Odd bench scores

Prelude

Ok, a few questions. I'm trying to get max performance out of my 6800GT by OC'ing it, as it stands now, Rivatuner gives me a max of 420Mhz on the core and 1,11 Ghz on the memory.

I started benching with Aquamark 3. At stock speeds I got 63,500, at max OC I get 59,000 (Question one, why does performance go down with max OC?)
After a lot of testing I found the optimum setting was 397Mhz - 1,08Ghz which gives me 66,200 in Aquamark 3.

Satisfied with this result I ran 3dmark05. At stock I get 4980 marks. At the new "optimum" settings I get 4400 marks. (Question two, HUH!?!)

So how should I be reading these results, and how do they translate to actual fps in games?

AMD 64 3500+ Venice
MSI K8N Neo2 54G
Leadtek GF6800GT 256mb AGP
Corsair 2x512 Twinx 1024-3200C2
Maxtor Maxline III (SATA 250gb 7200rpm 16mb cache)
Creative Audigy 2 ZS
NEC ND-3540
NEC DV5800C

Sandok

Your PSU surely must be going undre way to much stress when you OC...

CDsDontBurn

Ya, what kind of PSU do you have? Would help to know. If you must ask why. I ask because if you stress out your components (i.e. OCing), your components will require more juice being fed to them. Not enough juice being fed, not enough power, not enough power, not enough performance, in some cases (like was mine before I upgraded my PSU), your system will simply shut down if not enough power is being fed to it.

Anyways, now since that's over the way. Run the test three different times. Once at stock, once at "optimal", and once at your max stable (the 420/1.11Ghz you mentioned). You should notice scores increase with each different test. 3Dmark05 is a very intensive GPU test. As for gaming, run FRAPS. Play some games running FRAPS. Each time you play the game, play the same part of the game three different times. Each time play it at each of the different clock speeds. You should notice your FPS go up . Basically that's all there is to it .

Ya, it's tedious, and sometimes painstaking, but that's the only way to do it really.

Sandok

That's why tis better never to oc

CDsDontBurn

No, that's the REASON for OCing . Find the best performance for your rig at the highest possible and stable clock speeds

Sandok

But if you push it to far you might be left with nothing

CDsDontBurn

true, that's why you push to the limits, and then you pull back just a little bit

Prelude

Hmm, I have a Zalman 400w, would think that's enough...
If it was the PSU then how is it that when aquamark gives me an increase in FPS, 3Dmark gives me a decrease.
I already have tried to OC using americas army game. Tried all three settings, same map, same config, same position in the map, all three OC settings gave the same fps. Go figure...

I'll try disconnecting some front-panel sillyness to preserve some power.

km52

You need to give us the ampere values of all three voltage lines of your psu(3,3v, 5v, 12v).
Btw, is your 6800gt cooled by the stock cooler?

Prelude

Where can I find those?
And yes, it's the stock cooler, it's the HUGE heatsink from Leadtek, supposedly quite overclockable. (Read a review where they reached 435/1.19 on stock cooler)

Could it also be a driver issue? I'm using XG 77.56-HD

CDsDontBurn

hmmm, if that's the case, then Americas Army may be more CPU dependant than GPU dependant then.

Or, your GFX card temps went up so high that the card automatically downclocked itself to save itself. Just some possibilities.