In Theory: How Does Lynnfield's On-Die PCI Express Affect Gaming?
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Page 1:Introduction
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Page 2:Four Architectures, Four Chipsets, Tons Of Variables
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Page 3:Four Architectures, Four Chipsets, Tons Of Variables, Continued
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Page 4:Hardware And Software Benchmark Setup
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Page 5:Benchmark Results: 3DMark Vantage
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Page 6:Benchmark Results: Stalker: Clear Sky
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Page 7:Benchmark Results: Crysis
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Page 8:Benchmark Results: Far Cry 2
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Page 9:Benchmark Results: Left 4 Dead
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Page 10:Benchmark Results: World In Conflict
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Page 11:Benchmark Results: H.A.W.X.
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Page 12:Conclusion
Hardware And Software Benchmark Setup
Test Hardware | |
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Processors | Intel Core i7 @ 2.8 GHz (Bloomfield) 6.4 GT/s QPI, 8 MB L3 cache, power-saving settings disabled |
Intel Core i5 @ 2.8 GHz (Lynnfield) 8 MB L3 cache, power-saving settings disabled | |
Intel Core 2 Quad @ 2.83 GHz (Yorkfield) 12 MB L2 cache, power-saving settings disabled | |
AMD Phenom II X4 @ 2.8 GHz (Deneb) 6 MB L3 cache, power-saving settings disabled | |
Motherboards | Asus P7P55D Deluxe (LGA 1156) P55 |
Asus P6T (LGA 1366) X58/ICH10R | |
Gigabyte EP45-UD3P (LGA 775) P45/ICH10R | |
Asus M3A78-T (Socket AM2+) 790GX/SB750 | |
Memory | Corsair Dominator DDR3-1600 @ 1333, 7-7-7, 1.65 V |
Corsair Dominator DDR2-1066 @ 1066, 5-5-5, 2.1 V | |
Graphics Cards | 1x / 2x ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2 GB |
Hard Drive | Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000GLFS 300 GB 10,000 RPM SATA 3 Gb/s HDD |
System Software And Drivers | |
Operating System | Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Edition x64 Service Pack 1 |
DirectX | DirectX 10 |
Platform Driver | Intel INF Chipset Update Utility 9.1.0.1012 |
Graphics Driver | AMD Catalyst 9.6 |
Asus' P55-based P7P55D Deluxe
Asus sent over a near-final version of its P7P55D Deluxe motherboard, which we used in our performance evaluation here.
Benchmark | Configuration |
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World in Conflict | Very High Quality Settings, No AA / No AF, vsync off, 1680x1050/1920x1200/2560x1600, Patch 1009, DirectX 10 |
Very High Quality Settings, 4x AA / 16x AF, vsync off, 1680x1050/1920x1200/2560x1600, Patch 1009, DirectX 10 | |
Far Cry 2 | High Quality Settings, No AA / No AF, vsync off, 1680x1050/1920x1200/2560x1600, Steam Version |
High Quality Settings, 4x AA / No AF, vsync off, 1680x1050/1920x1200/2560x1600, Steam Version | |
Crysis | High Quality Settings, No AA / No AF, vsync off, 1680x1050/1900x1200/2560x1600, Patch 1.2.1, DirectX 10, 64-bit Executable |
High Quality Settings, 4x AA / No AF, vsync off, 1680x1050/1900x1200/2560x16000 Patch 1.2.1, DirectX 10, 64-bit Executable | |
Left 4 Dead | Highest Quality Settings, No AA / No AF, vsync off, 1680x1050/1920x1200/2560x1600, Steam Version |
Highest Quality Settings, 4x AA / 8x AF, vsync off, 1680x1050/1920x1200/2560x1600, Steam Version | |
Stalker: Clear Sky | High Quality Setting, No AA / No AF, vsync off, 1680x1050/1920x1200/2560x1600, DirectX 10.1 lighting |
High Quality Setting, 4x MSAA / No AF, vsync off, 1680x1050/1920x1200/2560x1600, DirectX 10.1 lighting | |
3DMark Vantage | Performance Default, High Quality, Extreme Quality |
HAWX | Highest Quality Settings, No AA / No AF, vsync off, 1680x1050/1920x1200/2560x1600, DirectX 10.1, Ambient Occlusion: High, Patch 1.2 |
Highest Quality Settings, 4x AA / No AF, vsync off, 1680x1050/1920x1200/2560x1600, DirectX 10.1, Ambient Occlusion: High, Patch 1.2 |
Summary
- Introduction
- Four Architectures, Four Chipsets, Tons Of Variables
- Four Architectures, Four Chipsets, Tons Of Variables, Continued
- Hardware And Software Benchmark Setup
- Benchmark Results: 3DMark Vantage
- Benchmark Results: Stalker: Clear Sky
- Benchmark Results: Crysis
- Benchmark Results: Far Cry 2
- Benchmark Results: Left 4 Dead
- Benchmark Results: World In Conflict
- Benchmark Results: H.A.W.X.
- Conclusion
You should have used the best cpu(ex i7 920 oc@4GHz) to try to eliminate all bottlenecks and truly emphasize the limitations of x8/x16 pci-e lanes.
The rest of the testing was done to include the new i5 which is not bad but not relevant for the bottleneck. I know many people would like to see how i5+p55 handles the gpu power but it's a highly unlikely scenario that someone would actually but such powerful and expensive cards on pair them with a cheaper cpu and a limited platform.
I just think you should have tested things separately in different articles.
A 2.8 Deneb/Lynnfield/Bloomfield have completely diferent prices. You are comparing a R6 vs a R1. I7 is the Busa trouting everybody else. Of course the prices are very diferent.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-core-i5,2410.html
and
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i5-gaming,2403.html
Thanks for the feedback notes!
Well you answered will i5 handicap you without hyperthreading, x8 by x8 and dual channel. It will by 5-10% If you wanted to narrow it down to memory channels, hyperthreading or the x8 by x8 you could have pice the game with the biggest spread and enabled each of those options selectively. Would have been kinda interesting to see which had the biggest impact.
And thanks for the other linked reviews, but I'm not talking about comparing the chips themselves, I'm trying to figure out is 8x still good enough or I need to pay more for 16x?
Thanks much for the feedback--again, this wasn't meant to be about the CPUs, but the PCI Express links. If you want to know about the processors themselves at retail clocks, check out the gaming story, which does reflect x16/x16 and x8/x8 in the LGA 1366 and LGA 1156 configs.
Hope that helps!
Chris
lol! do you mean instagib?
Joking aside, AMD needs something to counter this.
If you're going to make an *apples to apples* comparison, the i7 920 would have been a better choice, as its uncore is clocked the same as the i5, and both run their cores at the same stock speeds. This would have presented a level playing field in both processor speed as well as uncore speeds.
Thank you.
did you read the whole article? its explained here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i5-lynnfield,2379-3.html
Yeah I read it, but it really doesn't make sense even though the i5 has only 16x bandwidth I don't think they should limit AMD to only 16x also.
But good article,
weird how the the PHenom scales so badly in crsfr still using the same amount of bandwidth as all the rest of the CPU's