Cyberpower’s Gamer Dragon: Can AMD Bring The Game?

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System And Test Setup

As mentioned, we’ll be pitting Cyberpower’s Gamer Dragon against our recently assembled SBM PC for $1,300. If this seems cheap compared to the Gamer Dragon, keep in mind that pricing doesn’t include the operating system or support. We’ll address pricing details later.

Let’s directly compare the two systems:

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Header Cell - Column 0 Cyberpower Gamer DragonSystem Builder Marathon $1300 MicroATX
CPUAMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition (3.2 GHz, FSB-200) 6 MB L3 Cache.Factory OC at 3.6 GHz, FSB-225, 2,022 MHz HyperTransport linkIntel Core i7-920 2.66 GHz, 2.80 GHz Turbo, 133 MHz Bclk, 1.36 V (load)Overclock: 3.44 GHz at 1.296 V (load), 172 MHz Bclk
MotherboardGigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P, BIOS F4a, AMD790XDFI LANParty Jr X58-T3H6 Micro-ATX Intel X58/ICH10R, LGA1366
NetworkingOnboard Gigabit LAN controllerOnboard Gigabit LAN controller
MemoryKingston HyperX 9905403-048.A00LF  PC3-107002 x 2,048 MB, 1,498 MHz, CAS 9-9-9-24 2TG.Skill 10666CL7T 6.0 GB DDR3-1064 3 x 2.0 GB, CAS 8-8-8-19, 1.56 VOverclock: DDR3-1378 at 1.56 V, CAS 8-8-8-19
Graphics2 x HIS Radeon HD 4890 in CrossFire850 MHz GPU, 2200 MHz RAM, 1 GB Per Card2 x BFG GeForce GTX 260 in SLI  896MB GDDR3-1998 Per Card 590 MHz GPU, 1,296 MHz shaderOverclock:600 MHz GPU, 1,300 MHz shader, GDDR3-2060
Hard DriveSeagate Barracuda ST31500341AS1.5 TB, 7200.1RPM, 16 MB Cache, SATA 3.0 Gb/sWestern Digital Caviar Black 640GB 7,200 RPM, 32 MB Cache SATA 3.0 Gb/s
PowerCorsair CMPSU-650TX650 W, ATX 12V 2.2PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad S75QB750 W, ATX12V 2.2, 80-Plus Certified
Software and Drivers
Operating SystemMicrosoft Windows Vista 64-bit 6.0.6001, SP1
DirectX versionDirectX 10
Graphics DriversNvidia GeForce 185.85, ATI Catalyst 9.5

We’ll point out that our SBM system was a Micro-ATX-based build with poor airflow, so we never achieved any notable graphics card overclock. The Core i7-920 CPU did overclock a bit, but was severely bottlenecked by the heat issues, resulting in a maximum overclock of about 3.44 GHz. This was a little disappointing compared to the overclocks that a well-ventilated Core i7-920 will typically achieve, which can usually come closer to 4 GHz.

So the reasonable overclock of the Cyberpower Gamer Dragon at 3.6 GHz will do battle with the reasonable overclock of the SBM machine at 3.44 GHz. Once again, this should make for a great battle, and represents a best-case scenario for the Phenom II-based system.

The Gamer Dragon and its Radeon HD 4890 cards in CrossFire shouldn't have a hard time besting the graphics power of the SBM machine’s GeForce GTX 260 cards in SLI. Indeed, things are looking good for the Gamer Dragon.

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Benchmark Configuration
3D Games
CrysisPatch 1.2.1, DirectX 10, 64-bit executable, benchmark tool Test Set 1: High Quality, No AA Test Set 2: Very High Quality, No AA
Far Cry 2DirectX 10, in-game benchmark Test Set 1: Very High Quality, No AA Test Set 2: Ultra High Quality, 4x AA
S.T.A.L.K.E.R Clear SkyAverage of 4 segments "A-Tested Object" Test Set 1: High Preset, DirectX 10, EFDL, no MSAA Test Set 2: High Preset, DirectX 10, EFDL, 4x MSAA
World In ConflictPatch 1009, DirectX 10, timedemo Test 1: Very High Details, No AA/No AF Test 2: Very High Details 4x AA/16x AF
Audio/Video Encoding
iTunes 8Version: 8.1.0.52 (x64) Audio CD ("Terminator II" SE), 53 min Default format AAC
Lame MP3Version: 3.98 64bits (07-04-2008) Audio CD "Terminator II," 53 min. wave to MP3
TMPGEnc 4.6Version: 4.6.3.268 Import File: "Terminator 2" SE DVD (5 Minutes) Resolution: 720x576 (PAL) 16:9
DivX 6.8.5Encoding mode: Insane Quality Enhanced multithreading enabled using SSE4 Quarter-pixel search
Xvid 1.2.1Display encoding status = off
MainConcept Reference 1.6.1MPEG2 to MPEG2 (H.264), MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec, 28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG2), Audio: MPEG2 (44.1 kHz, 2 Channel, 16-Bit, 224 Kb/s), Mode: PAL (25 FPS)
Productivity
Autodesk 3ds Max 2009Version: 11.0, Rendering Dragon Image at 1920x1080 (HDTV)
Gisoft AVG Anti-Virus 8.5Version: 8.5.287, Virus database 2094, Benchmark: Scan 334 MB Folder of ZIP/RAR compressed files
WinRAR 3.80Version 3.80, WinZip Command line Version 3.0, Compression = Best, Dictionary = 4,096 KB, Benchmark: THG-Workload (334 MB)
WinZip 12Version 12.0, Compression = Best, Benchmark: THG-Workload (139 MB)
Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings
3DMark VantageVersion: 1.02, GPU and CPU scores
PCMark VantageVersion: 1.00, System, Memory, Hard Disk Drive benchmarks, Windows Media Player 10.00.00.3646
SiSoftware Sandra 2009 SP3Version 2009.4.15.92, CPU Test = CPU Arithmetic / Multimedia, Memory Test = Bandwidth Benchmark

Let’s start with the synthetic benchmarks and see if they will give us some insight as to what we should expect…

Don Woligroski
Contributor

Don Woligroski was a former senior hardware editor for Tom's Hardware. He has covered a wide range of PC hardware topics, including CPUs, GPUs, system building, and emerging technologies.