Hardware Setup And Benchmarks
| Test Hardware | |
|---|---|
| Processors | AMD FX-8150 (Zambezi) 3.6 GHz (18 * 200 MHz), Socket AM3+, 8 MB Shared L3, Turbo Core enabled, Power-savings enabled |
| Row 1 - Cell 0 | AMD Phenom II X4 980 BE (Deneb) 3.7 GHz (18.5 * 200 MHz), Socket AM3, 6 MB Shared L3, Power-savings enabled |
| Row 2 - Cell 0 | AMD Phenom II X6 1100T (Thuban) 3.3 GHz (16.5 * 200 MHz), Socket AM3, 6 MB Shared L3, Turbo Core enabled, Power-savings enabled |
| Row 3 - Cell 0 | Intel Core i7-2600K (Sandy Bridge) 3.4 GHz (34 * 100 MHz), LGA 1155, 8 MB Shared L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Turbo Boost enabled, Power-savings enabled |
| Row 4 - Cell 0 | Intel Core i5-2500K (Sandy Bridge) 3.3 GHz (33 * 100 MHz), LGA 1155, 6 MB Shared L3, Turbo Boost enabled, Power-savings enabled |
| Row 5 - Cell 0 | Intel Core i7-920 (Bloomfield) 2.66 GHz (20 * 133 MHz), LGA 1366, 8 MB Shared L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Turbo Boost enabled, Power-savings enabled |
| Motherboard | Asus Crosshair V Formula (Socket AM3+) AMD 990FX/SB950 Chipset, BIOS 0813 |
| Row 7 - Cell 0 | Asus Rampage III Formula (LGA 1366) Intel X58 Express, BIOS 0505 |
| Row 8 - Cell 0 | Asus Maximus IV Extreme (LGA 1155) Intel P67 Express, BIOS 0901 |
| Memory | Crucial 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR3-1333, MT16JTF1G64AZ-1G4D1 @ DDR3-1600 and -1333 at 1.65 V on Socket AM3+ and LGA 1155 |
| Row 10 - Cell 0 | Crucial 24 GB (3 x 8 GB) DDR3-1333, MT16JTF1G64AZ-1G4D1 @ DDR3-1066 at 1.65 V on LGA 1366 |
| Hard Drive | Intel SSD 510 250 GB, SATA 6 Gb/s |
| Graphics | Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 1.5 GB |
| Power Supply | Cooler Master UCP-1000 W |
| System Software And Drivers | |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit |
| DirectX | DirectX 11 |
| Graphics Driver | Nvidia GeForce Release 280.26 |
| 3D Game Benchmarks And Settings | |
|---|---|
| Benchmark | Details |
| Crysis 2 | Game Settings: Ultra Quality Settings, Anti-Aliasing: Disabled, V-sync: Disabled, High-Quality Textures: Enabled, DirectX 9 and DirectX 11, 1680x1050, 1920x1200, 2560x1600, Demo: Central Park |
| F1 2011 | Game Settings: Ultra Quality Settings, Anti Aliasing: Disabled and 8x AA, Anisotropic Filtering: Disabled, Sync Every Frame: No, 1680x1050, 1920x1080, 2560x1600, Demo: Custom Tom's Hardware Demo |
| World of Warcraft: Cataclysm | Game Settings: Ultra Quality Settings, Anti Aliasing: 1x AA and 8x AA, Anisotropic Filtering: 16x, Vertical Sync: Disabled, 1680x1050, 1920x1080, 2560x1600, Demo: Crushblow to The Krazzworks, DirectX 11 |
| Audio Benchmarks and Settings | |
| Benchmark | Details |
| iTunes | Version: 10.4.10, 64-bit Audio CD ("Terminator II" SE), 53 min., Convert to AAC audio format |
| Lame MP3 | Version 3.98.3 Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 min, convert WAV to MP3 audio format, Command: -b 160 --nores (160 Kb/s) |
| Video Benchmarks and Settings | |
| Benchmark | Details |
| HandBrake CLI | Version: 0.95Video: Big Buck Bunny (720x480, 23.972 frames) 5 Minutes, Audio: Dolby Digital, 48 000 Hz, Six-Channel, English, to Video: AVC Audio: AC3 Audio2: AAC (High Profile) |
| MainConcept Reference v2.2 | Version: 2.2.0.5440 MPEG-2 to H.264, MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec, 28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG-2), Audio: MPEG-2 (44.1 kHz, 2 Channel, 16-Bit, 224 Kb/s), Codec: H.264 Pro, Mode: PAL 50i (25 FPS), Profile: H.264 BD HDMV |
| x264 Software Library | AMD-Supplied AVX- and XOP-Optimized builds, TechARP's x264 HD Benchmark 4.0, Modified to accommodate new versions of x264 and CPU-Z 1.58 |
| Application Benchmarks and Settings | |
| Benchmark | Details |
| WinRAR | Version 4.01 RAR, Syntax "winrar a -r -m3", Benchmark: 2010-THG-Workload |
| WinZip 14 | Version 14.0 Pro (8652) WinZip Commandline Version 3, ZIPX, Syntax "-a -ez -p -r", Benchmark: 2010-THG-Workload |
| 7-Zip | Version 9.20 (x64)LZMA2, Syntax "a -t7z -r -m0=LZMA2 -mx=5", Benchmark: 2010-THG-Workload |
| Adobe Premiere Pro CS 5.5 | Paladin Sequence to H.264 Blu-rayOutput 1920x1080, Maximum Quality, Mercury Playback Engine: Hardware Mode |
| Adobe After Effects CS 5.5 | Create Video which includes 3 StreamsFrames: 210, Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously: on |
| Cinebench | Version 11.5 Build CB25720DEMOCPU Test single and multi threaded |
| Blender | Version: 2.59 Syntax blender -b thg.blend -f 1, Resolution: 1920x1080, Anti-Aliasing: 8x, Render: THG.blend frame 1 |
| Adobe Photoshop CS 5.1 (64-Bit) | Version: 11 Filtering a 16 MB TIF (15 000x7266), Filters:, Radial Blur (Amount: 10, Method: zoom, Quality: good) Shape Blur (Radius: 46 px; custom shape: Trademark sysmbol) Median (Radius: 1px) Polar Coordinates (Rectangular to Polar) |
| ABBYY FineReader | Version: 10 Professional Build (10.0.102.82) Read PDF save to Doc, Source: Political Economy (J. Broadhurst 1842) 111 Pages |
| 3ds Max 2012 | Render Space Flyby, 1440x1080, from Y: RAM Drive |
| Adobe Acrobat X Professional | PDF Document Creation (Print) from Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 |
| SolidWorks 2010 | PhotoView 360, 01-Lighter Explode.SLDASM Benchmark File, 1920x1080 Render, 1.44 Million Polygons, 256 AA Samples |
| Visual Studio 2010 | Miranda IM Compile, Scripted |
| Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings | |
| Benchmark | Details |
| PCMark 7 | Version: 1.0.4 |
| 3DMark 11 | Version 1.0.2 |
| SiSoftware Sandra 2011 | Version: 17.80 Processor Arithmetic, Multimedia, Cryptography, Memory Bandwidth, .NET Arithmetic, .NET Multimedia |
A few notes about testing:
First, you'll notice we did our benchmarking with high-density modules. Memory is so inexpensive right now that we decided to grab a quartet of 8 GB modules, allowing us to run a pair of test beds simultaneously in order to cycle through new versions of each benchmark in time for this story. On X58, that means we used Bloomfield's highest supported data rate (1066 MT/s). For Z68, we stuck to Sandy Bridge's maximum DDR3-1333 setting. The same went for Thuban and Deneb on 990FX. The same kit managed DDR3-1600 without a problem, but wouldn't do -1866. So, Zambezi testing employed memory settings a step down from the maximum. As you'll see toward the end of this piece, we also pulled the high-density kit in favor of a smaller, more scalable 4 GB pair of modules able to hit DDR3-2133, if only to show that memory performance wasn't hurting the results of our suite.
We're also using a GeForce GTX 580, the fastest single-GPU graphics card currently available. Although AMD recommends using its own GPUs for testing (naturally), we wanted to stave off any potential bottleneck in our gaming tests. A constant in our suite, this shouldn't negatively impact the results in any way. To the contrary, the GeForce card is expected to let these CPUs stretch their proverbial legs as much as possible.
All power-saving features are enabled throughout testing, except when specified otherwise (in per-cycle comparisons, for example).
