Testing Configurations and System Setup
For our testing you will find the new Core i7-990X pitted against basically everything else Intel makes and much of the best AMD can offer in high performance processors. The testing configuration remains the same as our previous Nehalem-based tests though obviously we used the new DX58SO2 motherboard instead.
One thing that is going to be interesting to compare: how the Core i7-990X stands up to the Sandy Bridge based Core i7-2600K processor. Though they are two different architectures, they share a lot of heritage and we will likely see interesting comparisons in terms of single threaded tests and those more highly threaded options. Since the Core i7-2600K can scale just as well (if not better) with the newer Turbo Boost implementation, it might create interesting competition for the Nehalem-based $999 CPU at times.
Testing Configuration
- Intel Core i7-990X Extreme Edition
- Intel DX58SO2 X58 Extreme Series Motherboard
- 3 x 2GB Corsair DDR3-1333
- GeForce GTX 285 – 270.xx driver
- Intel X25-M G2 160GB SSD
- Windows 7 x64
Our CPU testing software remains mostly the same as we await the launch of AMD’s Bulldozer parts to completely revamp things here at PC Perspective. Our mix of real-world tests, synthetic applications and testing suites gives us a very good view of overall processor and system performance.
Let’s get on to the testing!
You guys are still using
You guys are still using handbrake 0.9.2 to test? Do you have any idea how many SSE optimizations have gone into x264 (the main component of HB) since then? There are even a few AVX instructions in the newest x264. Some encoding work functions have increased in speed by as much as 50% for Nehalem and more recent processors. Please consider updating your test platform.
Use your head Anthony, fact
Use your head Anthony, fact is I am sure most of these benches were done when 9.2 was the current version of handbrake. I would hate to see half of these benches done on 9.2 and half on 9.5. Those results would be rather inaccurate.
I am sure that at a point PCPER will update the version and re evaluate the processors accordingly.
Yeah last I checked, other
Yeah last I checked, other sites do that on an annual basis. Anand does it every year for his storage bench. Do you know how old 0.9.2 is? Try February 2008, over three years ago. Time to give up the ghost and rebenchmark a set of CPUs on 0.9.5 with the new defaults for HB to give users an idea of what the difference is today in terms of performance, not with ancient code from 3 years ago.
I have a system with an Intel
I have a system with an Intel DX58SO2 mother board.
Once I’m in the BIOS setup menu, how can I change the
“Boot Drive Priority”?
It looks like you use F10
It looks like you use F10 during boot to bring up the boot menu, not having seen it I can’t say for sure, but that menu is probably a bit more complex than just choosing a temporary boot device.