Intel Core i7-980X Extreme 6-Core Processor Review

Name: Intel Core i7-980X Extreme 6-Core Processor Review - Page 9
Brand: Intel

by Marco Chiappetta — Thursday, March 11, 2010, 12:00 AM EDT

3DMark06 and Vantage CPU Tests

Page 9: 3DMark06 and Vantage CPU Tests

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.

Futuremark 3DMark06

Synthetic DirectX Gaming

We saw more of the same with 3DMark06's built-in CPU benchmark. Here, the Core i7-980X Extreme pulled ahead of everything else by a decent margin.

Futuremark 3DMark Vantage

Synthetic DirectX Gaming

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 Core i7-980X Extreme's lead in 3DMark Vantage's CPU Test 2 was much more pronounced than its predecessor. In this benchmark, Intel's new baby is approximately 50% faster than the 975.