Test Setups & Methodology
Test Setups & Methodology
For the benchmarking section, we decided to disable the Turbo Mode feature. The logic behind this decision was two-fold. First, since Turbo Mode varies clock speeds based on CPU temperatures, we could not guarantee that the clock speeds our chips ran at would be anywhere similar to what you could achieve. There were simply too many variables to take into considering to be able to use this feature and maintain a transparent, reproducible benchmark methodology. Secondly, by forcing the processors to run at their native speeds, we could better determine how the Core i7 series performs on a clock-per-clock basis in comparison to previous processors. Intel Core i7 Test Setup | Motherboard: | Intel DX58SO 'Smackover' | | Processor: | Intel Core i7-920, Core i7-940*, and Core i7-965 Extreme Edition | | Processor Cooling: | Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme LGA-1366
Thermalright TR-FDB-12-1600 120MM FAN - 63.7CFM 1600RPM | | Memory: | 3 x 1GB Qimonda PC3-8300 7-7-7 1.5V | | Power Supply: | Corsair HX620W | | Video Card: | BFG GeForce 9800GTX 512MB | | Hard Drive: | Western Digital 320GB WD3200AAKS-00B3A0 | | Operating System: | Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 64-bit (with all updates) | | Chipset Drivers: | ForceWare 175.16
Intel 9.1.1.1010 | | Special Notes: | *In order to recreate a Core i7-940, we simply downclocked the 965 to 2.93Ghz (22x133) and reduced the QPI to 4.8GT/s |
Intel Core 2 Test Setup | Motherboard: | Asus Maximus Formula X38 (Bios 0907) | | Processor: | Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200, Core 2 Duo E8400, Core 2 Quad Q6600, Core 2 Extreme QX9770 | | Memory: | OCZ Reaper HPC 4GB 2X2GB PC2-8500 DDR2-1066 5-5-5-15 | | Power Supply: | Corsair HX620W | | Video Card: | eVGA GeForce 9800GTX 512MB | | Hard Drive: | Western Digital 320GB WD3200AAKS-00B3A0 | | Operating System: | Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 64-bit (with all updates) | | Chipset Drivers: | ForceWare 175.16 |
AMD Athlon X2 & Phenom Test Setup | Motherboard: | Asus M3A32- MVP Deluxe 790FX (Bios 1002 – Latest) | | Processor: | AMD X2 6400+, Phenom X3 8750, Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition | | Memory: | OCZ Reaper HPC 4GB 2X2GB PC2-8500 DDR2-1066 5-5-5-15 | | Power Supply: | Corsair HX620W | | Video Card: | eVGA GeForce 9800GTX 512MB | | Hard Drive: | Western Digital 320GB WD3200AAKS-00B3A0 | | Operating System: | Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 64-bit (with all updates) | | Chipset Drivers: | ForceWare 175.16 |
To ensure consistent results, a few tweaks were applied to Windows Vista SP1: - Page File – Disabled
- System Protection/Restore – Disabled
- Problem & Error Reporting – Disabled
- Remote Desktop/Assistance - Disabled
- Windows Security Center Alerts – Disabled
- Windows Defender - Disabled
- Visual Effects – Disabled
All scores you see in the following pages are the averages after 5 benchmark runs. If they were any clearly anomalous results, the 5-loop run was repeated.
Here is a full list of the applications that we utilized in our benchmarking suite: - 3DMark06 v1.1.0
- 3DMark Vantage Professional Edition v1.0.1
- Cinebench R10 64-bit
- Crysis v1.2
- Half-Life 2: Episode 2 (Latest Updates)
- Lavalys Everest Ultimate Edition v4.60.1500
- iTunes v7.6.1.9
- PCMark Vantage Advanced 64-Bit Edition (1.0.0.0)
- Super PI Mod 1.5
- Supreme Commander v1.1.3280
- Unreal Tournament 3 v1.2
- Valve Particle Simulation Benchmark
- WinRAR 3.7.1
- x264 HD Benchmark v1.0
So without further ado, let's get to the good stuff!
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