Test Setup And Benchmarks
| Test Hardware |
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| Processors | Intel Core i7-3960X (Sandy Bridge-E) 3.3 GHz at 4.2 GHz (42 * 100 MHz), LGA 2011, 15 MB Shared L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Power-savings enabled |
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| Motherboard | Gigabyte X79-UD5 (LGA 2011) X79 Express Chipset, BIOS F10 |
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| Memory | G.Skill 16 GB (4 x 4 GB) DDR3-1600, F3-12800CL9Q2-32GBZL @ 9-9-9-24 and 1.5 V |
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| Hard Drive | Intel SSDSC2MH250A2 250 GB SATA 6Gb/s |
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| Graphics | Nvidia GeForce GTX 670 2 GB (@ 915/1502 MHz) |
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| Nvidia GeForce GTX 690 4 GB |
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| Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 2 GB |
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| AMD Radeon HD 7970 3 GB |
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| AMD Radeon HD 7950 3 GB |
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| AMD Radeon HD 6990 4 GB |
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| Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 3 GB |
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| Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 1.5 GB |
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| Power Supply | Cooler Master UCP-1000 W |
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| System Software And Drivers |
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| Operating System | Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit |
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| DirectX | DirectX 11 |
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| Graphics Driver | Nvidia GeForce Release 301.33 (For GTX 670, GTX 680, GTX 690) |
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| Nvidia GeForce Release 296.10 (For GTX 580 and 590) |
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| AMD Catalyst 12.4 (For HD 7970, HD 7950) |
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| AMD Catalyst 12.2 (For HD 6990) |
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We had a couple of extra days to get the GeForce GTX 670 review wrapped up, so we re-ran the GeForce GTX 680 using Nvidia's newer 301.33 driver. We also re-ran the Radeon HD 7970 and 7950 using Catalyst 12.4. The CrossFire numbers come from GeForce GTX 690 Review: Testing Nvidia's Sexiest Graphics Card, where we also used the Catalyst 12.4 driver package.
| Games |
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| Battlefield 3 | Ultra Quality Settings, No AA / 16x AF, 4x MSAA / 16x AF, v-sync off, 1680x1050 / 1920x1080 / 2560x1600, DirectX 11, Going Hunting, 90-second playback, Fraps |
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| Crysis 2 | DirectX 9 / DirectX 11, Ultra System Spec, v-sync off, 1680x1050 / 1920x1080 / 2560x1600, No AA / No AF, Central Park, High-Resolution Textures: On |
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| Metro 2033 | High Quality Settings, AAA / 4x AF, 4x MSAA / 16x AF, 1680x1050 / 1920x1080 / 2560x1600, Built-in Benchmark, Depth of Field filter Disabled, Steam version |
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| DiRT 3 | Ultra High Settings, No AA / No AF, 8x AA / No AF, 1680x1050 / 1920x1080 / 2560x1600, Steam version, Built-In Benchmark Sequence, DX 11 |
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| The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim | High Quality (8x AA / 8x AF) / Ultra Quality (8x AA, 16x AF) Settings, FXAA enabled, v-sync off, 1680x1050 / 1920x1080 / 2560x1600, 25-second playback, Fraps |
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| 3DMark 11 | Version 1.03, Extreme Preset |
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| HAWX 2 | Highest Quality Settings, 8x AA, 1920x1200, Retail Version, Built-in Benchmark, Tessellation on/off |
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| World of Warcraft: Cataclysm | Ultra Quality Settings, No AA / 16x AF, 8x AA / 16x AF, From Crushblow to The Krazzworks, 1680x1050 / 1920x1080 / 2560x1600, Fraps, DirectX 11 Rendering, x64 Client |
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| SiSoftware Sandra 2012 | Sandra Tech Support (Engineer) 2012.SP4, GP Processing and GP Bandwidth Modules |
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| CyberLink MediaEspresso 6.5 | 449 MB MPEG-2 1080i Video Sample to Apple iPad 2 Profile (1024x768), 189 MB H.264 1080i Video Sample to Apple iPad 2 Profile (1024x768) |
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| LuxMark 2.0 | 64-bit Binary, Version 1.0, Classroom Scene |
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