Test System And Benchmarks
Before you fly off to the comments section to vent about the number of mainstream users with $1000 CPUs, remember that the effect of our test system's powerful CPU is just as easily achieved (if not surpassed) by a mainstream Core i7-750 overclocked to 4 GHz+. The goal, of course, is to alleviate any potential processor-based bottleneck in single- and dual-card modes. Had we in fact used an entry-level processor to purposely create a more cost-effective platform, the following results would have fallen closer together, but they would have been less informative.
Bear in mind that we're also not testing overclocking here. Unless our samples are retail (a la System Builder Marathon, where we buy all of our parts through Newegg), I find it disingenuous to publish overclocking results from a hand-picked batch of boards. I'll relay that Nvidia claims to be hitting 900 MHz+ on GF106 in the lab, but that is no guarantee of what you'll see at home.
| Test Hardware | |
|---|---|
| Processor | Intel Core i7-980X (Gulftown) 3.33 GHz, 6.4 GT/s, 12 MB L3 Cache, power-saving settings enabled. Turbo Boost enabled |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte X58A-UD5 (LGA 1366) X58/ICH10, BIOS F5 |
| Memory | Kingston HyperX DDR3 (3 x 2 GB) KHX2000C8D3T1K3/6GX @ DDR3-1333 7-7-7-24 |
| Hard Drive | Intel SSDSA2MH160G2C1 160 GB SATA 3Gb/s |
| Graphics Cards | Nvidia GeForce GTS 450 1 GB |
| Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 1 GB / 768 MB | |
| Nvidia GeForce GTS 250 1 GB | |
| AMD Radeon HD 5770 1 GB | |
| AMD Radeon HD 5750 1 GB | |
| AMD Radeon HD 4850 512 MB | |
| Power Supply | Cooler Master UCP 1100 W |
| CPU Cooler | Intel DBX-B Thermal Solution |
| System Software And Drivers | |
| Operating System | Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64 |
| DirectX | DirectX 11 |
| Platform Driver | Intel INF Chipset Update Utility 9.1.1.1019 |
| Graphics Driver | Nvidia GeForce 260.52 |
| AMD Catalyst 10.8 | |
| Games | |
|---|---|
| Crysis | Very High Quality Settings, No AA / No AF, 4xAA / No AF, vsync off, 1280x1024 / 1680x1050 / 1900x1200, DirectX 10, Patch 1.2.1, 64-bit executable |
| Just Cause 2 | Highest Quality Settings, No AA / 16xAF, 4xAA / 16xAF, vsync off, 1280x1024 / 1680x1050 / 1920x1200, Bokeh filter and GPU water disabled (for Nvidia cards), Desert Sunrise Benchmark |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 | Ultra High Settings, No AA / No AF, 4xAA / No AF, 1280x1024 / 1680x1050 / 1920x1200, Second Sun, 45 second sequence, FRAPS |
| DiRT 2 | High / Ultra High Settings, No AA / No AF, 8xAA / No AF, 1280x1024 / 1680x1050 / 1920x1200, Steam version, Custom benchmark script, DX11 Rendering |
| Aliens Vs. Predator Benchmark | Highest Quality Settings, SSAO, 1xMSAA / 16xAF, 4xMSAA / 16xAF, vsync off, 280x1024 / 1680x1050 / 1920x1200 |
| Battlefield: Bad Company 2 | Custom (Highest) Quality Settings, 1xAA / 16xAF, 4x MSAA / 16xAF, vsync off, 1280x1024 / 1680x1050 / 1920x1200, opening cinematic, 145 second sequence, FRAPS |
| 3DMark Vantage | Performance Default, PPU Disabled |