Poor memory bandwidth benchmarks (Geekbench 2.1)

Hi all,

I'm running W7 x64 on a new ASUS F81se notebook [Core2Duo P8600, 4Gb DDR2-800 RAM running at 667MHz - don't know why :-(] and ran the Geekbench x32 benchmark and got awful memory bandwidth scores, much worse than on my old Dell Inspiron 6400 [DDR2-667] I just replaced! Here are the stats:

ASUS
Integer
Processor integer performance
3426
2499
Floating Point
Processor floating point performance
2825
Memory
Memory performance
1116
Stream
Memory bandwidth performance
880

DELL
Integer
Processor integer performance
2263
1910
Floating Point
Processor floating point performance
2091
Memory
Memory performance
1197
Stream
Memory bandwidth performance
1470

Anyone have any idea why my memory performance might be so poor? Here's some info from SiSoft Sandra 15.96:

Processor
Model : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8600 @ 2.40GHz
Speed : 2.4GHz
Cores per Processor : 2 Unit(s)
Threads per Core : 1 Unit(s)
Type : Mobile, Dual-Core
Integrated Data Cache : 2x 32kB, Synchronous, Write-Thru, 8-way, 64 byte line size
L2 On-board Cache : 3MB, ECC, Synchronous, ATC, 12-way, 64 byte line size, 2 threads sharing

System
System : ASUSTeK Computer Inc. F81Se
Mainboard : PEGATRON CORPORATION F81Se
Bus(es) : ISA PCI PCIe USB
Multi-Processor (MP) Support : No
Multi-Processor Advanced PIC (APIC) : No
BIOS : American Megatrends Inc. 207
Total Memory : 3GB DIMM DDR2

Chipset
Model : ASUS 671MX
Front Side Bus Speed : 4x 267MHz (1GHz)
Total Memory : 2GB DIMM DDR2
Memory Bus Speed : 2x 334MHz (668MHz)

Thanks so much people!!
G

Using your bios, you could set the memory to full speed at 800 MHz, if the notebook supports that speed.

also try using the benchmark on High performance instead of balanced...
i have seen Win7 is more aggressive in down clocking....
at least in my experience..

Hi peeps,

Thanks for your input! As to the suggestion to run the benchmark in the 'high performance' power profile - good suggestion, but that's the profile I was using As for this laptop's BIOS, it's just awful - no meaningful user configurability at all (except the standard fare - IDE interfaces, boot order, etc..). No settings for memory speeds or timings, none for the CPU or buses, no AHCI settings, nothing. I'm quite disappointed.

I noticed that ASUS does not supply chipset drivers for this laptop model - could the lack of stock chipset drivers impact memory bandwidth/performance? I'm all out of ideas!!!

Cheers,
G

Found some specs on the SIS site which may explain the poor memory performance:

Memory

Memory Channel

Single-Channel

Memory Type

DDR2-667 / DDR2-533 / DDR2-400

Max Memory

4GB

Error Correction

Non-ECC

My question - what is "single-channel" - should it be dual channel for DDR2 RAM??

Thanks!
G

Well I know know what a dual-channel capable mobo is and apparently it only yields around a 5% boost, so that can't explain my poor bandwidth scores. Maybe I just got a lemon, ha ha