EVGA nForce 790i SLI FTW Digital PWM Motherboard

3DMark06's built-in CPU test is a multi-threaded DirectX gaming metric that's useful for comparing relative performance between similarly equipped systems. This test consists of two different 3D scenes that are processed with a software renderer that is dependent on the host CPU's performance. Calculations that are normally reserved for your 3D accelerator are instead sent to the CPU for processing and rendering. The frame-rate generated in each test is used to determine the final score.

We were surprised that these results weren't a little closer. As you can see, the Intel X38 Express board outscores the EVGA nForce 790i SLI FTW Digital PWM by over 130 points.

3DMark Vantage's CPU Test 2 is a multi-threaded test designed for comparing relative game physics processing performance between systems. This test consists of a single scene that features an air race of sorts, with a complex configuration of gates. There are aircraft in the test that trail smoke and collide with various cloth and soft-body obstacles, each other, and the ground. The smoke spreads and reacts to the planes as they pass through it as well, and all of this is calculated on the host CPU.

The 3DMark Vantage scores went back to meeting our expectations. The two boards performed within about 0.6% of each other here.