

 

 

Though I did find if I don't use the hibernation feature I should be able to delete that hiberfil.sys. So that would be another 8GB (or whatever your RAM size is) to use.

Edited September 9, 2011 by Fogel

[IVIYTH0S]

Make sure you thoroughly clean out your old nvidia drivers as that can heavily reduce your performance from the switch of vendor ( nvidia to ati).

 

This guide is engraved in my mind as the most thorough method to clean out old drivers: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52502

[casola]

thanx for the replies, i will use that guide for clearing drivers when i get home from work today.

 

My new PSU will arrive tomorrow, and once that's in I'll start running some benchmarks and OCing my cards a bit to see what they can do!

 

I'm excited to see my results and I'll make sure to post some before OC and after OC scored on here.

 

As far as the SSD goes, I think I'm going to wait it out a bit. Instant program starts sounds amazing, but i pretty much exhausted my budget for the year on the cards and the PSU :-p, (not to mention I have my wedding I need to pay for next month >.<). I will most likely upgrade my HD's when i upgrade to the new bulldozer chips coming out soon. I will more then likely wait it until next year. (or maybe if im a good boy il get it for christmas )

 

Anyway, thanx and the results will be up soooooon

[casola]

Hey everyone, i know i know, its taken me a while to post back

 

Well... i have my new PSU in, both cards are up and running, and i downloaded the mark vantage programs for benchmarking (the direct x 10 and 11 ones) and I think i might have an issue.

 

When running 3dmark vantage (for dx11 i believe) it was extremely choppy and terrible looking. Am I doing it wrong? or are my 2 cards really not good enough to run that bench? It actually errord out during one of the tests so i don't have any results, and I have been too annoyed to try it again.

 

Also, I downloaded msi afterburner to monitor my card temps, and overclock too, and i noticed something i think might be bad. My GPU 2, when idle, sits around 55 degrees, while my GPU 1 sits around 45. When I game they both jump up to around 75-80, but as soon as i finish, GPU 2 takes a lot longer to cool down. I think it might be a case issue. My bottom card (which i assure is GPU 2) is very close to the bottom of my case. could this be causing my temperature differences? and possibly the issue with my benchmarking?

 

let me know what you guys think

[Speedway]

1st off (2) 6850's in CF should look pretty good running Vantage! 2nd, your top card will always run slightly hotter (heat from the bottom gpu rising) than the bottom card. If your bottom card is the one running a little warm, then you may want to do some experimenting. Like only running 1 card at a time and checking temps, as well as switching the cards to see if anything changes. When I am setting up a 2 card configuration, I always OC and stress each card on their own 1st monitoring the temps. Which ever card ran at the lower temps, I put on the top. If both cards had nearly identical temps, I put the card that OCed higher on top. You don't have to take this much time into setting up your CF, but it has always worked well for me

 

The main thing here though is temps around 75-80 while gaming shouldn't concern you at all. Even if one card takes longer to cool down, you are still fine

[Waco]

Some of the tests in Vantage are CPU tests and will run extremely choppy no matter what GPUs you have. What scores did you get for Vantage and 3DMark11?