I have upgraded my XP2800 to a XP3200 (on a Gigabyte GA-7N400-L board) and put 2 x 256MB PC3200 RAM in to replace the same qty PC2700 RAM plus changed the weedy 5700LE graphics card for a much faster 6600GT.

My 3dmark03 score has shot up and the card works perfectly. BUT - the CPU score has crashed from a respectable 564 to 270 and when the 2 CPU tests are running the video is painfully slow, down to 1 frame per sec sometimes. Why? Even stranger, when I put the old XP2800 back in it stayed this low.

What has happened to make this test run so slow? Is something wrong somewhere in my system?

Any help appreciated.

It's a shame you "wasted" your money like that. I agree you needed a better video card, but you should have kept your 2800+ & upped your RAM amount to 1GB...what you did definitely wasn't cost effective.

ASUS A7N8X-X
Athlon XP 1800+
8.5 x 200MHz
1024MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-7
Asus A9550GE/TD 128MB
WinME/WinXP Pro SP2

Does Windows report the correct clock speed of your new CPU? (around 2.1ghz (?) for a 3200)

FX-57 @ 3.1ghz
4GB of OCZ PC-4200
500GBx4 drive array
Sapphire X850 XT-PE
Fujitsu 1920x1080 projector

I agree with jam. That kind of CPU upgrade is useless I would have went from say.... the XP2800 to something like a A643200. The CPU bench is always sluggish but I don't think it should have shot down. cheack you BIOS to make sure your CPU is at correct clocks. Some mobos revert to default settings after a CPU change. Try and see if that works. I would have to warn you though that the CPU performance wouldn't be very noticeable by any means.

My Current Rig:
NZXT Nemesis Elite Black
Athlon 64 3200
Abit An8
OCZ EL PE Rev2 DDR400
X800PRO OCd to 545/560
80GB SATA150 WD HDD
3dMark05: 5827

Clock speed should be 2.2GHz, and the front side bus speed should also be verified at 200MHz bus.

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the XP3200 was actually given to me from a dead system and wasn't part of a planned upgrade. I agree - it wouldn't make much difference. It is registered by the system as an XP3200 at 200 x 11 and runs at just under 2,191 Ghz.

The fact that I get this strange low CPU score in 3dmark03 even when I put the old XP2800 in makes me think it's a system or XP fault or setting change etc.

Any ideas?

Thanks

I just noticed that a Benchmark done with my ATI AIW 9700 Pro, on AMD64 3200+ with 1GB gave me a CPU score of 868. The same test performed today with my AIW 9800 Pro, same CPU/Board/Ram and my CPU score dropped more than half to 370 (while my overall score increased). Now what could be the cause. I am sure it is not the graphic card change.