Low PerformanceTest score on i7 3770K. What's going on?

[Aragorn]

Hi all,
Need some help here.

I'm not a big computer pro. Assempled a new computer for my DAW (Digital audio workstation).

i7 3770K 3.5Ghz,
MSI B75A-G43,
8GB RAM 1600 8-8-8-24 G.SKILL,
GeForce GTX 750 Ti,
Win 7 32 Bit.

Not the newest motherboard but I need that one since it natively supports my nice and special PCI audio cards.

PassMark Performance Test 8.0 shows my CPU score as 7383 where as it should be over 10,000. My total score is 3631.7 .

Latest Bios version. Bios shows 8-8-8-24 timings for the RAM and 800 Mhz and 3500 Mhz for CPU. Intel Turbo enabled. Power profile in WIN 7 set to High Performance. Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool passes all tests. Temperature during the CPU test sometimes maxes at 68 C.

What's going On? I need the highest CPU performance for tons or audio plugins and synths. Or, maybe I should disregard this test results?... But I do need my system to perform to it's best. Please, advice.

[David (PassMark)]

You are running Windows 32bit. Which hurts the performance in some areas (e.g. high precision maths).

Unless you have an extremely good reason for using 32bit, you'd be insane to use it.

See also.
http://www.passmark.com/forum/showth...chmark-results
http://www.passmark.com/forum/showth...-maths-amp-PT8

[Aragorn]

I can't use 64 bit because there are no 64 bit drivers for my audio hardware. I will install 64 bit Win 7 just to compare the test results.

But is there a way to know whether average CPU score in Performance Test refers to 32 or 64 bit OS? What about other parameters like overclocked RAM - do the tests reflect that? Also, can this little outdated B75 machine be that much slower? I'm getting like 73% of promised CPU performance. I can't understand why all voltages and clocks are fine, intel diagnostic utility passes everything but performance is that low. Please help.

[David (PassMark)]

I can't understand .... performance is that low.

As I said, it is because you are limiting yourself to 32bit instructions.

Did you have a look at the links I provided above?

[Aragorn]

Yes, I did. Thank you. I hope you are right. I will test in 64 bit in a day or two and report. But I wonder why that base score is called an Average. Not everyone is testing in 64 bit but the average is still 28% higher than mine...

[David (PassMark)]

The result (CPUMark=9,642.90) for the 3770K is an average of results from 7937 different machines.

Of these 98.52% are 64bit machines. In other words no one is using 32bit Windows anymore on new machines with high end CPUs.

[Aragorn]

CPU benchmark in 64 bit Win 7 shows aprox 9900. Looks like a decent number now and yes, David, you were right! Thank you. Still the average is somewhat higher though (10300 or so). Is that due to low RAM (8gb)? Is there a way to know whether those numbers are from overclocked machines?

[orioon]

Is this without overclocked CPU's David?
It's quite unusual to buy a 'K' CPU and not overclock it.

You pay a higher price for something you will probably never use.
I am not sure if the Mainboard is able to overclock the CPU with some Bios versions, but in general it is only supported on the Z chipsets.
You are also lacking some features, which the non-K have. (No vPro, VT-D and TrustedExecution support)

[David (PassMark)]

The 9642 number was the average of the non overclocked 3770K CPUs.

3802 of the samples we have (out of 7958 in total as of today) are not overclocked. So 48% of people buy the 'K' version of the chip and then haven't overclocked it.

Although 9642 is the average CPUMark (at standard clocks) there are people overclocking the 3770K to 6Ghz and getting CPUMark scores in the 13,000 - 16,000 range.