CPU Test Slower Than Expected

[JackInBrooklyn]

I have an AMD Phenom II X6 1090t CPU on an ASUS motherboard. I built the machine myself (first one, though I have repaired broken parts on many machines prior to building this one).

I have always thought it should be faster than it is. Initially, I thought it might be slow because I had set up a RAID 1 array for my main system disk. I have removed the mirror and it is still running slower than I think it should.

The CPU benchmark returned a value of 2712. The online list shows that this CPU should return a value of 5716.

In fact, it's not just the CPU that is slower than the online lists suggest. The video and memory tests are much slower than expected, too.

What diagnostic steps should I take to try and determine why this machine is slow?

Thank you very much for any guidance you can provide.

Jack
Just noticed the Causes and Solutions for a Slow PC. Let me check that out...

[David (PassMark)]

Yes, check out that post to start with. It covers 90% of the performance related issues we see.

[JackInBrooklyn]

While I am at it, I'll tell you that my PC's clock is sometimes very slow, but not while the computer is off. When it's on, it will lose an hour in 3 hours at times. Does this point to anything in particular?

[David (PassMark)]

It is set to the right timezone? Maybe it is syncing to internet time a few times a day and changing to the time to a different time zone?

Is is always exactly 1 hour wrong?

[JackInBrooklyn]

The timezone is set correctly (UTC-05:00). And, no, it is not always off by an hour.

When I update the time (via internet time source such as time.nist.gov), it is set properly. If I turn off the machine, it will keep time correctly. If I am using the machine, the clock will lose a significant amount of time (a few minutes) in an hour or so.

So, I have taken up frequently updating the time when I am on the machine.

[David (PassMark)]

You aren't running any tweaking software or 'gaming' optimisation software to get better frames per second are you? These can slow down the clock to give an (artificial) impression that you are getting more frames per second, when in fact a second is longer than it should be.

[JackInBrooklyn]

No, I have not enabled any overclocking or tweaking sort of features in the CPU or the GPU, unless it has been set up by default.

[David (PassMark)]

My guess would be that there is some software (or device driver) on the machine that is interfering with the clock. Might be hard to track down without re-installing Windows however. You could check task manager to see if anything is using CPU time while the machine is idle as a start.

You could try replacing the CMOS battery, but I kind of doubt that is the problem, as if it was you would see the problem while the PC is off as well as on.