Ultimate DIY Performance PC: EVGA & Intel Infused

Next up, we ran a number of different test systems through Futuremark’s most recent system performance metric, 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.  Many of the tests are multi-threaded as well, so the tests can exploit the additional resources offered by a multi-core CPUs.

Before we get to the numbers, we should point out a problem we uncovered with Vantage. It seems the benchmark has issues running on machines with more than 6 logical processor cores. The benchmark had no problem running on the Core i7 980X (6 physical cores + 6 logical cores) or Skulltrail (8 physical cores, 2 processors), but on the SR-2 with dual Xeon 5680s (12 physical cores + 12 logical cores, 2 processors), Vantage would error out upon launching the benchmark. The solution was to disable Hyper-Threading via the system BIOS so the SR-2 / Xeon combo appears as 12 physical cores only to the OS.

Even with HyperThreading disabled, the EVGA Classified SR-2 with dual Intel Xeon 5680 processors put up the best scores overall, decimating the 2P Skulltrail platform and Phenom II X6. The Core i7 980X, however, was right there beside it, for two likely reasons: the 980X has HT enabled here, so it could process 12 threads simultaneously, and Vantage isn't fully capable of exploiting all of the horsepower offered by the EVGA Classified SR-2 when paired to Intel's flagship Xeon 5680 processors and a bevy of fast RAM.