Higher benchmark when underclocked?

[LSR]

I have a GTS250.

I overclocked my GFX a week-ish ago because there was a game it was struggling to play. I didn't really bother to benchmark before it because it didn't cross my mind at the time. After playing though, I noticed no improvement from the overclock, which was done using Rivatuner, and was about 80MHz on the core (730-810), nothing on the shader (gave artifacts from any clock), and 120MHz on the memory (1100 - 1220).

So I benchmarked it, and got a score of 10,400. Out of curiosity, I set my settings back to stock, and got 11,000.

Results (overclocked - stock)
SM2.0 3880 - 4209
SM3.0 4824 - 5203

I then went and.. underclocked it a little. Core down 60MHz, shader down 30MHz, memory staying the same. I then got a score of 11,200.

Should I be worried about this? Are benchmarks indicative of actual gaming performance?

This is the first time I've ever overclocked anything, so there's probably quite a high chance I screwed something up or did something wrong anyway, or that I'm interpreting the results incorrectly.

Should probably note my temps - 65C idle, 85 max while benchmarking.

Any help appreciated - cheers.

 

[LSR]

Bump

 

[bomberboysk]

Lower scores generally indicate an unstable overclock.

 

[LSR]

So stock clocks are unstable..?

 

[87dtna]

Yeah bomber is right. Your card may be on it's way out. Are you the original owner? And did you register it? Could also be the power supply not sending enough juice it's way which I'm leaning toward right now with what you are describing. Whats the rest of your setup like? CPU/ram/motherboard/power supply?

 

[bomberboysk]

Power supply issues most likely, especially since after a quick search of his posts reveal a "Z-power" unit.