Test Setup And Benchmarks
| September 2010 SBM Test Configurations | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| $400 PC | $1000 PC | $2000 PC | |
| Motherboard (Overclock) | ASRock M3A770DE Chipset: AMD 770/SB710O/C to 214 MHz Ref. Clk. | Asus P7P55D-E LX Chipset: Intel P55 ExpressO/C to 178 MHz BCLK | MSI NF980-G65 Nvidia nForce 980a SLIO/C to 188 MHz Ref. Clk. |
| Processor (Overclock) | AMD Athlon II X3 440 3.0 GHz, Three CoresO/C at X4 to 3.2 GHz, 1.3 V | Intel Core i5-750 2.66 GHz, Four CoresO/C to 3.75 GHz at 1.36 V | AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 2.8 GHz, Six CoresO/C to 4.0 GHz at 1.43 V |
| Memory (Overclock) | 2 GB Crucial DDR3-1333 CL 9-9-9-24, O/C at 1.65 V to DDR3-1426, CL 8-8-8-24 | 4 GB Crucial DDR3-1333 CL 9-9-9-24, U/C at 1.50 V to DDR3-1070, CL 8-8-8-22 | 8 GB G.Skill DDR3-1333 CL 9-9-9-24, O/C at 1.65 V to DDR3-1533, CL 7-7-6-20 |
| Graphics (Overclock) | PowerColor Radeon HD 5670 775 MHz GPU, GDDR5-4000O/C to 850MHz, GDDR5-4200 | MSI GeForce GTX 470 607 MHz GPU, GDDR5-3348O/C to 690 MHz, GDDR5-3380 | 2 x MSI GeForce GTX 480 700 MHz GPU, GDDR5-3696O/C to 816 MHz, GDDR5-4132 |
| Hard Drive | Western Digital WD2500AAJS 250 GB, 7200 RPM 8 MB Cache, SATA 3Gb/s | Western Digital WD36401AALS 640 GB, 7200 RPM 32 MB Cache, SATA 3Gb/s | Samsung F3 HD103SJ 1 TB, 7200 RPM 32 MB Cache, SATA 3Gb/s |
| Optical | Samsung SH-S223C 22x DVD±R, 48X CD-R | Lite-On iHAS124 24x DVD±R, 48X CD-R | Lite-On iHAS124 24x DVD±R, 48X CD-R |
| Case | Rosewill Blackbone | Antec Three Hundred | SilverStone Raven RV02-BW |
| Power | Cooler Master Ext. Pwr. Plus RS-500-PCAR-A3-US 500 W, ~70% Efficiency | Corsair CMPSU-650TX 650 W, 80 PLUS Standard | Cooler Master Silent Pro RSA00-AMBAJ3-US 1000W Modular, 80 PLUS Bronze |
| CPU Cooler | AMD boxed heatsink & fan | Cooler Master Hyper TX3 (RR-910-HTX3-G1) | Scythe Mugen 2 Rev. B (SCMG-2100) |
| Software | |||
| OS | Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64 | ||
| Graphics | AMD Catalyst 10.7 | Nvidia GeForce 258.96 | Nvidia GeForce 258.96 |
| Chipset | AMD Ver. 8.631_W7_logo | Intel INF 9.1.2.1007 | Nvidia MCP 8.15.11.9038 |
A big, inexpensive cooler helps the $2000 PC reach 4.00 GHz, while the $400 PC gets its 200 MHz overclock from a stock cooler. Mid-sized cooling limits the $1000 build to a still-respectable 3.75 GHz.
Memory overclocking is a completely different story. Knowing that most 1.50 V memory will tolerate a 10% voltage increase for several years, the $2000 system was pushed to DDR3-1533 CAS 7, in spite of difficulties that often accompany high-density chips. Mid-priced system builder Don Woligroski forgot that his value award-winning RAM actually runs cooler when overclocked than many 1.65 V-rated modules based on the same Micron D9KPT chips, an omission that negated its enormous overclocking potential. Budget builder Paul Henningsen had better luck with the single-sided version of the same memory, though his DDR3-1426 CAS 8 results are likely limited by the memory controller of his low-cost CPU.
| Benchmark Configuration | |
|---|---|
| 3D Games | |
| 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: High Quality, No AA Test Set 2: Very High Quality, 8x AA |
| DiRT 2 | Run with -benchmark example_benchmark.xml Test Set 1: High Quality Preset, No AA Test Set 2: Ultra Quality Preset, 8x AA |
| S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call Of Pripyat | Call Of Pripyat Benchmark version Test Set 1: High Preset, DX11 EFDL, No AA Test Set 2: Ultra Preset, DX11 EFDL, 4x MSAA |
| Audio/Video Encoding | |
| iTunes | Version:9.0.2.25 x64 Audio CD (Terminator II SE), 53 minutes Default format AAC |
| HandBrake 0.9.4 | Version 0.9.4, convert first .vob file from The Last Samurai (1.0GB) to .mp4, High Profile |
| TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress | Version: 4.7.3.292 Import File: Terminator 2 SE DVD (5 Minutes) Resolution: 720x576 (PAL) 16:9 |
| DivX Codec 6.9.1 | Encoding mode: Insane Quality Enhanced multithreading enabled using SSE4 Quarter-pixel search |
| Xvid 1.2.2 | 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) |
| Productivity | |
| Adobe Photoshop CS4 | Version: 11.0 x64, Filter 15.7MB TIF Image Radial 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: 270.14.1/2407, Benchmark: Scan 334MB Folder of ZIP/RAR compressed files |
| WinRAR 3.90 | Version x64 3.90, Dictionary = 4,096 KB, Benchmark: THG-Workload (334MB) |
| 7-Zip | Version 4.65: Format=Zip, Compression=Ultra, Method=Deflate, Dictionary Size=32KB, Word Size=128, Threads=8 Benchmark: THG-Workload (334MB) |
| Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings | |
| 3DMark Vantage | Version: 1.0.1, 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 |