Helpful ReplyThe effect of C states on 3dmark 11 graphics score

I'm sure a lot of you are already aware of what I'm about to say but I'm sure there are a few that aren't. 
 
I ran the 3dmark11 benchmark to test out my new system today.  Got just over 6400 for my GTX 580 graphics score.  I went and played around in the bios of my new motherboard a bit more and one of the things I did was change c states (c1e, c3 & c6) from auto to enabled to save some power.
 
I ran the benchmark again later and would only get 6000 for the graphics score.  I scratched my head for an hour trying to figure out what I did as I didn't think c states would effect graphics just processor use.  Well, I was wrong.  I went back and turned the C states off and left speedstep turned on.  Poof, my graphics score went back up over 6400 and when doing a test with AS SSD on my c300, I get 350+ read speeds as opposed to 325 with c states on. 

That sounds about right to me.  The C6 State on this platform not only allows the CPU cores to be put into a halt state, but they also flush the cache and power down the "UnCore" portion of the CPU, which contains not just the memory controller but also the links to the PCI bus.
 
You may want to look at your Power Profile in Windows, Advanced Settings, and look under PCI Express for Link State Power Management and turn that off.  You might then be able to turn the C-States back on to C1e and get most of the speed back, while getting a little bit of power saving as a happy middle ground.

I tried that as well when looking to see what I did.  I tried the high performance setting as well as balanced and made sure the link state power setting were off for both.  No difference.
Leaving speedstep on will drop my cpu to 1584mhz when doing light tasks like browsing. 

I edited my first reply to be more accurate.
 
When you tried again, did you set the C-States to just C1?  I'd be curious as to your results.

wow.. what a difference ,gain like 300 and this is only @4.7

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looks like tomorrow i will try Cinebench ,i just don't like the Vcore rise 
Thanks bowler484
@Davabled C1e on auto or disable  ..same thing 

coolhand41
@Davabled C1e on auto or disable  ..same thing 

 
Instead of auto or disabled, try specifying just C1... auto probably sets it to C6, which would cause the lower scores.

Davabled

coolhand41
@Davabled C1e on auto or disable  ..same thing 

Instead of auto or disabled, try specifying just C1... auto probably sets it to C6, which would cause the lower scores.

this is how i got the higher score;
C1~disable or auto
C3 ~disable
C6~disable
what you mean by specifying ?

Your BIOS must be setup different then coolhand41.  It sounds like on your ASUS board, setting it up the way you did, you did indeed enable just C1 like I was recommending.   And it sounds like you were able to get the better speed while still getting some power management, which is good news.
 
On the EVGA motherboards I'm familiar with, under the CPU Features heading there is an option called CxE Function that can be set to Auto, Disabled, C1, C1E, C3 or C6 in a drop-down box, instead of being able to individually enable each C-State.  So by saying specify C1, I meant selecting C1 in the drop-down box.

ok,thanks

My board is using the new efi bios which takes some getting used to.
C1e, C3 and C6 are 3 seperate settings on my board, you can choose from auto, enabled or disabled.  According to other sources, it seems auto will turn off the setting when you overclock.
I did more testing & found the following.
C1e on, C3 off, C6 off - SSD test read 350mbs, 3d mark11 test 6400+
C1e on, C3 on, C6 off - SSD drops to 325mbs, 3d mark11 test down to 6200.
C1e on, C3 on, C6 on - SSD same, 3d mark 11 drops to 6000.
Windows power mode seems to have no effect on scores. 

bowler484

My board is using the new efi bios which takes some getting used to.
C1e, C3 and C6 are 3 seperate settings on my board, you can choose from auto, enabled or disabled.  According to other sources, it seems auto will turn off the setting when you overclock.
I did more testing & found the following.
C1e on, C3 off, C6 off - SSD test read 350mbs, 3d mark11 test 6400+
C1e on, C3 on, C6 off - SSD drops to 325mbs, 3d mark11 test down to 6200.
C1e on, C3 on, C6 on - SSD same, 3d mark 11 drops to 6000.
Windows power mode seems to have no effect on scores. 

your SSD score may be affected by RST power saving by default..try this fix here;
 http://forum.crucial.com/t5/Solid-State-Drives-SSD/Solution-C300-Disk-Freeze-ups-in-Windows-7-solved-for-me/td-p/38766?AID=10273954&PID=3891137&SID=194r0 

coolhand41
your SSD score may be affected by RST power saving by default..try this fix here;
http://forum.crucial.com/t5/Solid-State-Drives-SSD/Solution-C300-Disk-Freeze-ups-in-Windows-7-solved-for-me/td-p/38766?AID=10273954&PID=3891137&SID=194r0 

But those having problems also experience stutters and freezeups.  I remember back when Crucial released the firmware 006 and that's when all the freezing issues started.  My firmware is 002.  I'd bet that those having problems resolved by editing the settings for LPT have firmware 006. 

disabling c-state tech reduces the memory bandwidth.
 
C1E however is a pita that causes coil whine.

bowler484

coolhand41
your SSD score may be affected by RST power saving by default..try this fix here;
http://forum.crucial.com/t5/Solid-State-Drives-SSD/Solution-C300-Disk-Freeze-ups-in-Windows-7-solved-for-me/td-p/38766?AID=10273954&PID=3891137&SID=194r0 

But those having problems also experience stutters and freezeups.  I remember back when Crucial released the firmware 006 and that's when all the freezing issues started.  My firmware is 002.  I'd bet that those having problems resolved by editing the settings for LPT have firmware 006. 

I have the one with 006 no freezing,etc i was only experiencing delayed load on boot when using Intel ports,
this fix solved this and improved write ,you can try this also;
 http://www.computing.net/howtos/show/solid-state-drive-ssd-tweaks-for-windows-7/552.html
what's your WEI ?

coolhand41
I have the one with 006 no freezing,etc i was only experiencing delayed load on boot when using Intel ports,
this fix solved this and improved write ,you can try this also;
http://www.computing.net/howtos/show/solid-state-drive-ssd-tweaks-for-windows-7/552.html
what's your WEI ?

 
That's a great resource for SSD info, I have it in my bookmarks already.
My WEI is 7.9 for everything except processor which is 7.7
My Crystaldiskmark is pretty equal to the guy on the crucial forums after his fix except for read speed seeing as how I have the 64gb version.
What's really odd is disabling write caching on my p7p55d-e pro board improved my C300.  Yet, doing the same on this motherboard lowered my performance.  I'm guessing it's because I was using Marvell ports on the former and Intel ports on this one.
 

contrary to most of the "performance guides" disabling the pagefile is still not advised. put it on another drive if you can.

squall-leonhart

disabling c-state tech reduces the memory bandwidth.

C1E however is a pita that causes coil whine.

I ran an aida test with both c1e enabled and disabled and it appears that is the case.  In a post elsewhere you made, I think you said it effects certain programs but not others? 

Actually, i've felt the system is somewhat snappier overall with c state enabled, Fiery (AIDA64) mentioned that sandra determines based on the memory copy score which doesn't seem to be affected by disabling it at all.
 
another way to work around disabling c states is to prevent the core from parking and turning off by raising the max unparked core count to 100%
 

 Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00\0cc5b647-c1df-4637-891a-dec35c318583]
"Attributes"=dword:00000000 

 
The above sets the hidden attribute to off and enables the Processor performance core parking min core setting in the advanced power plan settings, setting it to 100% will prevent cores from parking while benchmarking.

bowler484

coolhand41
I have the one with 006 no freezing,etc i was only experiencing delayed load on boot when using Intel ports,
this fix solved this and improved write ,you can try this also;
http://www.computing.net/howtos/show/solid-state-drive-ssd-tweaks-for-windows-7/552.html
what's your WEI ?

That's a great resource for SSD info, I have it in my bookmarks already.
My WEI is 7.9 for everything except processor which is 7.7
My Crystaldiskmark is pretty equal to the guy on the crucial forums after his fix except for read speed seeing as how I have the 64gb version.
What's really odd is disabling write caching on my p7p55d-e pro board improved my C300.  Yet, doing the same on this motherboard lowered my performance.  I'm guessing it's because I was using Marvell ports on the former and Intel ports on this one.

same WEI here all 7.9 ,CPU 7.7 (you get 7.8 on 26K because of HT),here is how it looks now after all the
tweaks
 
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Thanks