Ultimate DIY Performance PC: EVGA & Intel Infused

Name: Ultimate DIY Performance PC: EVGA & Intel Infused - Page 9
Brand: Ultimate

by Marco Chiappetta — Wednesday, August 04, 2010, 02:29 PM EDT

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.

Futuremark PCMark Vantage

Simulated Application Performance

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.

Tags: Intel, Nehalem, evga, Power, Xeon, performance, Classified, SR2, 5680, ultimate

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com