New PC -- best benchmarking software

[Charlie Wilkes]

I have just assembled my new "ultra-budget" video/gaming PC. It is
light years ahead of anything I've ever used, but that isn't saying
much. Now I want to optimize its performance.

It consists of:

Athlon 64 3000+
MSI K8N nf3 board
1 gb ram
Radeon 9600 "all in wonder" card w/128mb (AGP)
40 gb WD IDE HDD
Win 2k sp4 instead of XP because it's lighter and I like it better

What's the best benchmarking software to use?

Thanks.

Charlie

 

[Conor]

I have just assembled my new "ultra-budget" video/gaming PC. It is
light years ahead of anything I've ever used, but that isn't saying
much. Now I want to optimize its performance.

It consists of:

Athlon 64 3000+
MSI K8N nf3 board
1 gb ram
Radeon 9600 "all in wonder" card w/128mb (AGP)
40 gb WD IDE HDD
Win 2k sp4 instead of XP because it's lighter and I like it better

What's the best benchmarking software to use?

Your favourite 3D shooter and FRAPS. Forget 3DMark as its been
unreliable for years.

 

[Todd K]

I use 3DMark06 from www.futuremark.com. It's free and allows you to compare your results with other comperable systems.

TK
I have just assembled my new "ultra-budget" video/gaming PC. It is
light years ahead of anything I've ever used, but that isn't saying
much. Now I want to optimize its performance.

It consists of:

Athlon 64 3000+
MSI K8N nf3 board
1 gb ram
Radeon 9600 "all in wonder" card w/128mb (AGP)
40 gb WD IDE HDD
Win 2k sp4 instead of XP because it's lighter and I like it better

What's the best benchmarking software to use?

Thanks.

Charlie

 

[Charlie Wilkes]

I use 3DMark06 from www.futuremark.com. It's free and allows you to compare your results with other comperable systems.

I looked at it, but it calls for a video card with 256mb, and I only
have 128.

I'm not really into the shooters much, so I bought a magazine with the
Quake4 demo and ran it with FRAPS. According to the running counter
in the corner of the screen, the fps ranged from 30-60, with some
improvement, 35-60, after tweaking the bios. The system is clean and
stable, and it seems plenty good enough for my needs right now. But,
if these numbers look weak for my system specs (below) and anyone has
tips on tweaking a k8n board, I'm always in the market for
information.

Charlie