System Builder Marathon, May '09: $600 Gaming PC

Benchmark Results: Synthetics

In 3DMark Vantage, the default PhysX-enabled settings result in huge CPU scores with Nvidia graphics cards. We selected the Disable PPU option, thus disabling PhysX and providing more comparable results regardless of whether the SBM systems have Nvidia GeForce or AMD Radeon graphics.

With PhysX disabled, the CPU scores fell in the mid-4,700s at stock and about 6,500 overclocked. The largest gains in overall scores are seen in the performance preset, where the CPU score has a higher weighting.

Overclocking yields a 15-27 % performance increase in the first three tests but barely affects the hard drive test.

The 40% core speed and 66% FSB overclock raises the scores in these three Sandra 2009 tests by between 40-49%.