Benchmark Results: Synthetics
When you take into account the similarities between these two platforms, the biggest difference in 3DMark 11 performance is going to come down to the graphics cards in each machine.
The more modern build boasts a Radeon HD 7850, while last quarter's configuration has a GeForce GTX 560. Even overclocked, Nvidia's board can't keep up to AMD's stock settings. That we're able to fit the Radeon HD 7850 in our same budget is going to be great for value.
We didn't expect to see any large deltas in PCMark 7, since both rigs employ Intel 7-series chipset, Pentium G800-series processors, DDR3-1333 memory, and Western Digital Blue hard drives. This quarter's Windows 8-based build takes a narrow victory in the overall PCMark score, but is edged out in the Productivity and Storage sub-tests.
The current build suffers a 100 MHz CPU frequency deficit, which is why it trails in Sandra's processor tests. It does enjoy slightly more memory bandwidth, though.
