Test Setup And Benchmarks
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| Test Hardware | |
|---|---|
| Processors | AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (Deneb) 3.4 GHz, AM3, 2,000 MHz HT, 6 MB L3 Cache, Power-savings enabled |
| Row 1 - Cell 0 | AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition (Deneb) 3.2 GHz, AM3, 2,000 MHz HT, 6 MB L3 Cache, Power-savings enabled |
| Row 2 - Cell 0 | AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition (Heka) 2.8 GHz, AM2+, 2,000 MHz HT, 6 MB L3 Cache, Power-savings enabled |
| Row 3 - Cell 0 | Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550S (Yorkfield) 2.83 GHz, LGA 775, 1,333 MHz FSB, 12 MB L2, Power-savings enabled |
| Row 4 - Cell 0 | Intel Core i7 920 (Bloomfield) 2.66 GHz, LGA 1366, 4.8 GT/s QPI, 8 MB L3, Power-savings enabled |
| Motherboards | Asus M4A79T Deluxe (AM3) 790FX/SB750, BIOS 0066 |
| Row 6 - Cell 0 | Gigabyte EP45-UD3P (LGA 775) P45/ICH10R, BIOS F9 |
| Row 7 - Cell 0 | Asus P6T (LGA 1366) X58/ICH10R, BIOS 0502 |
| Memory | Corsair 4 GB (2 x 2 GB) DDR3-1600 8-8-8-24 @ DDR3-1333 |
| Row 9 - Cell 0 | Corsair 6 GB (3 x 2 GB) DDR3-1600 8-8-8-24 @ DDR3-1333 |
| Hard Drive | Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000GLFS 300 GB 10,000 RPM SATA 3 Gb/s |
| Graphics | Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2 2 GB |
| Power Supply | Cooler Master UCP 1100W |
| System Software And Drivers | |
| Operating System | Windows Vista Ultimate Edition x64, Service Pack 1 |
| DirectX | DirectX 10 |
| Platform Driver | Catalyst 9.7 |
| Row 17 - Cell 0 | Intel INF Chipset Update Utility 9.1.0.1012 |
| Graphics Driver | Catalyst 9.7 |
By popular demand, we're setting aside the hardware from our 2009 reference platform to arm these test configurations with a Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics card. Not only will this more-powerful board do a better job exposing potential platform bottlenecks (especially in gaming tests), but it's also an integral part of AMD's Dragon platform, which most folks seem interested in compiling.
Note also that we're using a Core 2 Quad Q9550S instead of the less-expensive Core 2 Quad Q9550. This is the model to which we have access. It performs exactly like a Q9550, but will affect our power measurements. This is mentioned in the analysis for power consumption.
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| Benchmarks and Settings | |
|---|---|
| 3D Games | |
| Stalker: Clear Sky | Quality settings set to high, 1920x1200/1680x1050, Benchmark tool, average of all four scenarios |
| Far Cry 2 | Quality settings set to high, 1920x1200/1680x1050, latest Steam version, in-game benchmark (Ranch medium). |
| Left 4 Dead | Quality settings set to max, 1920x1200/1680x1050, latest Steam version, timed demo. |
| H.A.W.X. | High Quality Setting, vsync off, 1680x1050/1920x1200, DirectX 10, Ambient Occlusion: High, Patch 1.2 |
| Audio Encoding | |
| iTunes | Version: 8.1.0.52, Audio CD ("Terminator II" SE), 53 min., Default format AAC |
| Lame MP3 | Version: 3.98 (64-bit), Audio CD ""Terminator II" SE, 53 min, wave to MP3, 160 Kb/s |
| Video Encoding | |
| TMPEG 4.6 | Version: 4.5.1.254, Import File: "Terminator II" SE DVD (5 Minutes), Resolution: 720x576 (PAL) 16:9 |
| DivX 6.8.5 | Encoding mode: Insane Quality, Enhanced Multi-Threading, Enabled using SSE4, Quarter-pixel search |
| XviD 1.2.1 | Display encoding status=off |
| Mainconcept Reference 1.6.1 | MPEG2 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), Profile: Tom’s Hardware Settings for Qct-Core |
| Applications | |
| Autodesk 3ds Max 2009 (64-bit) | Version: 2009, Rendering Dragon Image at 1920x1080 (HDTV) |
| WinRAR 3.90 Beta 1 | Version 3.90 Beta 1, Benchmark: THG-Workload (334 MB) |
| WinZip 12 | Version 12, Compression=Best, Benchmark: THG-Workload (334 MB) |
| Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings | |
| 3DMark Vantage | Version: 1.02, GPU and CPU scores |
| PCMark Vantage | Version: 1.00, System, Memory, Hard Disk Drive benchmarks, Windows Media Player 10.00.00.3646 |
| SiSoftware Sandra 2009 SP3 | CPU Test=CPU Arithmetic/MultiMedia, Memory Test=Bandwidth Benchmark |
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