Gamers: Do You Need More Than An Athlon II X3?
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Page 1:Why Pay More?
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Page 2:How Much Game Performance Can We Perceive?
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Page 3:Game Performance Targets
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Page 4:Test Systems And Benchmarks
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Page 5:Average FPS Benchmarks: Single Radeon HD 5850
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Page 6:Minimum FPS Benchmarks: Single Radeon HD 5850
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Page 7:Average FPS Benchmarks: Radeon HD 5870 In CrossFire
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Page 8:Minimum FPS Benchmarks: Radeon HD 5870 In CrossFire
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Page 9:Average FPS Benchmarks: Athlon II X3 440 In CrossFire Vs. Core i7-920 With A Single Card
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Page 10:Minimum FPS Benchmarks: Athlon II X3 440 In CrossFire Vs. Core i7-920 With A Single Card
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Page 11:Conclusion
Test Systems And Benchmarks
We wanted to keep the comparisons crystal clear, so we're going to make it simple. We're pitting AMD's Athlon II X3 440 against a Core i7-920. Yes, the Core i7-920 costs more than three times as much as the Athlon II X3 440, but remember that game performance will be bottlenecked to a large extent by the graphics subsystem.
As far as graphics cards go, we test two configurations: one with a single Radeon HD 5850 and the other with two Radeon HD 5870s in CrossFire. We test the games across 1280x1024, 1680x1050, 1920x1080, and 2560x1600 resolutions.
Because the Core i7-920 utilizes triple-channel memory, we use three 1GB sticks for a total of 3GB of RAM. The dual-channel AMD platform will use two 2GB sticks for a total of 4GB. From our experience, the single gigabyte of RAM difference should have no effect on gaming performance, but if we see any disparity, we will make note of memory usage. The RAM timings and speed are identical between both systems.
We're using the Gigabyte MA790XT-UD4P motherboard with an Athlon II X3 440 and the ASRock X58 SuperComputer with Intel's Core i7-920. Note that the 790X chipset on the Athlon board can't support full 16x PCI Express (PCIe) bandwidth for each graphics card. To keep things comparable, we put the second Radeon HD 5870 in a PCIe slot with 8x bandwidth when using CrossFire on the ASRock X58 board.
| AMD Test System | Intel Test System | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Athlon II X3 440 (Deneb) | Intel Core i7-920 (Nehalem) | ||
| Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P | ASRock X58 SuperComputer | ||
| Networking | Onboard Gigabit LAN controller | Onboard Gigabit LAN controller | ||
| Memory | Mushkin PC3-10700 | Kingston PC3-10700 | ||
| Graphics | Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 | |||
| Hard Drive | Western Digital Caviar WD50 00AAJS-00YFA | |||
| Power | Thermaltake Toughpower 1,200W | |||
| Software and Drivers | ||||
| Operating System | Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit | |||
| DirectX version | DirectX 11 | |||
| Graphics Drivers | ATI Catalyst 10.3 | |||
| Benchmark Configuration | |
|---|---|
3D Games | |
| Crysis | Patch 1.2.1, DirectX 10, 32-bit executable, |
| Far Cry 2 | DirectX 10, in-game benchmark |
| S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Call of Pripyat | Ultra High Preset, DirectX 11, EFDL, no MSAA, Sunshafts Benchmark |
| World In Conflict: Soviet Assault | DirectX 10, timedemo |
- Why Pay More?
- How Much Game Performance Can We Perceive?
- Game Performance Targets
- Test Systems And Benchmarks
- Average FPS Benchmarks: Single Radeon HD 5850
- Minimum FPS Benchmarks: Single Radeon HD 5850
- Average FPS Benchmarks: Radeon HD 5870 In CrossFire
- Minimum FPS Benchmarks: Radeon HD 5870 In CrossFire
- Average FPS Benchmarks: Athlon II X3 440 In CrossFire Vs. Core i7-920 With A Single Card
- Minimum FPS Benchmarks: Athlon II X3 440 In CrossFire Vs. Core i7-920 With A Single Card
- Conclusion
the whole thing seems to slightly contradict the 'balanced PC' articles though. why put such a cheap CPU in a system with such a powerful GPU? is the budget really going to be THAT tight?
except very high end gaming, I realy do not see a reason to go after the i7.
what I am missing from the article is the X3 vs Intel cpus in the same price range. maybe a followup would do some good :-)
I'd guess at least 90% of users never overclock anything.
To be fair though, probably 90% of Tom's readers do.
my thought is that for single card users (not necessarily 58xx type not because it's not good but is for sure not budget friendly) and normal monitors (1680x1050) a triple or even dual core amd is enough.
I tried to play online, and it's pretty boring and repetitive. Uninstalled.
When i build gaming rigs for a kids, i don't want to get the HI end system with somewhat hi price tag for a kids computer. The AMD CPU is a solid choice, with cheaper GPU like the 5770 it will be a good and cheap gaming machine. And if FPS will get bit low, I can lower the game effects to a reasonable point and still have grate experience from a game.
All I can say that it was a good investment as I can max out everything I play, considering I only have a 19" screen that supports upto 1280*1024.
It's what I call balance. Not everyone can afford an i7 with SLI or Xfire and 30" screens.
by that logic they should have overclocked the 920 because that's what most will be doing when they use that processor for gaming..
Those two would more eflect the choices a gamer on a budget would have to make.