Here's my specs:

(All at stock clock speeds)
MSI K9A Platinum MB (PCIe dual x16) (AMD 580x Chipset)

HIS Radeon x1650Pro IceQ Core594/Mem396
Sapphire Radeon x1650Pro Core 594/Mem396
Crossfire Mode

Western Digital SATA 320GB
AMD Athlon 64 x2 4200+ (2.21GHz) (Dual Core)
2x1GB OCZ Platinum Ram CL5 PC6400

3dMark06 3010 Marks Default Settings.

I only get 11FPS(6.5 with CF off) on the Canyon test? Is this normal for these cards?


Also, what could I buy in the 100-150(200?) price range as an upgrade? (PCI 2.0 is NOT supported). ATI Chipset please.

CL5 RAM? that's kinda bad....maybe try finding something lower? 3? 3.5?

what's your power supply? do you have the molex connector plugged in on the motherboard?

11FPS is a bit of a hole though...

CL5 isn't bad, it's the usual stuff most people buy nowadays. @ 800MHz that's 12.5ns latency. It's no worse than DDR2-667 CL4 really (I figure that's what you might be using looking at your sig). It more than makes up for the extra half nanosec in clock speed -- 4% higher latency, but clocked 20% faster. With some luck, his RAM could work at CL4 (my OCZ plat XTC rev 2 does), or at least OC to 900+ (still at CL5), making it faster in both latency and clock speed. Some ppl even manage 1000MHz @ CL4 with that RAM, albeit at a higher voltage.

PC2-6400 CL5 is around $30/2GB, but PC2-6400 CL3 is nearly impossible to find. The only such RAM in stock I've seen is $225/2GB, which is very expensive considering you can get 2GB of DDR3 PC3-10666 for $85 (pretty much the same latency, but clocked at 1333MHz), or 4GB of DDR3 PC3-12800 CL7 (twice as much RAM, clocked twice as fast i.e. 1600MHz, and with a latency under 9ns) for only $10 more ($235).

And while I'm no gamer, I don't think shaving 2.5ns from his RAM latency by replacing it with CL4 ram is gonna make any noticeable difference on anything else than memory benchmarks.

As for the vid card benches, no idea, I don't follow these things at all.

It doesn't have a molex, but it has a 4 pin connector. Rosewill 600 watt PSU. Should only need 400-500 watt of my rig.

Yes, it´s normal for those cards, mostly due to low number of shaders and the 128bit memory bus.

If you are looking for a new video card, then take a look at the AMD Radeon HD4850, it´s the best pick at the moment with his sharp price of less than 200USD. It outperforms most single cards except for it´s bigger brother, just higher clocked, HD4870.