I’ve had a lot of success recently in bringing down my sec/Ts by substantially upping the RAM on some of my slower machines; an Athlon 3800 now runs at 2.08 sec/Ts with 2GB RAM. Until today: my Athlon 4200 dual-core runs at 5+ sec/Ts despite increasing RAM from 1GB to 3GB. The RAM checks out with Prime95; have I missed something, or do I expect too much?

John GW3PRV

Something is really, really wrong with that PC. Past hadcm3 runs on that PC were done at less than 2.5 s/TS. Given that I also have a 4200+ (although I\'m not using it now), I would expect about 2.5 s/TS with 5.44 hadcm3 for Windows.

Run cpu-z and find out if the CPU is running at its proper speed while running the models. In the process of upgrading your RAM, it may be that it\'s not running in dual channel mode if the RAM is not matched, or in the wrong slots. It\'s also possible some memory timings were loosened in order to run 3 GB. However, the RAM timings or whether it is running in dual channel mode, should not make that much of a difference. If the CPU is running at half speed, because of thermal throttling or some other reason, that could be the cause.

The benchmarks are abnormally low as well. In addition to the things Geophi suggests, I\'d also check that the CPU heatsink is OK as well - if the processor gets too hot, it\'ll slow down to protect itself.

(Does CPU-Z show temperatures?)

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Geophi, Mike, thanks for your comments. CPU_Z reports core speed 2211MHz, multiplier x11. The CPU is cool to the touch.
A second Athlon 4200 dual-core machine runs at 4+ s/Ts, CPU_Z reports core speed 1100MHz (BIOS reports twice that) x5.
I’m right at the edge of my knowledge here, is it time for a M/B and processor upgrade?

John GW3PRV

Geophi, Mike, thanks for your comments. CPU_Z reports core speed 2211MHz, multiplier x11. The CPU is cool to the touch.
A second Athlon 4200 dual-core machine runs at 4+ s/Ts, CPU_Z reports core speed 1100MHz (BIOS reports twice that) x5.

If it were me, I\'d go into BIOS and disable anything associated with cool and quiet or thermal protection, download speedfan, and run that while running two models, then report back what the temperatures are. The difference in your BIOS speed and CPU-Z speed would likely have to do with Cool n Quiet being enabled, and it would show up only in Windows.

I’m right at the edge of my knowledge here, is it time for a M/B and processor upgrade?

Can\'t answer that one for you.