47% Drop in Rating !

[BambiBoom]

Passmark,

On Performance Test (Build 1026) 11/18/13, my HP z420 [Xeon E5-1620, 24GB ECC 1600, Quadro 4000, Samsung 840 350GB SSD, WD Black 1TB, Win 7 Ult 64] scored >

Rating_ 3815
CPU___ 8985
2D____ 767
3D____ 2044
MEM__ 2523
DISK__ 2986

Today 2/26/14 I went through and disabled a quite a few Scheduled Tasks- updaters and "reporters", and also disabled (End Process) in Task Manager several background programs like baskup, Skype, and etc. I ran PT Build 1026 and the results were shockingly low. I upgraded to Build 1030, and reran Pt but without disabling background programs. The scores were similar to the previous Build 1026 run>

Rating_ 2084
CPU___ 5700
2D_____ 287
3D____ 1983
MEM__ 268
DISK__ 2473

This is an alarming drop in performance (=47%). The especially interesting score is the CPU which almost halved as is the 2D and Memory, while the 3D and DISK did not have a similar drop proportionally.

his gave me a sinking feeling that the 3-month old CPU going south.

I tried WEI, for what it's worth, and this produced scores of >

CPU 7.7
MEM 7.9
Graphics 7.4
Gaming Graphics 7.4
HD 7.9

> and that were identical to the last test of 11.24.13

I spoke with HP Support, downloaded their bootable (pre-OS) disk diagnostic, and ran both the test for CPU and Disk and Memory, and had all 100% results.

I'm somewhat more confused than before,.. Is the drop an anomaly with Performance Test, or ,...?

Cheers,

BambiBoom

[Tim (PassMark)]

If the results are different in the same version of PerformanceTest it's likely that one of the settings had been changed, some other process was running at the same time that is slowing the system down or some settings on the system itself has been changed.

Have you checked in the preferences that the number of processes is set to the correct amount for the system? It should be 8 looking at the specs for your CPU (though you should see a warning when PerformanceTest starts if this is not the expected value).

Are there any individual tests in particular that are dragging the score down or are they all lower?

[David (PassMark)]

Also check,
- CPU throttling due to Windows or BIOS power control settings.
- CPU throttling due to overheating. e.g. a failed fan or a heat sink full of dust.

[BambiBoom]

Tim,

One of my concerns with the HP z420 has been the number of simultaneous processes > either 61 or 66, plus the number of scheduled tasks > which I can only call "many". In both cases, there are programs that just refuse to respond to my preferences. No sooner as I would End Task in Task Manager, the application > with several parts- would restart. The most annoying of these is EaseUs Todo Backup Worstation, which I got a bit trapped into continuing as I've made my system images in it since 2011. Adobe too seems to refuses to disallow updating and Autodesk has "contentservices" and some other cryptic 3Ds Max tasks- what is "raysat"?- which I've deleted. there are other reporting services that I've disabled or deleted as well.

The confusing feature of the PT scores was that the 3D and Disk were relatively unaffected while the CPU, 2D, and Memory were all down substantially. The CPU score of 5700 was so much less than the original 8985, I was concerned that two of the four cores on the Xeon E5-1620 had failed. I had also thought that the Quadro 4000 may have overheated- it is a single height card and has a reputation for very hot running- esp. when rendering. Gelid makes the Icy Vision cooler and given the 100C temperatures reported, I've thought of having one.

Thank you for your response and see my response below to David- which has a reasonably happy ending. You were very much on the right track with your comment, "or some settings on the system itself has been changed".

Cheers,

BambiBoom

[BambiBoom]

David,

After spending all that time at 0430 this morning with HP, running WEI, Malware and anti-virus, and reviewing drivers, processes and scheduled tasks I saw the responses from Tim and yourself.

In short, the key phrases were David's comment, "or some settings on the system itself has been changed" and your comment , "CPU throttling due to Windows or BIOS power control settings." I checked and in Control Panel > System > Power Options, and the system was set on Power Saver. I have never knowingly used that setting, but must've done. I changed the preference back to Balanced and >

Rating_ 3549
CPU___ 9015
2D____ 679
3D____ 2040
MEM__ 2322
DISK__ 2648

> Not quite as good as the original 3815, but in the right neighborhood- the CPU is even a bit higher- and I've added quite a few programs and features- the Samsung 840 250GB is 80% full. Everything is back to speed.

Tim and David- thanks very much -again-for saving me the trouble of reloading everything- I was an hour away from 10 hours of loading 200GB onto C: and 75GB of files.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

[carpel]

This was an amusing story.

Delete some files (and unused programs) and defrag and make a nice big pagefile and your bottom two marks (Disk and Mem) should go back up to what they were a few months ago, and your total score would then be about the same. Benchmarks tend to decline over time as drives get filled with crap and an ever increasing number of processes are running all the time.

[David (PassMark)]

Memory speed isn't going to be effected by page files, disk fragmentation nor installed software.
Even disk speed is unlikely to be greatly impacted. The original poster had a SSD which won't benefit from defragmentation. Install programs also make no difference unless they are continuously running in the background.