Test System And Benchmarks
With $500 chopped off of our budget, we're not fooling ourselves into thinking we'll achieve the same performance. However, we do think that there's a good chance our overclocked performance will be in the same league as the stock performance that the $1,500 Core i7 system achieved.
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| $1,000 Enthusiast PC Test Settings | ||
|---|---|---|
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | Standard Speed | Overclocked |
| Motherboard | MSI 790X-G45 Socket AM3 Chipset: AMD 790X | Unchanged |
| Processor | Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition 2.8 GHz 3Cores, 6MB L3 Cache (OEM) | 3.424 GHz at 1.5V,16x multiplier, 214 MHz Base Clock |
| Memory | Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3-1333 Dual-Channel Desktop Memory Kit, CAS 9-9-9-24-1T | DDR3-1426, CAS 9-9-9-24-1T |
| Graphics | 2 x Radeon HD 5830 (CrossFireX) 1GB GDDR5-4000 Per CardRadeon HD 5830 GPU at 800 MHz | GDDR5-4400 820 MHz GPU |
| Hard Drives | WD Caviar Blue 320GB 320GB, 7,200 RPM, 8MB Cache SATA 3.0 Gb/s | Unchanged |
| Optical | Lite-On iHas12424x DVD+R, 8x DVD+RW, 48x CD ROM | Unchanged |
| Case | Antec Three Hundred | Unchanged |
| Power | Corsair CMPSU-650HX 650W ATX12V, EPS12V , 80-Plus Certified | Unchanged |
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| $1,500 Enthusiast PC (From Previous SBM) Test Settings | ||
|---|---|---|
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | Standard Speed | Overclocked |
| Motherboard | ASRock X58 Extreme LGA-1366 Chipset: Intel X58 Express | Unchanged |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-920 2.66 GHz 4 Cores, 8MB L3 Cache | 3.9 GHz, 195 MHz Reference Clock |
| Memory | Crucial 6GB (3x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3-1333 533 MHz (1,066 MHz DDR), CAS 7-7-7-59 | DDR3-1560, CAS 8-8-8-18 |
| Graphics | 2 x Radeon HD 5850 (CrossFireX) 1GB GDDR5-4000 Per Card Radeon HD 5850 GPU at 725 MHz | GDDR5-4500 775 MHz GPU |
| Hard Drives | Western Digital Caviar Black 750GB 7,200 RPM, 32MB Cache SATA 3.0 Gb/s | Unchanged |
| Optical | Samsung SH-S2232C22x DVD+R, 8x DVD+RW, 16x DVD ROM, 48x CD ROM | Unchanged |
| Case | Cooler Master CM 690 | Unchanged |
| Power | Corsair CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V, EPS12V, 80-Plus Certified | Unchanged |
And now for the benchmarks:
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| Benchmark Configuration | |
|---|---|
| 3D Games | |
| Crysis | Patch 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 |
| DiRT 2 | In-game benchmarkTest Set 1: High Quality Preset, No AATest Set 2: Ultra Quality Preset, 8x AA |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 | Campaign, Act III, Second Sun (45 sec. FRAPS)Test Set 1: Highest Settings, No AATest Set 2: Highest Settings, 4x AA |
| S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:Call of Pripyat | S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call Of Pripyat benchmark versionTest Set 1: High Preset, DX11 EFDL, No AATest Set 2: Ultra Preset, DX11 EFDL, 4x MSAA |
| World in Conflict | Patch 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 | Version: 9.0.2.25 x64Audio CD ("Terminator II" SE), 53 minDefault format AAC |
| Handbrake 0.9.4 | Version 0.9.4, convert first .vob filefrom "The Last Samurai" (1.0GB) to .mp4 High Profile |
| TMPGEnc 4.0 Express | Version: 4.7.3.292Import File: "Terminator 2" SE DVD (5 Minutes)Resolution: 720x576 (PAL) 16:9 |
| DivX 6.9.1 | Encoding mode: Insane QualityEnhanced multithreading enabled using SSE4Quarter-pixel search |
| XviD 1.2.2 | Display encoding status = off |
| MainConcept Reference 1.6.1 | MPEG2 to MPEG2 (H.264), MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG2) Audio: MPEG2 (44.1 KHz, 2 Channel, 16-Bit, 224 Kb/s) Mode: PAL (25 FPS) |
| Productivity | |
| Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64-bit) | Version: 11.0 x64, Filter 15.7MB TIF ImageRadial Blur, Shape Blur, Median, Polar Coordinates |
| Autodesk 3ds Max 2010 | Version: 11.0 x64, Rendering Dragon Image at 1920x1080 (HDTV) |
| Grisoft AVG Anti-Virus 9.0 | Version: 9.0.663, Virus base: 270.14.1/2407Benchmark: Scan 334MB Folder of ZIP/RAR compressed files |
| WinRAR 3.90 | Version x64 3.90, Dictionary = 4,096KB, Benchmark: THG-Workload (334MB) |
| 7-Zip | Version 4.65: Format=Zip, Compression=Ultra, Method=Deflate, Dictionary Size=32KB, Word Size=128, Threads=8Benchmark: THG-Workload (334MB) |
| Synthetic Benchmarks | |
| 3DMark Vantage | Version: 1.01, GPU and CPU scores |
| PCMark Vantage | Version: 1.0.1.0 x64, System, Productivity, Hard Disk Drive benchmarks |
| SiSoftware Sandra 2010 | Version 2010.1.16.11, CPU Test = CPU Arithmetic / MultiMedia, Memory Test = Bandwidth Benchmark |
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