How We Tested
Contents
During our benchmarking sessions, we used the configuration listed below. Between our benchmarking sessions, the only variable device was the CPU being tested and the motherboard, which had to be replaced to match the different CPU sockets.
Hardware Configuration
- Motherboard (Socket FM1): Gigabyte GA-A75M-UD2H (F2 BIOS)
- Motherboard (Socket LGA1155): Intel DH67BL (1050 BIOS)
- CPU Cooler: Intel/AMD stock
- Memory: 4 GB DDR3-1333, two G.Skill F3-10666CL7T memory modules
- Hard Disk Drive: Western Digital Black Caviar 1 TB (WD1001FALS, SATA-300, 7,200 rpm, 32 MB buffer)
- Video Card: GeForce GT 430 (used on some tests only)
- Video Monitor: Samsung Syncmaster 932BW
- Power Supply: OCZ StealthXStream 400 W
Operating System Configuration
- Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
- NTFS
- Video resolution: 1440×90 60 Hz
Driver Versions
- AMD video driver version: 8.86 RC2
- AMD chipset driver version: 8.862
- Intel video driver version: 15.21.12.2321
- Intel Inf chipset driver version: 9.2.0.1025
- NVIDIA video driver version: 275.33
Software Used
- PCMark 7 1.0.4
- VirtualDub 1.9.5 + MPEG-2 Plugin 3.1 + DivX 6.9.2
- Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended + GamingHeaven Photoshop Benchmark V3
- Adobe After Effects CS4
- Media Espresso 6.5
- WinZip 15.5
- iTunes 10.2
- Cinebench 11.529
- Call of Duty 4 – Patch 1.7
- Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty – Patch 1.3.4
- Far Cry 2 – Patch 1.03
- Lost Planet 2
- 3DMark 11 1.0.1
Error Margin
We adopted a 3% error margin. Thus differences below 3% cannot be considered relevant. In other words, products with a performance difference below 3% should be considered as having similar performance.
