# Any benchmarks/utilities to detect bottlenecks?



## alabamaman79 (Mar 6, 2007)

Is there a utility or benchmark available that I can run on my system to detect any possible bottlenecks? It seems like I'm getting rather lackluster performace from my main machine (listed in my specs).


----------



## Jack21 (Mar 31, 2007)

I would recommend you a Alchemy Network Monitor 8.6. It monitors your network, performance and alerts if your server gets out of order. It gives detailed reports on servers activity and performance which helps to balance the server and network load and detects bottlenecks.


----------



## alabamaman79 (Mar 6, 2007)

I'm not concerned about network performance at all. Does that application monitor all system performace, and will it tell me where a non-network related bottleneck is at?


----------



## smz (Mar 12, 2007)

I actually just posted this for another individual. note the first program here is going to be a trial version so I am not sure what it's limits are but let me tell you from experience... this tester will take every component in your system and run your specified percentage of what it should push on each. it's incredible to watch

Passmark Burn in Tester

It's funny because it was still i my clipboard... Now they also have a short but sweet performance tester on their homepage. Called just that, performance tester v6.x... that will let you pick user submitted systems that equal you configurations and then after completely the 15 minute or so benchmark. save your baseline and compare it with the ones built into the program. this is a sure way to tell if something isn't performing up to spec. give it a shot

Here's the performance test URL

anyhow, if you wanna give it a test run go 4 it... let us know if something comes out strange. also save your baseline as a .jpg and the other format it has.. zip that up to post it here. i can then import it to the professional paid version and analyze it further if necessary.

norton systemworks used to package this suite (version 5.0) for free. it's great knowing you are comparing real users in real-time... totally unbiased.


alabamaman79 said:


> Is there a utility or benchmark available that I can run on my system to detect any possible bottlenecks? It seems like I'm getting rather lackluster performance from my main machine (listed in my specs).


----------



## alabamaman79 (Mar 6, 2007)

smz,

That's awesome. I'm going to run those as soon as I get back from the driving range. I'll post the results. I'm kind of hoping there _is_ bottleneck somewhere, and really hoping it's easily fixed. My friend has a slightly more powerful system and he's getting much better performance than I am, it's not making much sense to us. And our other friend has a worse system and his performance is about on par with mine, if not slightly worse.

I'll definitely post back the results, though ray:


----------



## alabamaman79 (Mar 6, 2007)

results are in = 472. That's for ALL tests executed. Let me know if you guys can't see it, first time I've ever put a pic on a forum. By the way, the results look downright dreadful to me.  

Here's the pic My score


----------



## alabamaman79 (Mar 6, 2007)

I just had my friend run PerformanceTest 6.1. What interests me most is our results in the '3D Graphics Mark' test. Now, he's got a Radeon X1800XTX and I have a Radeon X1900XTX, both PCI-Ex with 512MB GDDR2. In this particular test, he scored 1072.3 and I scored a whopping *66.1 * What gives, is my X1900 fried? SMZ, can you do your thing and check online results and see if this is normal? Any help is much appreciated, thanks.


----------



## smz (Mar 12, 2007)

since I have the pro version, I can import your results into mine and compare to similar specification computers... I need to get some sleep... I will be up tonight and have you post or pm me the baseline in the format I need. Let's see if people with closer hardware are in the same situation. I'll check back in tonight (Sunday) thanks for your patience. I hope this can help find the issue. if you think it's that ati, do you have the ability to either borrow your friends card or have access to another card to see if it benches around what other users are getting?

While you're at it, you have nothing to lose. Go here, and download the ATI
7.3 Catalyst Package. It was just released on 3/28


----------



## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

My specs are similar to alabamaman's. Here's my results for you to compare.

Omega 3.8.330 drivers, 1152x864 resolution, badly fragmented drives, with antivirus scan running in the background, see left for hardware specs.


----------



## alabamaman79 (Mar 6, 2007)

Well, I've figured out the problem. My motherboard is set to SLI mode, which is done with a little card that plugs in between the 2 PCI-Ex16 slots. Previously, the card was not plugged in at all, so it was defaulted to SLI mode. The reason I think is because when running CPU-Z, under the mainboard tab it shows my graphic interface as PCI-Express with a link width of x8 and Max Supported as x16. I've heard my particular mobo will only support x8 when in SLI mode because it splits the bandwidth between the 2 slots. 

So, now that the problem has been found, I plugged the switch card into the mobo on the Normal side (1 side is Normal, flipped over to the other side is SLI), but when I turn on the PC with the video card in the slot closest to the CPU, the PC won't POST. The fans will all spin at max RPM's and that's it. When I switch the video card to the other slot the PC will POST and boot perfectly fine, but unfortunately the PCI-Ex slot the video card is plugged into is only recognized as a x1 slot . I'm at a loss of what to do. At this point, I'm probably going to just get a new mobo, but I'd really like to avoid that. Does anyone have any suggestions?

EDIT: I cleared CMOS after each configuration switch, to no avail.


----------



## alabamaman79 (Mar 6, 2007)

Can't seem to edit that last post again. Anyway, when I have the video card in the PCI-Ex slot closest to the CPU (PCIEXP1) and the switch key is set to Normal mode, as I said the PC won't POST, but there's a BIOS code of 04 on the board's digital BIOS code display. And of course 04 is nowhere to be found in the board's manual. 03 and 05 are listed... but of course no 04. Anyway, thought that might help shed some light.


----------



## alabamaman79 (Mar 6, 2007)

Another thing to add, I've got the latest BIOS update that is available for my board from the Abit website. Anyone ever come across this before? I'm almost positive that it's my motherboard, I don't think it could be my PSU. I'm about an inch away from ordering a new board but I am open to suggestions. :sigh:


----------



## Falconoffury (Sep 26, 2006)

Check your motherboard manual carefully. Check all your jumper settings.


----------



## alabamaman79 (Mar 6, 2007)

Falconoffury said:


> Check your motherboard manual carefully. Check all your jumper settings.


Yeah, I did all of that. I know it's not the video card, it works fine in my friend's PC. It's either the board or the PSU. I've ordered a new PSU, which I was planning on doing anyway. I got a Seasonic M12 600w. So when that arrives I'll go from there.


----------



## smz (Mar 12, 2007)

well the benchmark at pointed you to suspect the video card. so you found out about the SLI setting. let's see how the new PSu works out.


----------



## alabamaman79 (Mar 6, 2007)

smz said:


> well the benchmark at pointed you to suspect the video card. so you found out about the SLI setting. let's see how the new PSu works out.


Yep, and thanks to everyone for the help. I just can't believe I never knew my board had only been working x8 mode instead of x16.


----------



## smz (Mar 12, 2007)

It goes to show you that we all may have techie blood, but we are all human and it takes a combination of knowledge sometimes to get to the root of a problem. It always amazes me when someone goes out there and says "I am an expert in EVERYTHING" They start on the wrong foot but making that statement.

Anyhow, glad everybody's input doubled your bandwidth on your board. Such a silly thing but geek squad and Firedog would not of found it for the life of them.




alabamaman79 said:


> Yep, and thanks to everyone for the help. I just can't believe I never knew my board had only been working x8 mode instead of x16.


----------

