We're quickly approaching the coveted 20,000 point mark in 3D Mark 2005, even with the reference-speed graphics cards and standard-speed Core 2 Extreme QX6850. The previous build lags behind, even though it uses factory-overclocked graphics cards.

SPECviewperf 9 turns our performance gains upside-down, but we know why: it seems the new ForceWare drivers tend to disagree with most of its viewsets. The previous high-end build no longer exists for retesting purposes, and the current build needs to be tested using the current driver in order to make the new benchmark results coherent with other articles already in progress.

PC Mark 2005 seems to think that the entire system benefits from the faster four-core processor...and it might be right.

PC Mark 2005's CPU test gains give the current build an even more impressive lead of more the 40%, but not nearly the 100% lead we'd like to see from doubling the number of processor cores.

Even memory speed benefits from the newer system configuration, likely due to the newer system's higher front side bus speed.