3D Mark 2001 SE & SiSoftware Sandra will give you some figures to compare tweaking effects on yer hardware.

both available from the WS2 Download section www.warp2search.net/download.php?op=viewsdownload&sid=10

as the other poster stated, 3dmark2001se, and sisoft are okay (i only watch the demo in 3dmark, and rarely if ever benchmark with it)

some other usefull stuff:
http://www.vulpine.de/demos_benchmark.html
http://www.tirtanium.de/prog3d.html (really dated, but fun to watch:))
http://www.fraps.com/ (handy fps/screencap util)

and since you have an nvidia based vid card:
http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=power_demos
(that werewolf demo is quit cool)

one of your best bets really is to enable fps display in your games (via fraps if needed) and gauge how your tweaks do by that.

also, www.anandtech.com have a look there, and see how they benchmark, and what games they use, if you have the games mentioned, i'd stick to using them.

when comparing scores to other pc's scores, it becomes a bit futile, benchmarking your pc, and seeing if tweaks have affected it, is much better.
in case your wondering, last time i did run 3dmark2k1se i got almost 9000 3dmarks
HTH, GL
cheers

here's my specs:
Amd Athlon tbird AXIA 1.1@1.4 (133x9.5)
Volcano 6cu+/Delta 5000 rpm fan (friggin hair dryer)
Epox 8kha with no via 4in1's installed
512 DDR pc2100 crucial ram (2x256)
Chaintech Geforce4 Ti4200 64meg card dx9a/43.45 (not oc'd.. yet)
2xWD Caviar drives (5400rpm)
trinitron 17inch monitor
samsung 48x24x48x
liteon DVD player
Realtek pci NIC
Hercules GametheaterXP 5.1
monsoon 3pc speakers (mm-800?)

Theirs a 3dmark 2003 though isn't their? Isn't newer always better?

Theirs a 3dmark 2003 though isn't their? Isn't newer always better?

You could get it, nothing stopping you, mind you its built for DirectX9 testing, our GF4's even with dx9 compatible drivers
probably wont show decent results, and theres alot of mixed feelings about DX9/nvidia/3dmark2003.

if you had an ATI Radeon 9xxx series.. i'd say go for it.

again if you want to.. nothing stopping you.. erm.. unless your on modem and 173megs download is too much for you, you could find it on a game cd perhaps in a magazine.

OMG ITS 173MEGS!!! Well I guess im going to cancel all together. I've only got 56k :oops: .
Thanks for the tip btw about GF4's and DX9 not working well together on the 3dMark 2003. :)

I think that 3D Mark 2001 benchmarking is like the best out of all. But some people say that 3D Mark 2003 is better because the latest ones are better. So I think, I might go for the latest ones because whats the point in making more benchmarking if the very first one is the best out of all. So the latest ones like 3D Mark 2003 is better than the older ones. But its hard to get good scores like 10, 000 in 3D Mark 2003 instead in 3D Mark 2001 its pretty easy to get good ones. I reckon that 3D Mark 2003 has better graphics than the other ones. Wonder whats the next benchmarking program they are going to make........

Hey =**=ShockaR=**=, you should have put a poll saying which is the best benchmarking program and you also should have given some choices like 3D Mark 2001, PC Mark 2002, 3D Mark 2003, 3D Mark 2004 or Aquamark 3. So the members could just choose one of them and also tell the reason behind chosing of those programs as for what is the best benchmarking program.