Hardware Config And Test Settings
| Test System Configuration | |
|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i7-980X (3.33 GHz, 12 MB Shared L3 Cache) Overclocked to 4.00 GHz at +100mV, 160 MHz BCLK |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte X58A-UD9 BIOS F3 (05/28/2010), Intel X58 Express, LGA 1366 |
| RAM | Kingston KHX16000D3ULT1K3/6GX (6 GB) DDR3-2000 at DDR3-1600 CAS 7-7-7-21 |
| GTX 460 Graphics | Sparkle GeForce GTX 460 1 GB (x2 for SLI) 700 MHz GPU, GDDR5-3600 |
| GTX 480 Graphics | Sparkle GeForce GTX 480 1.5 GB 700 MHz GPU, GDDR5-3696 |
| Radeon Graphics | Diamond Radeon HD 5870 1 GB 850 MHz GPU, GDDR5-4800 |
| OS Hard Drive | Western Digital Velociraptor WD3000HLFS, 300 GB 10,000 RPM, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16 MB cache |
| Sound | Integrated HD Audio |
| Network | Integrated Gigabit Networking |
| Power | OCZ-Z1000 1,000 W Modular ATX12V v2.2, EPS12V, 80 PLUS Gold |
| Software | |
| OS | Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit |
| GeForce Graphics | ForceWare 258.96 |
| Radeon Graphics | AMD Catalyst 10.6 |
| Chipset | Intel INF 9.1.1.1020 |
Sparkle
was kind enough to supply one GeForce GTX 480 and two GeForce GTX 460 graphics cards. Each card includes a mini-HDMI to standard HDMI data cable, a DVI-I to VGA adapter, driver CD with various freeware, installation guide, and two power adapter cables.
Support for up to seven graphics cards makes the X58A-UD9 this reviewer’s choice for multi-card graphics tests. Less expensive X58-based solutions would have also been adequate for two-way SLI testing, since the chipset supports two x16 cards at full bandwidth.
We brought back Intel’s Core i7-980X to satisfy popular demand, even though none of today’s games can properly access more than four CPU threads. SLI does allow some games to push a few CPU cores to their limit however, so we overclocked ours to 4.00 GHz.
Diamond’s Radeon HD 5870 provides a second reference point for anyone who would like to compare Don Woligroski’s comprehensive CrossFire analysis to today’s limited SLI tests.
| Benchmark Configuration | |
|---|---|
| 3D Games | |
| Aliens Vs. Predator Benchmark | Alien vs Predator Benchmark Tool Test Set 1: Highest Settings, No AA Test Set 2: Highest Settings, 4x AA |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 | Campaign, Act III, Second Sun (45 sec. FRAPS) Test Set 1: Highest Settings, No AA Test Set 2: Highest Settings, 4x AA |
| Crysis | Patch 1.2.1, DirectX 10, 64-bit executable, benchmark tool Test Set 1: Highest Quality, No AA Test Set 2: Highest Quality, 4x AA |
| DiRT 2 | Run with -benchmark example_benchmark.xml Test Set 1: Highest Settings, No AA Test Set 2: Highest Settings, 4x AA |
| S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call Of Pripyat | Call Of Pripyat Benchmark version Test Set 1: Highest Settings, No AA Test Set 2: Highest Settings, 4x MSAA |
| Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings | |
| 3DMark Vantage | Version: 1.0.1, GPU and CPU scores |