Test Hardware And Benchmarks
| Test Hardware | |
|---|---|
| Processors | Intel Core i7-920 Extreme (Bloomfield) 2.66 GHz, LGA 1366, 4.8 GT/s QPI, 8 MB L3, Power-savings enabled |
| Row 1 - Cell 0 | Intel Core i7-870 (Lynnfield) 2.93 GHz, LGA 1156, 8 MB L3, Power-savings enabled |
| Row 2 - Cell 0 | Intel Core i5-750 (Lynnfield) 2.66 GHz, LGA 1156, 8 MB L3, 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 | AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE (Deneb) 3.4 GHz, Socket AM3, 4 GT/s HyperTransport, 6 MB L3, Power-savings enabled |
| Motherboards | Asus P6T (LGA 1366) X58/ICH10R, BIOS 0707 |
| Row 6 - Cell 0 | Gigabyte P55-UD6 (LGA 1156) P55, BIOS F3 |
| Row 7 - Cell 0 | Intel DX48BT2 (LGA 775) X48/ICH10R, BIOS 1902 |
| Row 8 - Cell 0 | Asus M4A79T Deluxe (AM3) 790FX/SB750, BIOS 1103 |
| Memory | Corsair 4 GB (2 x 2 GB) DDR3-1600 7-7-7-20 @ DDR3-1333 |
| Row 10 - Cell 0 | Corsair 6 GB (3 x 2 GB) DDR3-1600 7-7-7-20 @ DDR3-1333 |
| Hard Drive | Intel SSDSA2M160G2GC 160 GB SATA 3 Gb/s |
| Graphics | Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB x2 |
| Row 13 - Cell 0 | BFG GeForce GTX 285 OCFU Edition 1GB x2 |
| Power Supply | Cooler Master UCP 1100W |
| System Software And Drivers | |
| Operating System | Windows 7 x64 RTM |
| DirectX | DirectX 11 |
| Platform Driver | Intel INF Chipset Update Utility 9.1.1.1015 |
| Graphics Driver | Catalyst 9.8 |
| Row 20 - Cell 0 | GeForce 190.62 |
A few notes about our setup here:
Most notably, we've shifted from Windows Vista to Windows 7 for testing. Let us know what you think about this in the comments section, but it was pretty clear that Vista was never a favorite, so we're hoping Windows 7 is a more popular environment in which to test. We can confirm that all of the games benchmarked here work in Windows 7. FS X did have occasional hiccups when loading a map, but restarting the app fixed the problem every time.
It should also be noted that the GeForce GTX 285 OCFU Edition cards are clocked too aggressively for an SLI configuration; we had to manually turn the fan speed up in Nvidia's System Tools utility in order to keep them stable through testing. To be fair, we also had trouble with the Radeon HD 4870 X2s in CrossFire on Asus' P6T, where the top card doesn't get enough fresh air due to spacing issues.
All power-saving options were left enabled so that Turbo Boost, EIST, and Cool'n'Quiet would function as intended in a production environment.
| Benchmark Configuration | |
|---|---|
| Benchmark | Setttings |
| S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky | High Quality Settings, No AA / No AF, vsync off, 1680x1050 / 2560x1600, DirectX 10 / DirectX 10.1 |
| Row 2 - Cell 0 | High Quality Settings, 4x AA / No AF, vsync off, 1680x1050 / 2560x1600, DirectX 10 / DirectX 10.1 |
| Resident Evil 5 | Fixed Benchmark, No AA / No AF, vsync off, 1680x1050 / 2560x1600, DirectX 10 |
| Row 4 - Cell 0 | Fixed Benchmark, 4x AA / No AF, vsync off, 1680x1050 / 2560x1600, DirectX 10 |
| Far Cry 2 | Ultra High Quality Settings, No AA / No AF, vsync off, 1680x1050 / 2560x1600, Steam Version, DirectX 10 |
| Row 6 - Cell 0 | Ultra High Quality Settings, 4x AA / No AF, vsync off, 1680x1050 / 2560x1600, Steam Version, DirectX 10 |
| Left 4 Dead | High Quality Settings, No AA / No AF, vsync off, 1680x1050 / 2560x1600, Tomshardware Demo, Steam Version |
| Row 8 - Cell 0 | High Quality Settings, 4x AA / 8x AF, vsync off, 1680x1050 / 2560x1600, Tomshardware Demo, Steam Version |
| Grand Theft Auto 4 | Very High Quality Settings, No AA / Max AF, vsync off, 1680x1050 / 2560x1600, In-Game Benchmark |
| Crysis | Very High Quality Settings, No AA / No AF, vsync off, 1680x1050 / 2560x1600, DirectX 10, Patch 1.2.1, 64-bit executable |
| Row 11 - Cell 0 | Very High Quality Settings, 4x AA / No AF, vsync off, 1680x1050 / 2560x1600, DirectX 10, Patch 1.2.1, 64-bit executable |
| Flight Simulator X | Ultra High Quality Settings, No AA / Trilinear Filtering, 20 fps target, 1680x1050 / 2560x1600, DirectX 10 |
| Row 13 - Cell 0 | Ultra High Quality Settings, AA Enabled / AF Enabled, 20 fps target, 1680x1050 / 2560x1600, DirectX 10 |
