3Dmark 2001 Guide by Mackanz
Hi all tweakers!
I thought I could contribute with some experiences around the secrets of tweaking the system to the max for benchmarking.
I know that memory bandwidth is a must with this benchmarking program, but with a bad tweaked system, it really doesn’t matter how many GHZ and flops you got.
I am no guru when it comes to Microsoft program but I have tried all kinds of tweaks and combos now and I think I have found what works best for me and what I think will cover the basics for a 3dmark setup.
I think it is better to say that I have a AMD rig and some parts of this guide does not include an Intel setup as that system uses another software. (4 in 1)
First of all Win2K professional is a must, no other OS can provide speed and stability as Win2K.
Whether you decide to change cluster size on the HD and partitions, I’ll leave that up to you but I always try to have 32 or 64, not standard 4 which I believe win2K installs as default.
Oh and yes, NTFS is included in that as well.
The best is if you have 2 hd:s as it is the best to put the swap file on the first partition on a 2:nd hd, preferably not on the same channel as the first hd.
Install Win2K and SP2, you don’t have to install SP1 if you have the 2: nd.
Install via 4 in 1 version 4.37 since that version is the fastest right now. Then install DirectX 8.1.
Now proceed with the install of the important small programs such as Winzip or Winace and your internet setup.
Wait with the graphics and the tweak programs such as Rivatuner or Tweak3D.
Instead get a program called Drive Image 2002 and simply make an image of your now cleanly installed Win2K.
I have done too many reinstallations in the last 9 months without finding an image program that worked successfully as Drive Image 2002 does.
When the image is written and safely putted on another partition, proceed with the graphic drivers.
In my and in many others cases, it’s the Detonators.
I have noticed that mixing the 29.40´s with Via 4.37 gives me the best results by far and i have tested almost all other combos such as 4.39 and the newest detonators, but only to find that this combo is the best.
Defrag the HD as often as you can, all systems like that.
I find that the swap file is fastest if I set it to min 480 and max 480 with 256 of ram.
Don’t touch anything in the detonator properties, let Rivatuner handle that.
Uninstall all unnecessary programs in windows.
Find a file called sysoc.inf and delete the “hide” section in the lines where programs that you want to uninstall is. Leave the commas (,,).
Then go to install/uninstall windows programs and uninstall the stuff that you don’t need.
Run regedit and go to: HKLM/system/currentcontrolset/control/session manager/memory management and set the disableexecutivepaging(This has caused bootproblems for some members, be aware) to =1, Largesystemcache=1(this has also caused problems for some members, be aware), IOpagelocklimit=16384 in decimal, Secondleveldatacache=256 or the same as your L2 cache size in decimal.
Reboot and run regedit again and go to HKLM and turn off the fileprotection:
Software/Microsoft/windowsNT/currentversion/winlogon and change the value of SFCDisable to REG_DWORD “ffffff9d”.
Reboot windows and turn off OS2 and POSIX servers by finding and delete following files: OS2.exe, OS2SRV.exe, PSXSS.exe, OS2SS.exe and POSIX.exe.
In system.ini , add the following line under 386enh: ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1
Before hitting the start bench button in 3dmark, change the priority of the program to realtime in the task manager.
This is just a few tweaks that I have found all over Internet and I have tried them all.
There are probably a lot more to do but I shouldn’t write about things that I haven’t tried myself. I leave the Rivatuner guide up to MrIcee as I think he is far superior in that program than us other.
Some warning stuff though: This guide is NOT for a normal daily use partition and i strongly recommend backups and such before doing this and off course..i will not be responsible for any damage, this is totally up to you. I would vever got a 3dmark such as my 13200k+ without doing all this and tweaking Rivatuner, and just to be sure, i reinstalled the image and did this all again and i got the same points.
Happy benching!!
Thanks to mbrock for letting me know of some problems that this guide may cause.
It seems after some testing that the above warnings about the disableexecutivepaging and Largesystemcache problems is caused when combining theese settings with running Cacheman. At least that is what happened to me.
Mac
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