Do I have a bad video card or is it something else?

Question

Okay, so I just upgraded to an EVGA GeForce 9600GT video card. Everything else in my comp was working just fine. I also upgraded my power supply to a 650W that provides 52 amps on the 12V rail. I have an nForce4 motherboard with a 2.4GHz processor, 3GB DDR2 800 RAM. I have installed the latest video drivers and motherboard drivers. I have the 6-pin PCI-E power connector going into my video card.

I went to the Nvidia website and clicked on the 9600GT and clicked on the 3dmark benchamark scan to tell me what my comp would be if i had the 9600GT, and it tells me my current score is 8,100 and if i had the 9600GT I would have a 10,200. I DO have the 9600GT though...what's going on? Before I upgraded to the 9600GT I had a 7600GT and the same benchmark test gave me a score of 3,500...and told me I would have the same score of 10,200 if I upgraded to the 9600GT.

Someone suggested that the benchmark tests aren't that accurate, but it's not JUST the benchmark test that concerns me. I have a couple of friends with pretty much the same computer specs that I have, and yet they get a significantly better framerate in Day of Defeat:Source even though one of them only has an 8600GT.

If anyone has suggestions, I could certainly use them. Thanks.

Answer 1

they probaby don't have 800 RAM if your motherboard has a faster FSB then 800 then match your RAM to it and you will see a boost in performance

Answer 2

i have a 9500GT and it scores 8,500 on 3d mark. well i'm happy, but the website i went to mentioned that i should gt 9,000. it didn't bother me too much but when i found out that the test computer they used was a core 2 extreme with 6GB of ddr3 RAM i realized that the hardware that the computer sits on makes a huge difference. so that's probably what happened to you.