Test Setup And Benchmarks
Before we get into the testing, I need to clarify one point from my launch coverage. In that piece, I used Intel’s DX79SI motherboard, along with a 16 GB memory kit from G.Skill to measure memory bandwidth scaling. Except that the modules wouldn’t operate above DDR3-1600, forcing me to switch to an alternative platform.
In working with Intel afterward, it was determined that the board’s firmware had an XMP bug that kept profiles from loading, necessitating manual specification of looser timings at higher data rates. A subsequent beta update fixed this, putting the Intel board back into shape for testing here today.
The blue bars you see across the following pages represent all of the tested processors at their default settings. For all Sandy Bridge-E-based platforms, testing is performed on Intel’s DX79SI, just as it was in my launch piece, with 32 GB of Crucial memory stomping out any potential capacity limitations.
The two red bars are indicative of both overclocked, cost-optimized platforms. There, I’m using the least-expensive X79 Express-based motherboard and quad-channel memory kit currently available on Newegg: ASRock’s X79 Extreme4-M and G.Skill’s F3-12800CL9Q-8GBZL.
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| Test Hardware | |
|---|---|
| Processors | Intel Core i7-3930K (Sandy Bridge-E) 3.2 GHz (32 * 100 MHz), LGA 2011, 12 MB Shared L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Turbo Boost enabled, Power-savings enabled |
| Row 1 - Cell 0 | Intel Core i7-3820 (Sandy Bridge-E) 3.6 GHz (36 * 100 MHz), LGA 2011, 10 MB Shared L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Turbo Boost enabled, Power-savings enabled |
| Row 2 - Cell 0 | Intel Core i7-3960X (Sandy Bridge-E) 3.3 GHz (33 * 100 MHz), LGA 2011, 15 MB Shared L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Turbo Boost enabled, Power-savings enabled |
| Row 3 - Cell 0 | Intel Core i7-990X (Gulftown) 3.43 GHz (26 * 133 MHz), LGA 1366, 12 MB Shared L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Turbo Boost enabled, Power-savings enabled |
| Row 4 - Cell 0 | AMD FX-8150 (Zambezi) 3.6 GHz (18 * 200 MHz), Socket AM3+, 8 MB Shared L3, Turbo Core enabled, Power-savings enabled |
| Row 5 - Cell 0 | AMD Phenom II X4 980 BE (Deneb) 3.7 GHz (18.5 * 200 MHz), Socket AM3, 6 MB Shared L3, Power-savings enabled |
| Row 6 - Cell 0 | AMD Phenom II X6 1100T (Thuban) 3.3 GHz (16.5 * 200 MHz), Socket AM3, 6 MB Shared L3, Turbo Core enabled, Power-savings enabled |
| Row 7 - Cell 0 | Intel Core i7-2600K (Sandy Bridge) 3.4 GHz (34 * 100 MHz), LGA 1155, 8 MB Shared L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Turbo Boost enabled, Power-savings enabled |
| Row 8 - Cell 0 | Intel Core i5-2500K (Sandy Bridge) 3.3 GHz (33 * 100 MHz), LGA 1155, 6 MB Shared L3, Turbo Boost enabled, Power-savings enabled |
| Row 9 - Cell 0 | Intel Core i7-920 (Bloomfield) 2.66 GHz (20 * 133 MHz), LGA 1366, 8 MB Shared L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Turbo Boost enabled, Power-savings enabled |
| Motherboard | Intel DX79SI (LGA 2011) Intel X79 Express Chipset, BIOS SI.0280B |
| Row 11 - Cell 0 | Asus Rampage IV Extreme (LGA 2011) Intel X79 Express Chipset, BIOS 0067 |
| Row 12 - Cell 0 | Asus Crosshair V Formula (Socket AM3+) AMD 990FX/SB950 Chipset, BIOS 0813 |
| Row 13 - Cell 0 | Asus Rampage III Formula (LGA 1366) Intel X58 Express, BIOS 0505 |
| Row 14 - Cell 0 | Asus Maximus IV Extreme (LGA 1155) Intel P67 Express, BIOS 0901 |
| Memory | Crucial 32 GB (4 x 8 GB) DDR3-1333, MT16JTF1G64AZ-1G4D1 @ DDR3-1600 at 1.65 V on Socket AM3+ and LGA 2011, DDR-1333 at 1.65 V on LGA 1155 |
| Row 16 - Cell 0 | Crucial 24 GB (3 x 8 GB) DDR3-1333, MT16JTF1G64AZ-1G4D1 @ DDR3-1066 at 1.65 V on LGA 1366 |
| Hard Drive | Intel SSD 510 250 GB, SATA 6 Gb/s |
| Graphics | Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 1.5 GB |
| Power Supply | Cooler Master UCP-1000 W |
| System Software And Drivers | |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit |
| DirectX | DirectX 11 |
| Graphics Driver | Nvidia GeForce Release 280.26Nvidia GeForce Release 285.62 for all SLI testing |
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| 3D Game Benchmarks And Settings | |
|---|---|
| Benchmark | Details |
| Crysis 2 | Game Settings: Ultra Quality Settings, Anti-Aliasing: Disabled, V-sync: Disabled, High-Quality Textures: Enabled, DirectX 9 and DirectX 11, 1680x1050, 1920x1200, 2560x1600, Demo: Central Park |
| DiRT 3 | Game Settings: Ultra Quality Settings, Anti-Aliasing: Disabled and 8x AA, Anisotropic Filtering: Disabled, Sync Every Frame: No, 1680x1050, 1920x1080, 2560x1600, Demo: Built-in Game Demo |
| World of Warcraft: Cataclysm | Game Settings: Ultra Quality Settings, Anti-Aliasing: 1x AA and 8x AA, Anisotropic Filtering: 16x, Vertical Sync: Disabled, 1680x1050, 1920x1080, 2560x1600, Demo: Crushblow to The Krazzworks, DirectX 11 |
| Audio Benchmarks and Settings | |
| Benchmark | Details |
| iTunes | Version: 10.4.10, 64-bit Audio CD ("Terminator II" SE), 53 min., Convert to AAC audio format |
| Lame MP3 | Version 3.98.3 Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 min, convert WAV to MP3 audio format, Command: -b 160 --nores (160 Kb/s) |
| Video Benchmarks and Settings | |
| Benchmark | Details |
| HandBrake CLI | Version: 0.95Video: Big Buck Bunny (720x480, 23.972 frames) 5 Minutes, Audio: Dolby Digital, 48 000 Hz, Six-Channel, English, to Video: AVC Audio: AC3 Audio2: AAC (High Profile) |
| MainConcept Reference v2.2 | Version: 2.2.0.5440 MPEG-2 to H.264, MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec, 28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG-2), Audio: MPEG-2 (44.1 kHz, 2 Channel, 16-Bit, 224 Kb/s), Codec: H.264 Pro, Mode: PAL 50i (25 FPS), Profile: H.264 BD HDMV |
| x264 Software Library | AMD-Supplied AVX- and XOP-Optimized builds, TechARP's x264 HD Benchmark 4.0, Modified to accommodate new versions of x264 and CPU-Z 1.58 |
| Application Benchmarks and Settings | |
| Benchmark | Details |
| WinRAR | Version 4.01 RAR, Syntax "winrar a -r -m3", Benchmark: 2010-THG-Workload |
| WinZip 14 | Version 14.0 Pro (8652) WinZip Commandline Version 3, ZIPX, Syntax "-a -ez -p -r", Benchmark: 2010-THG-Workload |
| 7-Zip | Version 9.20 (x64)LZMA2, Syntax "a -t7z -r -m0=LZMA2 -mx=5", Benchmark: 2010-THG-Workload |
| Adobe Premiere Pro CS 5.5 | Paladin Sequence to H.264 Blu-rayOutput 1920x1080, Maximum Quality, Mercury Playback Engine: Hardware Mode |
| Adobe After Effects CS 5.5 | Create Video which includes 3 StreamsFrames: 210, Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously: on |
| Blender | Version: 2.59 Syntax blender -b thg.blend -f 1, Resolution: 1920x1080, Anti-Aliasing: 8x, Render: THG.blend frame 1 |
| Adobe Photoshop CS 5.1 (64-Bit) | Version: 11 Filtering a 16 MB TIF (15 000x7266), Filters:, Radial Blur (Amount: 10, Method: zoom, Quality: good) Shape Blur (Radius: 46 px; custom shape: Trademark sysmbol) Median (Radius: 1px) Polar Coordinates (Rectangular to Polar) |
| ABBYY FineReader | Version: 10 Professional Build (10.0.102.82) Read PDF save to Doc, Source: Political Economy (J. Broadhurst 1842) 111 Pages |
| 3ds Max 2012 | Render Space Flyby, 1440x1080, from Y: RAM Drive |
| Adobe Acrobat X Professional | PDF Document Creation (Print) from Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 |
| SolidWorks 2010 | PhotoView 360, 01-Lighter Explode.SLDASM Benchmark File, 1920x1080 Render, 1.44 Million Polygons, 256 AA Samples |
| Visual Studio 2010 | Miranda IM Compile, Scripted |
| Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings | |
| Benchmark | Details |
| PCMark 7 | Version: 1.0.4 |
| 3DMark 11 | Version 1.0.2 |
| SiSoftware Sandra 2011 | Version: 17.80 Processor Arithmetic, Multimedia, Cryptography, Memory Bandwidth, .NET Arithmetic, .NET Multimedia |
