| Test Hardware | |
|---|---|
| Processors | Intel Core i7-980X (Gulftown) 3.33 GHz, LGA 1366, 12MB L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Power-savings enabled |
| Intel Core i7-975 Extreme (Bloomfield) 3.33 GHz, LGA 1366, 8MB L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Power-savings enabled | |
| Intel Core i7-920 (Bloomfield) 2.66 GHz, LGA 1366, 8MB L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Power-savings enabled | |
| Intel Core i5-750 (Lynnfield) 2.66 GHz, LGA 1156, 8MB L3, Power-savings enabled | |
| AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE (Deneb) 3.4 GHz, Socket AM3, 4 GT/s HyperTransport, 6MB L3, Power-savings enabled | |
| Motherboards | Gigabyte X58A-UD5 (LGA 1366) X58 Express, BIOS F4 |
| Gigabyte P55A-UD7 (LGA 1156) P55 Express, BIOS F4 | |
| Asus M4A79T Deluxe (Socket AM3) 790FX/SB750, BIOS 2304 | |
| Memory | Corsair 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 7-7-7-20 @ DDR3-1333 |
| Corsair 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 7-7-7-20 @ DDR3-1333 | |
| Hard Drive | Intel SSDSA2M160G2GC 160GB SATA 3 Gb/s |
| Intel SSDSA2MH080G1GN 80GB SATA 3 Gb/s | |
| Graphics | Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 1GB |
| Power Supply | Cooler Master UCP 1100W |
| Heatsink | Intel DBX-B Thermal Solution |
| System Software And Drivers | |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit |
| DirectX | DirectX 11 |
| Platform Driver | Intel INF Chipset Update Utility 9.1.1.1015 |
| Graphics Driver | Catalyst 10.2 |
Benchmarks and Settings | |
|---|---|
Audio Encoding | |
iTunes | Version: 9.0.2.25 (64-bit), Audio CD ("Terminator II" SE), 53 min., Default format AAC |
Video Encoding | |
TMPGEnc 4.7 | Version: 4.7.3.292, Import File: "Terminator II" SE DVD (5 Minutes), Resolution: 720x576 (PAL) 16:9 |
DivX 6.8.5 | Encoding mode: Insane Quality, Enhanced Multi-Threading, Enabled using SSE4, Quarter-pixel search |
Xvid 1.2.2 | Display encoding status=off |
MainConcept Reference 1.6.1 | MPEG2 to MPEG2 (H.264), MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec, 28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG2), Audio: MPEG2 (44.1 KHz, 2 Channel, 16-Bit, 224 Kb/s), Mode: PAL (25 FPS), Profile: Tom’s Hardware Settings for Qct-Core |
| HandBrake 0.9.4 | Version 0.9.4, convert first .vob file from The Last Samurai to .mp4, High Profile |
Applications | |
Autodesk 3ds Max 2010 (64-bit) | Version: 2009 Service Pack 1, Rendering Dragon Image at 1920x1080 (HDTV) |
WinRAR 3.90 | Version 3.90 (64-bit), Benchmark: THG-Workload (334 MB) |
7-Zip | Version 4.65, Built-in Benchmark |
| Adobe Photoshop CS4 | Radial Blur, Shape Blur, Median, Polar Coordinates filters |
| AVG Anti-Virus 9 | Virus scan of 334MB of compressed files |
Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings | |
3DMark Vantage | Version: 1.02, GPU and CPU scores |
PCMark Vantage | Version: 1.00, System, Memories, TV and Movies, and Productivity benchmarks, Windows Media Player 10.00.00.3646 |
SiSoftware Sandra 2010 | CPU Test=CPU Arithmetic/Multimedia, Memory Test=Bandwidth Benchmark, Cryptography |
| Games | |
| Crysis | High Quality Settings, No AA / No AF, 4xAA / No AF, vsync off, 1280x1024 / 1680x1050 / 1900x1200, DirectX 10, Patch 1.2.1, 64-bit executable |
| Left 4 Dead 2 | High Quality Settings, No AA / No AF, 8xAA / 16xAF, vsync off, 1680x1050 / 1920x1200 / 2560x1600, Tomshardware Demo, Steam Version |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 | Ultra High Settings, No AA / No AF, 4xAA / No AF, 1680x1050 / 1920x1200 / 2560x1600, The Gulag, 60 second sequence, Fraps |
| DiRT 2 | Ultra High Settings, No AA / No AF, 4xAA / No AF, 1680x1050 / 1920x1200 / 2560x1600, In-Game Benchmark, Steam Version |
- Introduction
- Welcome To Gulftown
- Platform And Overclocking
- Test Setup And Benchmarks
- Benchmark Results: Synthetics
- Benchmark Results: Media And Transcoding Apps
- Benchmark Results: Productivity
- Benchmark Results: Crysis
- Benchmark Results: Left 4 Dead 2
- Benchmark Results: Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- Benchmark Results: DiRT 2
- Power Consumption
- Conclusion
I'm guessing you didn't read this.
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/toms-hardware-reviews-news-comments,9855.html
I'm guessing you didn't read this.
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/toms-hardware-reviews-news-comments,9855.html
Nope, Haven't bothered looking at that. The 980x doesn't really make any difference in gaming but I wasn't expecting anything earth shattering. Does look good against the 965 x4 for mutlimedia applications.
It is a good reminder how to act on toms you should read it when you get the chance.
Wholly agreed.
Obviously this Intel won't be forcing down any reasonable prices, but I am hoping that AMD's six core will bring down the price of either the i5-750 or the i7-930.
I guess one can always hope...
Great article!
This is exact same thing I've been dreaming of, a high clocked 32nm quad at a reasonable price, maybe even with an unlocked multiplier
Hopefully we don't have to wait until Q1 2011 to be able to buy one.
Great article though I really enjoyed flipping through all the pages of benchies... sort of wish you could have used dual 5970's for the gaming test though since the 5850 seems to have been your bottleneck with all the game tests.
Without seeing numbers, I'd guess AMD will counter with 2/3 of the performance, (possibly more depending on how aggressive they take thier speed boost), but it will be at 1/3 of the price. We may find out as early as April.