Hardware Setup And Benchmarks
| Test Hardware |
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| Processors | 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 |
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| Intel Core i7-990X (Gulftown) 3.46 GHz (26 * 133 MHz), LGA 1366, 12 MB Shared L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Turbo Boost enabled, Power-savings enabled |
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| 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 |
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| 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 |
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| AMD FX-8150 (Zambezi) 3.6 G...Alright, that's just mean. Sorry guys, we'll have to wait a bit longer for benchmark results on this one. |
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| Motherboard | Top Secret (LGA 2011) Intel X79 |
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| Asus Rampage III Formula (LGA 1366) Intel X58 Express, BIOS 0505 |
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| Asus Maximus IV Extreme (LGA 1155) Intel P67 Express, BIOS 0901 |
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| Asus Sabertooth 990FX (Socket AM3+) AMD 990FX/SB850, BIOS 0402 |
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| Memory | Crucial 32 GB (4 x 8 GB) DDR3-1333, MT16JTF1G64AZ-1G4D1 @ DDR3-1600, -1333, and -1066 at 1.65 V |
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| Hard Drive | Samsung 470-Series 256 GB, SATA 3 Gb/s |
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| Graphics | Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 1.5 GB |
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| Power Supply | Cooler Master UCP-1000 W |
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| System Software And Drivers |
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| Operating System | Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit |
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| DirectX | DirectX 11 |
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| Graphics Driver | Nvidia GeForce Release 280.26 |
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| 3D Game Benchmarks And Settings |
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| Benchmark | Details |
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| Metro 2033 | Game Settings: High Quality Settings, PhysX: Off, AAA/4x AF, 4x AA/16x AF, Wait for vertical sync: disabled, 1680x1050, 1920x1200, 2560x1600, Demo: Built-in Benchmark Utility |
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| F1 2010 | Game Settings: Ultra Quality Settings, Anti Aliasing: Disabled, 8x AA, Anisotropic Filtering: disabled, Sync Every Frame: No, 1680x1050, 1920x1080, 2560x1600, Demo: Custom Tom's Hardware Demo |
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| Aliens Vs. Predator | Game Settings: Ultra Quality Settings, Anti Aliasing: Disabled, 8x AA, Anisotropic Filtering: 16x, Vertical Sync: Disabled, 1680x1050, 1920x1080, 2560x1600, Demo: AvP Demo Run |
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| Audio Benchmarks and Settings |
| Benchmark | Details |
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| iTunes | Version: 10.4.1, 64-bit Audio CD ("Terminator II" SE), 53 min., Convert to AAC audio format |
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| 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) |
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| Video Benchmarks and Settings |
| Benchmark | Details |
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| HandBrake CLI | Version: 0.94Video: 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) |
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| MainConcept Reference v2 | Version: 2.0.0.1555 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 |
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| Application Benchmarks and Settings |
| Benchmark | Details |
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| WinRAR | Version 4.01 RAR, Syntax "winrar a -r -m3", Benchmark: 2010-THG-Workload |
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| WinZip 14 | Version 14.0 Pro (8652) WinZIP Commandline Version 3, ZIPX, Syntax "-a -ez -p -r", Benchmark: 2010-THG-Workload |
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| 7-Zip | Version 9.2LZMA2, Syntax "a -t7z -r -m0=LZMA2 -mx=5", Benchmark: 2010-THG-Workload |
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| Adobe Premiere Pro CS 5.5 | Video length 2min 21s, Export to H.264 Blu-raySource 960x720, Output 1280x720 |
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| Adobe After Effects CS 5.5 | Create Video which includes 3 StreamsFrames: 210, Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously: on |
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| Cinebench | Version 11.5 Build CB25720DEMOCPU Test single and multi threaded |
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| Blender | Version: 2.54 beta Syntax blender -b thg.blend -f 1, Resolution: 1920x1080, Anti-Aliasing: 8x, Render: THG.blend frame 1 |
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| Adobe Photoshop CS 5.5 (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) |
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| ABBYY FineReader | Version: 10 Professional Build (10.0.102.82) Read PDF save to Doc, Source: Political Economy (J. Broadhurst 1842) 111 Pages |
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| Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings |
| Benchmark | Details |
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| PCMark 7 | Version: 1.0.4 |
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| 3DMark 11 | Version 1.0.2 |
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| SiSoftware Sandra 2011 | Version: 17.80 Processor Arithmetic, Multimedia, Cryptography, Memory Bandwidth |
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The Core i7-3960X in our lab is a C0-stepping chip, which is fully operational, but not what we hear Intel plans to ship (the C1 stepping, which partners are now receiving, is said to be a more scalable part). As a result, remember that this is a preview run on pre-production hardware.
| Core i7-3960X (Sandy Bridge-E) |
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| Active Cores | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
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| Maximum Frequency | 3.9 GHz | 3.9 GHz | 3.8 GHz | 3.8 GHz | 3.6 GHz | 3.6 GHz |
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| Number of Bins Per Core | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 |
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| TDP | 130 W |
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I didn’t bother trying to overclock. Without an LGA 2011-compatible heatsink, it was difficult enough to keep the massive (comparatively) Core i7-3960X running cool. In fact, I couldn’t get a stable run of 3ds Max 2010 at stock settings; it’d shut down every time. With that said, initial estimates from reliable sources suggest the platform should be capable of BCLK settings in excess of 155 MHz if you’re using a multiplier-locked processor.
