Hardware Enthusiast’s Paradise
If you’re a fan of high-end hardware, insane graphics configurations, and equatorial heat, you’re going to love the platforms we set up in order to test Core i7’s gaming alacrity.
We’ve lined up the three fastest desktop platforms currently available—Intel’s Core i7 965 Extreme, Intel’s Core 2 Extreme QX9770, and AMD’s Phenom X4 9950. As we know, Core i7’s X58 chipset supports CrossFireX and SLI, so one board is able to yield numbers for all of our graphics configurations with this CPU. We used X48 for CrossFireX and Core 2 Extreme, swapping out for nForce 790i SLI Ultra when it came time to test SLI and Core 2 Extreme. The Phenom X4 setup supports CrossFireX-only, so our numbers were drawn from AMD’s 790FX/SB750 chipset combination. To each of these setups we applied a range of graphics subsystems.
- X58 (Core i7 Extreme): 1/2/3-way SLI using GeForce GTX 280s and 1/2/4-way CrossFireX using a single Radeon HD 4870 and two Radeon HD 4870 X2s
- X48 (Core 2 Extreme): 1/2/4-way CrossFireX using a single Radeon HD 4870 and two Radeon HD 4870 X2s
- 790i SLI Ultra (Core 2 Extreme): 1/2/3-way SLI using GeForce GTX 280s
- 790FX (Phenom X4): 1/2/4-way CrossFireX using a single Radeon HD 4870 and two Radeon HD 4870 X2s
| Platform | Core i7 965 Extreme | Core 2 Extreme QX9770 | Phenom X4 9950 |
| Chipset | Intel X58 | Intel X48/Nvidia nForce 790i SLI Ultra | AMD 790FX/SB750 |
| Motherboard | ASUS Rampage II Extreme/Gigabyte EX58-Extreme | Intel DX48BT2/EVGA nForce 790i SLI Ultra | ASUS M3A79-T Deluxe |
| Memory | 6 GB DDR3-1333 7-7-7 (triple-channel) | 4 GB DDR3-1600 7-7-7 (dual-channel) | 4 GB DDR2-1066 5-5-5 (dual-channel) |
| Storage | Intel SSDSA2MH080G1GN 80 GB SSD | Intel SSDSA2MH080G1GN 80 GB SSD | Intel SSDSA2MH080G1GN 80 GB SSD |
| Optical | Lite-On DH-4O1S BD-ROM | Lite-On DH-4O1S BD-ROM | Lite-On DH-4O1S BD-ROM |
| Power | Cooler Master UCP 1100W | Cooler Master UCP 1100W | Cooler Master UCP 1100W |
| Platform | Core i7 965 Extreme | Core 2 Extreme QX9770 | Phenom X4 9950 |
| Operating System | Windows Vista x64 with Service Pack 1 | Windows Vista x64 with Service Pack 1 | Windows Vista x64 with Service Pack 1 |
| Graphics Drivers | AMD: 8.551 / Nvidia: GeForce 180.43 | AMD: 8.551 / Nvidia: GeForce 180.43 | AMD: 8.541 |
| Platform Drivers | Intel: 9.1.0 Build 1005 | Intel: 8.3.1 / Nvidia: nForce 15.23 | AMD: Catalyst 8.10 |
We need to thank a few manufacturers who aren’t being expressly evaluated in this piece, but were still willing to lend us the mountain of hardware needed to pull it off.
- Zotac provided us with three GeForce GTX 280 cards, all operating at their stock frequencies
- Sapphire provided us with two Radeon HD 4870 X2s, operating at stock frequencies
- ASUS provided us with its Rampage II Extreme and P6T Deluxe
- Gigabyte provided us with its EX58-Extreme
- Cooler Master provided us with its UCP 1100W
- Corsair provided us with 6 GB of DDR3-1600 (TR3X6G1600C8D)
- OCZ provided us with 6 GB of DDR3-1333 (OCZ3P1333LV6GK)
| Benchmark | Configuration |
|---|---|
| World in Conflict | Very High Quality Settings, No AA / No AF, vsync off, 1920x1200 / 2560x1600, Patch 1009, DirectX 10 |
| Very High Quality Settings, 4x AA / 16x AF, vsync off, 1920x1200 / 2560x1600, Patch 1009, DirectX 10 | |
| Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance | High Quality Settings, No AA / No AF, vsync off, 1920x1200 / 2560x1600, Patch 1.5.3599, DirectX 9, Fraps 2.9.4 |
| High Quality Settings, 8x AA / No AF, vsync off, 1920x1200 / 2560x1600, Patch 1.5.3599, DirectX 9, Fraps 2.9.4 | |
| Crysis | Very High Quality Settings, No AA / No AF, vsync off, 1900x1200 / 2560x1600, Patch 1.2.1, DirectX 10, 64-bit Executable |
| Very High Quality Settings, 8x AA / No AF, vsync off, 1900x1200 / 2560x1600, Patch 1.2.1, DirectX 10, 64-bit Executable | |
| Crysis: Warhead | Enthusiast Quality Settings, No AA / No AF, vsync off, 1920x1200 / 2560x1600, DirectX 10, Steam Version |
| Enthusiast Quality Settings, 8x AA / No AF, vsync off, 1920x1200 / 2560x1600, DirectX 10, Steam Version | |
| Company of Heroes | High Quality Settings, No AA / No AF, vsync off, 1920x1200 / 2560x1600, DirectX 10, Steam Version |
| High Quality Settings, 8x AA / No AF, vsync off, 1920x1200 / 2560x1600, DirectX 10, Steam Version | |
| Unreal Tournament 3 | 5/5 Quality Settings, No AA / No AF, vsync off, 1920x1200 / 2560x1600, DirectX 10, Patch 1.2 |
| 5/5 Quality Settings, 8x AA / 16x AF, vsync off, 1920x1200 / 2560x1600, DirectX 10, Patch 1.2 | |
| Far Cry 2 | Very High Quality Settings, No AA / No AF, vsync off, 1920x1600 / 2560x1600, DirectX 10, Steam Version |
| Very High Quality Settings, 8x AA / No AF, vsync off, 1920x1600 / 2560x1600, DirectX 10, Steam Version | |
| 3DMark Vantage | Performance Default |
9
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I'm waiting for X58 Skulltrail and a couple of Quadro CX boards - eat THAT CS4!!
Why weren't the GTX's paired with the Phenom just for fun eh?
Great article!
This is the first great article I've seen here for some time. Keep up the good work. I'd like to see a similar comparison further down the ranges - maybe with 9800GT tri sli and HD4830 crossfire.
Besides this article giving a lot of good information it also gives us a nice future glance on what a real gamer is going to need in de near future. the i7 + a dual gpu is the best choice for high resolutions and no matter who makes it, nvidia or amd/ati. thats great news for us as end users!
Great article...but I was wondering about the difference between the x58 and x48 platforms....I may have missed it but did you mention if hyper threading was enabled on the core i7 platform....possibly the reason for the increased performance?
It would be interesting to see if hyper threading gives any extra games performance.
enabling it does actually increase power consumption and consequently heat production. This will be an important consideration for overclockers so we really need to know if hyperthreading gives any actual game performance increase
can't wait until early 2009....lucid logix should be releasing their hydra soc system for multi gpu....100% gpu scaling for both nvidia and ati...put that on a x58 board....wow gamers heaven
That's a great article, I really enjoyed it! And a really big chunk of useful data too. You must have spend quite a few days running all those benchmarks. Thanks for all the hard work and once again well done on a great article.