Test System Configuration Notes: When configuring our test systems for this article, we first entered their respective system BIOSes and set each board to its "Optimized" or "High performance Defaults". We then saved the settings, re-entered the BIOS and set memory timings for DDR3-1333 with 8,8,8,24 timings. The hard drives were then formatted, and Windows 7 Ultimate x64 was installed. When the Windows installation was complete, we updated the OS, and installed the drivers necessary for our components. Auto-Updating and Windows Defender were then disabled and we installed all of our benchmarking software, performed a disk clean-up, defragged the hard drives, and ran all of the tests.
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| HotHardware's Test Systems |
| Intel and AMD - Head To Head | |
System 1:
Core i5 661
(3.33GHz - Dual-Core)
Asus P7H57D-V EVO
(H57 Express Chipset)
2x2GB Kingston DDR3-1600
(@ 1333MHz, CAS 8)
Intel GMA IGP
On-Board Ethernet
On-board Audio
WD150 "Raptor" HD
10,000 RPM SATA
Windows 7 x64 |
System 2:
Core i5 750
(2.66GHz - Quad-Core)
Asus Maximus III Formula
(P55 Express Chipset)
2x2GB Kingston DDR3-1600
(@ 1333MHz, CAS 8)
GeForce GTX 280
On-Board Ethernet
On-board Audio
WD150 "Raptor" HD
10,000 RPM SATA
Windows 7 x64 |
System 3:
Core 2 Q9650
(3GHz - Quad-Core)
Core 2 Quad Q9400
(2.66GHz - Quad-Core)
Gigabyte X48T-DQ6
(X48 Express Chipset)
2x2GB Kingston DDR3-1600
(@ 1333MHz, CAS 8)
GeForce GTX 280
On-Board Ethernet
On-board Audio
WD150 "Raptor" HD
10,000 RPM SATA
Windows 7 x64 |
System 4:
AMD Phenom II X4 965
(3.4GHz Quad-Core)
AMD Phenom II X2 555
(3.2GHz Dual-Core)
AMD Athlon II X4 635
(2.9GHz Quad-Core)
Asus M4A79T Deluxe
(AMD 785G Chipset)
2x2GB Kingston DDR3-1600
(@ 1333MHz, CAS 8)
Radeon IGP
On-Board Ethernet
On-board Audio
WD150 "Raptor" HD
10,000 RPM SATA
Windows 7 x64 |
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| Preliminary Testing with PCMark Vantage |
| Synthetic Benchmarks | |
First up, we ran a number of different test systems through Futuremark’s latest system performance evaluation tool, PCMark Vantage. PCMark Vantage runs through a host of different usage scenarios to simulate different types of workloads including High Definition TV and movie playback and manipulation, gaming, image editing and manipulation, music compression, communications, and productivity. Most of the tests are multi-threaded as well, so the tests can exploit the additional resources offered by a quad-core CPU.
The new Athlon II X4 635 and Phenom II X2 555 performed relatively well according to PCMark Vantage. In this test, AMD's newest affordable processors put up a good fight against the Core i5 661 and Core 2s, but obviously don't come close to the more expensive Core i5 750.
