Benchmarks – Skulltrail 1.6% Slower
We compared the performance of the dual-socket Skulltrail system with that of a Core 2 Extreme QX9770 at the same speed and a Core 2 Extreme QX9650, which runs 200 MHz slower. All three CPUs belong to the Penryn family and are thus completely identical in feature set and functionality.
The performance weaknesses of the workstation chipset used on the Skulltrail board prove to be its downfall. In games, the system falls behind the two single-CPU desktop systems by up to 45%.
In our benchmark suite, the two Core 2 Extreme QX9775 CPUs are even slower than a single QX9770. Although the Skulltrail dual-CPU system shows very strong performance gains in 3D rendering and video encoding tasks, but its overall performance score is still hobbled by its gaming weakness. In the end, a single QX9650 is only 3.9% slower overall than the two QX9775 Skulltrail chips together.
This table shows the performance difference between the dual-socket QX9775 CPUs and the single socket QX970 and QX9650 processors.
- Hardware,
- Skulltrail ,
- QX9775 ,
- D5400XS ,
- Octo-Core
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so... all in all, it sucks
sounds awesome, but the performance is troublesome. if they swapped out the memory, and if games actually could use it, then it would be awesome! but if your thinking ill buy this to be future proof(you will soon find that you wasted your money)
WRONG. This system will cost a HELL of a lot more than four grand.
And I wonder if Intel will rush out some custom high-speed memory with the ECC crippled? For a whopping price of course..
That'll bring the price up to mid-fives or low six grand, easy...
Why does TH assume you'd pair such a strong CPU setup with (comparatively) weak graphics? AFAIK just one GTX costs a fair bit more than what's listed here, and anyone who'd want SkullTrail is a hundred times more likely to buy THREE. Or THREE Ultras
That in turn means that you'll be looking at a 1.2KW PSU AND a 300W 12V booster for the extra oomph (oh, and the missing PCIe connectors...) And they'd either want to dismantle and replace the southbridge cooler or invest in a whole lotta dampening material for the insides of the case to supress the unholy fan noise
Bit of a white elephant, this.
well, the life isn't just about playing games on the pc............this motherboard is done for professional use. boxx, sgi, apple, dell, hp ecc are using dual quads for years...........but we use them to create what you play a year later