
| Q1 2013 $800 Enthusiast PC Test Settings | ||
|---|---|---|
| Default Configuration | Overclocked | |
| Motherboard | ASRock Z77 Pro3: LGA 1155, Intel Z77 Express | Unchanged |
| Processor | Intel Core i5-3570K: 3.4 GHz Base Clock Rate, 3.8 GHz Turbo Boost, 6 MB Shared L3 Cache | 4.4 GHz @ +0.085 V |
| Memory | Crucial Ballistix Tactical BLE2KIT4GD31608DE1TX0: DDR3-1333 CL 8-8-8-24 1T at 1.5 V | XMP Profile: DDR3-1600, 8-8-8-24-2T |
| Graphics | PowerColor PCS+ Myst Edition AX7870 2GBD5-2DHPPV3E : 2 GB GDDR5 @ 6,000 MT/s, GPU @ 975 MHz (Boost) | GDDR5 @ 6300 MT/s, GPU @ 1,150 MHz (Boost), Power @ 120% |
| Hard Drive | Seagate Barracuda ST500DM002, 500 GB, 7,200 RPM, 16 MB Cache, SATA 6Gb/s | Unchanged |
| Optical | Samsung SH-224BB: DVD Burner | Unchanged |
| Case | Xigmatek Asgard II B/B | Unchanged |
| Power | Antec Neo Eco 520C: 520 W, ATX12V v2.3, 80 PLUS-Certified | Unchanged |
| Q4 2012 $1,000 Enthusiast PC Test Settings | ||
|---|---|---|
| Default Configuration | Overclocked | |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte DA-970A-D3, Socket AM3+, AMD 970 Chipset | Unchanged |
| Processor | AMD FX-8350 (Piledriver): 4 GHz Base Clock Rate, 4.3 GHz Maximum Turbo Core, 8 MB Shared L3 Cache | 4.33 GHz @ 1.3375 V |
| Memory | Mushkin Enhanced Blackline: DDR3-1600, 2 x 4 GB (8 GB) Dual-Channel Desktop Memory Kit | 1866 MT/s 9-9-9-24-1T @ 1.6 V |
| Graphics | Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 GV-N670OC-2GD: 2 GB GDDR5 @ 6,008 MT/s, GPU @ 1,058 MHz (GPU Boost) | GDDR5 @ 7,012 MT/s, GPU @ 1,137 MHz (GPU Boost) Power @ 112%, +1 mV |
| Hard Drive | Hitachi GST Deskstar 7K1000.C: 1 TB, 7200 RPM, 32 MB Cache, SATA 3Gb/s | Unchanged |
| Optical | Samsung SH-222BB/BEBE: 22x DVD Burner | Unchanged |
| Case | Rosewill Redbone | Unchanged |
| Power | Corsair CX600: 600 W, ATX12V, EPS12V, 80 PLUS-Certified | Unchanged |
And here are the benchmark details:
| Benchmark Configuration | |
|---|---|
| 3D Games | |
| Battlefield 3 | Version 1.0.0.0, DirectX 11, 90-sec. Fraps "Going Hunting" Test Set 1: Medium Quality Preset, No AA, 4X AF, SSAO Test Set 2: Ultra Quality Preset, 4X MSAA, 16X AF, HBAO |
| The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim | Version 1.6.89.06, Version 1.5.26.05 (June), 25-Sec. Fraps Test Set 1: High Preset, No AA, 8x AF, FXAA Enabled Test Set 2: Ultra Preset, 8x AA, 16x AF, FXAA Enabled |
| Far Cry 3 | Version 1.04, 50-sec, Fraps "Ananaki Village" Test Set 1: High Quality Preset, No AA, Standard Alpha, SSAO Test Set 2: Ultra Quality Preset, 4X MSAA, Enhanced Alpha, HDAO |
| F1 2012 | Version 1.2, Direct X 11, Built-in Benchmark Test Set 1: High Quality, No AA Test Set 2: Ultra Quality, 8x MSAA |
| Audio/Video Encoding | |
| HandBrake CLI | Version: 0.98, Video: Video from Canon EOS 7D (1920x1080, 25 frames) 1 Minutes 22 Seconds, Audio: PCM-S16, 48,000 Hz, Two-Channel, to Video: AVC1 Audio: AAC (High Profile) |
| iTunes | Version 10.4.1.10 x64: Audio CD (Terminator II SE), 53 minutes, default AAC format |
| Lame MP3 | Version 3.98.3: Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 min, convert WAV to MP3 audio format, Command: -b 160 --nores (160 Kb/s) |
| TotalCode Studio 2.5 | Version: 2.5.0.10677, MPEG-2 to H.264, MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec, 28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG-2), Audio:MPEG2 (44.1 kHz, Two-Channel, 16-Bit, 224 Kb/s) Codec: H.264 Pro, Mode: PAL 50i (25 FPS), Profile: H.264 BD HDMV |
| Productivity | |
| ABBYY FineReader | Version 10.0.102.82: Read PDF save to Doc, Source: Political Economy (J. Broadhurst 1842) 111 Pages |
| Adobe Photoshop CS6 | Version 13 x64: Filter 15.7 MB TIF Image: Radial Blur, Shape Blur, Median, Polar Coordinates |
| Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 | Version 14.0 x64: Space Flyby Mentalray, 248 Frames, 1440x1080 |
| 7-Zip | Version 9.28, LZMA2, Syntax "a -t7z -r -m0=LZMA2 -mx=5" Benchmark: THG-Workload-2012 |
| WinRAR | Version 4.2, RAR, Syntax "winrar a -r -m3" Benchmark: THG-Workload-2012 |
| WinZip | Version 17.0 Pro, Best Method, ZIPX Benchmark: THG-Workload-2012 |
| Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings | |
| 3DMark 11 | Version: 1.0.1, Entry, Performance, Extreme Suite |
| PCMark 7 | Version: 1.0.4, System, Productivity, Hard Disk Drive benchmarks |
| SiSoftware Sandra 2012 | Version: 2012 SP5c-1872, CPU Test = CPU Arithmetic / MultiMedia, Memory Test = Bandwidth Benchmark |
Previous
Next
Summary
- Building A PC: What Do We Get For $800?
- CPU, Motherboard, And Cooler
- Video Card, Power Supply, And Case
- Memory, Hard Drives, And Optical Drive
- System Assembly And Overclocking
- Test System And Benchmarks
- Results: Synthetics
- Results: Media Encoding
- Results: Rendering And Productivity
- Results: Adobe Creative Suite
- Results: Compression Tools
- Results: Battlefield 3 And The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Results: F1 2012 And Far Cry 3
- Power And Temperature
- When Does $800 Buy You More Than $1000?
Ask a Category Expert
And therein lies the problem with benchmarks.
An enthusiast PC, without a SSD boot drive?
Overclocking the Core i5-3550K is"
there would be marginal performance boost from switching from a 7870 LE(nerfed 7950, heck can call it a 7930 and it would be partially correct in a way) to an actual 7950. Though its likely the outcome for the 1k budget coming up next.
That's cuz the 8350 is using a 670 which in GPU heavy titles will boost its numbers higher. Same GPU would show a more different story and the price difference between a 8350 and a i5 3570k is only able to bump a 7870xt to a 7950 at most, not to a 670
And therein lies the problem with benchmarks.
An enthusiast PC, without a SSD boot drive?
For a $800 budget, I would rather get all the real in game performance I can first while and add a ssd later than lose out on fps and get faster load times
higher fps(stronger cpu, gpu) > faster load times
$35 saved from cutting cooler and k is not enough for an SSD
After looking at this it would seem illogical to buy a 8350 over a I5. But yes it does do decent interns of price/performance.
This would have been correct for a "$800 Gaming PC" .
But for a "$800 Enthusiast PC " , a SSD is a must. Even a 64GB, lower end SSD would have been OK.
this build looks like a budget-upper-midrange build (if that makes any sense). the mobo... looks weak. the cooler and gfx card looked... cheap. i didn't expect the oc core i5 3570k build to keep up with oc fx8350 build in threaded benches (for $200 less, even). only 7zip seems to take advantage of 8 integer clusters/cores properly and the rest of them don't seem to scale well beyond 4~ cores. i noticed that trend in games but this is the first time i've seen it in non-games softwares. i use handbrake, lame mp3 and archivers (7z, zip/rars), so those benches were very informative for me. thank you.
when i first started reading, i wanted to see an fx8320, cm hyper 212 evo(or a corsair clc) with a sturdy 970 mobo + radeon 7870xt. as i read on, this current build and its performance started to look more and more interesting.
The difference between the 7870 XT and the 7950 can be huge when overclocking is considered. That lost memory bandwidth is no small matter for Tahiti LE when it runs at around 1.2GHz. I also suspect that the lost compute units from 28 to 24, although not a significant loss, are considerable.
EDIT:
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/5120/powercolor_pcs_radeon_hd_7870_tahiti_le_2gb_myst_video_card_review/index7.html
Also, not only are the 2560x1600 bencmarks not the only ones showing such a comparison, but also the 1920x1200 and 1680x1050 benchmarks. This is also fairly consistent across most games. Both of these claims are demonstrated to be true by the rest of this article.
For a $800 budget, I would rather get all the real in game performance I can first while and add a ssd later than lose out on fps and get faster load times
higher fps(stronger cpu, gpu) > faster load times
$35 saved from cutting cooler and k is not enough for an SSD
We could easily scrape out enough money from the budget for a decent 60GB/64GB SSD such as Plextor's M5S 64GB without really hurting core performance, at least if we didn't stick to Nweegg (granted Tom's doesn't have much option left in that if they want free systems to hand out). Loading times alone could be worth it.
I'm wondering if Blaz's disable-one-core-per-module trick would help Piledriver here, as you'd have a single core with access to 2MB L2 and 2MB L3 without the scheduler needing to worry about the second integer core. As it is, even if the software could make full use of all the CPU cores, they'd likely have a memory contention or bandwidth issue.
Steamroller will definitely improve matters but AMD will continue to be behind until anybody but the creators of 7Zip thread their software to hell (outside of rendering and productivity apps, of course).