Intel Xeon X5570 and E5520 Gainestown Processors

A Pair of Intel Xeon X5570 Gainestown CPUs

Intel has officially announced the Xeon processor 5500 series, previously codenamed "Nehalem-EP," which is the server version of the the Intel Core i7 desktop processor. These new LGA1366 server processors that are derived from the Nehalem microarchitecture and are officially known to be Gainestown cores. These SMP-enabled parts feature a second 6.4GT/s QPI link to broker inter-CPU communication, which is the main difference between them and desktop parts. As far as specs are concerned, the processors support tri-channel DDR3, 4MB or 8MB L3 cache, and an 80-130W TDP. The Intel Xeon processor 5500 series includes many of the same breakthrough technologies that radically improved system speed when the Core i7 desktop processor was launched. Technologies such as Intel Turbo Boost Technology, Intel Hyper-Threading Technology, integrated power gates, and Next-Generation Intel Virtualization Technology (VT) improved through extended page tables, allow the system to adapt to a broad range of workloads.

Intel does not have just one or two of these processors coming out, they have ten Gainestown processors that are on the way to retail markets around the world. When it comes to pricing the Intel Xeon processor 5500 series ranges in price from $188 to $1,600 in quantities of 1,000. Major computer makers, such as Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and IBM will feature them in servers soon, if they have not already.

130W TDP / DDR3-1333:

• Xeon W5580

95W TDP / DDR3-1333:

• Xeon X5570
• Xeon X5560
• Xeon X5550

80W TDP / DDR3-1066:

• Xeon E5540
• Xeon E5530
• Xeon E5520

80W TDP / DDR3-800:

• Xeon E5506
• Xeon E5504

80W TDP / DDR3-800 / Dual Core:

• Xeon E5502

The Intel Xeon W5580 (BX80602W5580) is the fastest of the Gainestown processors as it operates at 3.20GHz with 8MB of L3 shared cache and a TDP of 130W. Due to this the processor has an MSRP right around $1600 USD each! While I would have loved to get my hands on a pair of Xeon W5580 processors, I was able to get a pair of Intel Xeon X5570 processors to benchmark!

With a clock frequency of 2.93GHz the Intel Xeon X5570 is still a force to be reckoned with and as you can see from the CPU-Z shot above. According to the CPU-Z readings and from what I could tell in the BIOS this 95W TDP processor runs at idle with 0.936V and at full load at 1.104V. These are awesome voltage numbers that are being seen from a recent D0 stepping processor. With a full 8MB of L3 shared cache and a 6.4GT/s QPI link this processor should destroy any other processor that we have ever benchmarked here on Legit Reviews. It should be noted that on the Intel Xeon X5570 the processor operates at 2.93GHz with DDR3 memory speeds up to 1333MHz. Under certain conditions, Intel Turbo Boost Technology can provide operating frequencies up to 3.33 GHz, depending on the processor and system configuration. Let's take a look at Cinebench R10 and find out! I'll also be including the performance results of a pair of Intel Xeon E5520 Gainestown processors that operate at 2.26GHz with a full 8MB of shared L3 cache, but a lower QPI of just 5.86GT/s. Thanks to the lower QPI speed the DDR memory can only run at 1066MHz.

Cinebench R10

MAXON; CINEBENCH R10:

CINEBENCH is the free benchmarking tool for Windows and Mac OS based on the powerful 3D software CINEMA 4D. Consequently, the results of tests conducted using CINEBENCH 10 carry significant weight when analyzing a computer's performance in everyday use. Especially a system's CPU and the OpenGL capabilities of its graphics card are put through their paces (even multiprocessor systems with up to 16 dedicated CPUs or processor cores). The test procedure consists of two main components: The first test sequence is dedicated to the computer's main processor. A 3D scene file is used to render a photo realistic image. The scene makes use of various CPU-intensive features such as reflection, ambient occlusion, area lights and procedural shaders. In the first run, the benchmark only uses one CPU (or CPU core), to ascertain a reference value. On machines that have multiple CPUs or CPU cores, and also on those who simulate multiple CPUs (via HyperThreading or similar technologies), MAXON CINEBENCH will run a second test using all available CPU power. Again, higher Frames/Second and lower rendering time in seconds equal better performance.

Cinebench R10 was able to put a 100% load across all the cores on all of the physical and logical cores, which makes this a great benchmark to look at multi-core platforms.

Results: I was only able to run Cinebench R10 in 32-bit mode since that is what version of Windows Server was installed, but you can see the insane amount of horse power that this 2P server platform has to offer. Keep in mind that the Intel Xeon X5570 is just a 95W TDP processor and operates with DDR3 1333MHz memory! Just for fun I disabled HyperThreading and Turbo Mode in the server board BIOS and ran the benchmark again to see what would happen on just the eight physical cores and discovered a 23% drop in performance. Looks like Turbo mode and HyperThreading make a big difference in this benchmark as without it, the system was just as fast as a server board running a pair of Intel QX9775 processors. The pair of Intel Xeon E5520 processors did fairly well, but was 37% slower than a pair of Intel Xeon X5570 processors.

Lavalys Everest

Benchmark Results: With the 2P server running a pair of X5460 Harpertown 3.16GHz LGA 771 120W TDP processors and 667MHz FB-DIMMs it is no big surprise that it performed at the back of the pack when it came to memory performance. The pair of Intel Xeon E5520 Gainestown processors operate at 2.26GHz with a full 8MB of shared L3 cache, but a lower QPI of just 5.86GT/s. Thanks to the lower QPI speed the DDR memory can only run at 1066MHz and as a result the memory performance suffers compared to the pair of Intel Xeon X5570 processors running at 2.93GHz with DDR3 1333MHz memory modules. The Intel Xeon X5570 processors also benefit from having a full QPI link speed of 6.4GT/s, which is how they support 1333MHz DDR3 memory modules. The extra QPI link speed, clock frequency and memory frequency make the pair of Intel Xeon X5570 processors stand out from the others rather significantly.

Benchmark Results: When it comes memory latency the pair of Intel Xeon X5570 doesn't dissapoint and performs much faster than the other two configurations that I was able to run some benchmarks on.

Benchmark Results: This CPU Queen benchmark is simple integer benchmark focuses on the branch prediction capabilities and the misprediction penalties of the CPU. It finds the solutions for the classic "Queens problem" on a 10 by 10 sized chessboard (see the source of the benchmark). The new Nehalem based Intel Xeon 5500 series processors do great on this benchmark as well as the Worxx CPU benchmark. Some strange results were observed in the AES benchmark though. The AES benchmark is an integer benchmark that measures CPU performance using AES (a.k.a. Rijndael) data encryption. It utilizes Vincent Rijmen, Antoon Bosselaers and Paulo Barreto's public domain C code in ECB mode (check the code out here). It seems that Harpertown does a great job with AES data encryption and was actually faster than the pair of E5520 Gainestown processors.

wPrime and Conclusion

wPrime is a benchmarking application designed to use a highly multithreaded approach to calculating the square-roots of large amounts of numbers (up to 32 billion at this stage!). I ran both the Intel Xeon E5520 and X5570 processors on wPrime Benchmark v1.55 to see how each set of processors do on the 32M speed test and the 1024M stability test.

As you can see from the screen shots above, the performance of both processors in wPrime is amazing. If you take the 32M speed test score and compare it to the database of scores at HWBot the 4.515 second test score would place this test system in the top 20 fastest systems in the world at stock speeds. With a little overclocking I feel that this platform would easily hold the world record in 32M wPrime!

Final Thoughts and Conclusions:

Our quick look at the Intel Xeon 5500 series was a very impressive one. The Intel Xeon X5570 that we looked at today operates at 2.93GHz during normal operation, but when Turbo Boost Technology is enabled the operating frequencies increased up to 3.33GHz. With this much clock frequency and all the performance features that the Intel Xeon 5500 series has to offer you end up with a server processor that blows past the competition without looking back.

When it comes to pricing the Intel Xeon E5520 can be purchased for $394.99 shipped, while the Intel Xeon X5570 can be found for $1448.99 (It has a suggested retail price of $1386). With many IT departments having shrinking budgets this year these will be a tough sell for many companies, but for those with a budget they are able to spend these processors will increase productivity in the server room!

Legit Bottom Line: The Intel Xeon E5520 and X5570 server processors proved to be much faster than Harpertown and will boost productivity for server applications.

Source :http://www.legitreviews.com/article/943/4/

writer : Nathan Kirsch - nate@legitreviews.com

Palit GTS250 [Review]

Finally, today, we'll have some real apple-to-apple comparison between the GTS250 and the Radeon HD4850. After Zotac's Amp Edition showing good promise, it's time we took Palit's 512MB version for a spin. If you're familiar with their work, then you will know by now that Palit loves experimenting with design; in fact, they love it so much that they went ahead and created the biggest and fastest card ever, the Revolution 700 (three slot cooler anyone?). They've done it again. Palit has stripped off the reference cooler and gone for its own heat pipe cooler with a large, centrally located fan. They also offer you a more diverse set of connectors, out-of-the box, while still maintaining the low price that we've all come to love from this brand.

From the GPUz screenshot we can see that the core speed has been increased from the default 738Mhz all the way up to 745MHz, which is just 5MHz shy of Zotac's Amp edition speed. Of course, the shader and memory speeds have also been increased to levels similar to that of Zotac.

This is where the fun begins. We have two very similarly clocked graphics cards from two manufactures - one with 512MB of memory and the other with 1GB. We can now see for ourselves if the extra memory makes a major difference in performance.




Bundle

Palit seem to have ditched the green-themed box for Nvidia cards and have gone for yellow ones. We have Frobot up front encouraging owners to tweak their cards for more performance.

As usual, Palit bundles just the basics with the card, without any game or software.

-Instruction manual
-Driver CD
-6-pin to Molex power converter
-HDMI to DVI adapter
-SPDIF connector

Palit has chosen a very simple and functional design for their cooler, which I really liked. We have the aluminum heatsink in the center with the large fan blowing air directly on to it. The rest of the card is covered with a plastic shell with plenty of slits for good air flow. It's still a dual-slot card though, which could have easily been avoided.

It's been a while since I've seen a VGA port on a mid-range card. Palit even throws in an HDMI port instead of the usual adapter. What they do provide is a HDMI to DVI adapter in case you want to connect two LCD monitors.

We can see the two aluminum heat pipes just beside the SPDIF connector. What's interesting is the two 6-pin connectors instead of one. Even the reference design has a single 6-pin connector, or on some versions an 8-pin. Does this mean it requires more power? Well, not necessarily, as we'll soon find out after the testing.

On removing the heatsink, we have a clear view of the core and the memory chips surrounding it. Only the heat sink makes contact with the core. The memory chips are cooled with the help of the fan.

Upon closer inspection we see that the heatsink comes with a copper base, which is in contact with the core and is a better conductor of heat. The pipes then carry the heat and distribute it through the aluminum fins, which are then cooled by the fan.

Testbench

CPU: Intel Core 2 Extreme X9770 at 3.2 GHz

Motherboard: Asus Rampage Extreme

RAM: 2 x 1GB DDR3 1600 MHz Corsair Dominators

HDD: Hitachi 250 GB SATA II (7200 rpm)

PSU: CoolerMaster 1000W

Cabinet: CoolerMaster Mystique

Monitor: Viewsonic G90fB monitor (19-inch, Max Res. 1920 x 1440)

OS: Windows Vista Ultimate

VGA Driver: Forceware 182.08, ATI Catalyst 9.3

Benchmarks

3DMark 06

3DMark Vantage

World in Conflict (DX 10)

The High Conflict graphics quality preset was chosen and the AA and AF settings were changed in the Advanced Graphics section. 4x AA and 16x AF were selected after benchmarking with no AA and no AF. Filtering and AA were set as Application Controlled in the drivers.

Overclocking and Power Consumption

We fired up RivaTuner and started pushing the core upwards, until I finally hit a wall at around 830MHz. After this, we turned our attention to the memory, but as it's already overclocked it didn't go much further. The final clocks were 830MHz for the core and 2125MHz for the shader, and memory was bumped up just a little to 1160MHz. Just like the Zotac card, we didn't get any major boost in performance due to the aging G92 core. 3DMark 06 returned just 15957 points and 3DMark Vantage returned just 7630 points. Even though the card remains stable at these high speeds, we don't see much of a performance increase, and this is mainly due to the chip.

This is certainly interesting; on idle the Palit GTS250 consumes the same amount of power as the 9800GTX+ and the HD4850. But on full load, it has the lowest power consumption on full load, which was a little surprising. The card runs absolutely cool; even when you touch the heat pipes, you can barely feel the heat. The fan is not noisy as it spins at a low rpm, but it is audible on load. This just goes to show that power consumption calculations should not be based on how many connectors the card has.


Pricing

Palit has once again priced their card very competitively at just Rs. 8900, all inclusive, which makes it the lowest priced GTS250 (512MB) with a custom cooler. On the other hand, ATI has dropped their pricing even further for HD4850, and you can actually find a Palit HD4850 for as low as Rs. 7900, which continues to offer more value.

Conclusion

What have we learnt so far? Well, one of the reasons, we chose the 512MB card was to compare it head on with the Zotac 1GB card, since they both were clocked at pretty much the same speed. So does the extra 512MB make a significant difference? Well, yes and no. If you're going to play at a resolution lower than 1920 x 1200, then no, it's not going to make much of a difference. However, if you do own a 24-inch monitor and above and love lots of Anti-Aliasing, then it does, especially in Crysis, where it can, actually make the game playable (check the graph). The biggest gainers were the Unreal Engine, CryEngine 2, and World in Conflict at a full HD resolution with high levels of AA. Of course, for that, you have to pay a small premium of around 1K more.

Palit's GTS250 is currently the cheapest card that you can get, and it comes with a very attractive heatsink, which is functional. You also get all the possible connectors you would want, including HDMI. Due to the large fan, the card runs cool and you'll probably never face any heating issues.

On the other hand, Palit could have gone for a more slimmer design and made it a single-slot card. It looks classy, but it's really unnecessary given the 55nm fabrication and low power requirements. So, does this steal the crown from the HD4850? Not quite. Sure it's powerful, but again not by a big margin to justify the price. If you're an Nvidia fanboy and will not touch anything else, then the Palit GTS250 certainly fits the bill, showing strong performance as compared to its competitors. However, if you want the best value for money mid-range card, then the HD4850 still holds its own for 1K less.

Specifications

source : http://www.techtree.com/India/Reviews/Palit_GTS250_Review/551-100670-537-12.html

Gigabyte GA-GC230D

With broadband rates dropping and becoming more affordable, the internet is finally reaching out to the masses. High-speed internet is no longer a luxury but a necessity nowadays. Unlimited data plans can only lead to one thing- downloads. With an unlimited plan, you just pay a fixed monthly rental and surf or download as much as your heart desires.

If you already have a low-end computer

at home then leaving it on for the whole day is not going to be that bad. But what if you have a gaming rig? Imagine the power it's going to consume if you leave it on for an entire day or worse a number of days!

The Asus EeeBox and NovaLite are perfect solutions for this, but they don't come cheap. In our guide to building your own Nettop, we mentioned about Intel's 945 chipset Atom solution, which is a mini-ITX motherboard with an Atom processor.

Today we have the very same motherboard, only that this one is a Gigabyte GA-GC230D that features its UltraDurable technology and solid state capacitors for longer life. VIA also has a similar solution, but unfortunately we haven't had a chance to test it, so we'll be comparing it with the Asus NovaLite and more importantly explore the areas where one may find use for such a motherboard.

Bundle

The bundle includes the essentials like,

Instruction manual

Driver CD

Driver CD (Individual ones for XP and Vista)

IDE cable

I/O shield

1x SATA cable


The bundle is very basic and includes all the connectors you would need, as there are very few expansion ports.

Design

When this product came in, looking at the size of the box, I wondered when Gigabyte started selling cell phones in India! The box is really small with just a sticker at the bottom about the specifications and features.

The motherboard is based on the Intel 945GC chipset and comes with the Atom 230 (or N270 as its known) running at 1.6GHz. The Atom processor uses the same 45nm fabrication process but sadly this first batch is locked to the 945 chipset, so it cannot be used on any other motherboard, thus limiting an upgrade.

The rear ports are the same ones found on the Intel motherboard, as Gigabyte hasn't changed anything much. They've still kept the serial and parallel ports. Along with that we have the VGA port, four USB ports, 10/100 LAN jack and a Realtek ALC662 audio chip for sound.

The RAM slot can accommodate up to 2GB of RAM with a maximum speed of 533MHz. For testing we used a 1GB memory stick. There are two more USB headers on the motherboard for an additional four USB ports. There's just a single PCI slot for a sound card or a TV tuner card. You can also use a graphics card, as you do get some of the low-end cards for the PCI slot like a 9500GT, but you'll have to search a lot for these.

The die is cooled by a rather measly looking heat sink since it does not heat up much. Let's see how the Gigabyte GA-GC230D performs in our tests.

Testbench

CPU: Intel Atom N270 (1.6GHz)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-GC230D

Memory: Trancend 1GB (800MHz)

HDD: Hitachi Deskstar 250GB SATA (Barracuda 7200.10)

Case: CoolerMaster Mystique with CoolerMaster 1000W PSU

Monitor: Philips 109E5 Monitor (19", Max Resolution 1920x1440 pixels)

Operating System: Windows XP SP3

Note: There was no point installing Vista on this motherboard, as we all saw what happened to the Sony Vaio P which struggled with basic tasks. Also, we had to stick with 1GB of RAM instead of 2GB, since it was the only one available at the time of testing.


PCMark 05

SiSOFT SANDRA 2009

Processor Arithmetic

Processor Multimedia

Memory Bandwidth

Cache and Memory

Performance Analysis

No surprises here; we tried to match the Gigabyte motherboard closely to the Asus NovaLite and the results were in favor of the Gigabyte GA-GC230D. This was mostly because we used a standard desktop hard disk and memory as compared to the Notebook drive and memory used in the NovaLite.

Bundled Software

Gigabytes Easytune5 allows you to monitor your system and adjust the speed of the fan. It will also alert you if the system gets too hot by showing you the temperature in real time.

Power Consumption

With just a single optical drive and a hard drive the entire system idled at 42W, which is more compared to the NovaLite. However, the NovaLite used a much smaller hard disk and plus is limited to the power adapter, so it can't go beyond 25W. When we put some stress on it, it goes all the way up to 46W, which is good and is still lower than a regular computer.

We had some issues with the Northbridge fan though, as sometimes it refused to spin on start up and needed a little push. We decided to unplug the fan to see if it really made any difference since the heat sink is large. We fired up Everest and monitored the temperature of the motherboard. With the fan spinning, the idle temperature was 32 degrees Celsius and on load went up to 37 degrees.

However, with the fan unplugged it idled at 35 degrees and went a little higher to 42 degrees on load, which is still ok. In short, even if the fan stops spinning you shouldn't have a problem once the motherboard is inside the case.

Windows 7 and 720p

Many have commented about how well Windows 7 runs on a Netbook. So, since we have the Atom motherboard and Windows 7 with us, we decided to give it a try. I kept my fingers crossed not knowing what to expect as the Windows 7 loaded on my desktop. Once it finished loading, I quickly move the mouse around and find no lag, I open a couple of Windows- again no lag, I try Flip 3D- no lag. And now for the ultimate test, playing a 720p movie on Windows 7 with an Atom and 1GB RAM, and viola- no lag!

I was ecstatic. Just the idea of doing this seemed crazy, but it all worked perfectly fine. All you HTPC and Media Center junkies may rejoice.

Pricing

The Gigabyte GA-GC230D is priced very close to Intel's offering at Rs.3500 excluding taxes. You also get Gigabytes three-year warranty with it. The motherboard is definitely priced well, especially if you're looking for a low powered CPU solution. To complete the PC, you'll just need a cabinet, memory and a keyboard and mouse, all of which should come to around 9-10K. It gets even better if you already have an existing LCD with dual inputs, in that case you won't even need a monitor.


Verdict

The Gigabyte GA-GC230D will certainly interest all those looking for a low cost, small footprint, low power PC. The Atom processor can easily handle Windows XP as well as Windows7 on 1GB RAM. Do not attempt to install Vista, as it will severely slow down your system.

Those looking to build a download rig may rejoice as you won't be haunted with a fat electric bill every month. This is even great for offices where you need computers for accounting (Tally) or just Word and Excel. Schools and colleges that teach programming courses like C++ and Java will benefit from this, as they don't require a powerful PC. At the same time you can have more computers in one room since it does not require any fancy cooling or require a lot of space.

Using this for a HTPC may not be the best idea, since you will ideally require some more muscle to play those 1080p movies (720p will do). If you have original BluRays at home then adding a PCI graphics card like a 9500GT will help, as PowerDVD and Nero Showtime support hardware acceleration. If you only have HD rips then you need a stronger processor since you won't be able to offload the processing to the graphics card.

Overall if you're looking to build a low powered computer from scratch, then the Gigabyte GA-GC230D motherboard would be the right thing to go for.

source : http://www.techtree.com/India/Reviews/Gigabyte_GA-GC230D_Review/551-100653-636-9.html

ATI Radeon HD4890 vs NVIDIA Geforce GTX275

It's D-day! The two biggest players in the graphics card industry have just launched their latest incarnations of their graphic cards, and who other than Techtree to give you the inside scoop on not one but both graphics cards. For those not in the loop, ATI has launched their HD4890 graphics card, while Nvidia has their GTX275 card. Both these cards have slight improvements over their predecessors, which we'll explore in a bit more detail. They don't offer anything new in terms of technology and seem like fillers for their line-up.

Today's comparison will concentrate solely on which chipset offers more performance rather than a brand comparison. This time, XFX and Zotac provided us their samples early on, which is why we could give you this comparison right away; kudos to them. Let's look at both the ATI and Nvidia line-ups to see where these cards fit in, and whether they were really needed in the first place.


ATI HD4890

The much-awaited RV790 chip is finally here, although there's really not much to cheer about since there is nothing new technology-wise. The most striking difference would be the core clock, which has been increased by a 100MHz, as well as the memory, which is bumped up slightly from the stock 3.6GB/s to 3.9GB/s. The rest pretty much remains the same with 55nm fabrication, 800 shaders, and 1GB of GDDDR5 memory. What's interesting is the idle power consumption, which is supposed to be 30% lower as compared to the HD4870; let's see if that's true.

Looking at ATI's line-up, there is a huge gap between the HD4870 (1GB) and the HD4870 X2. I think that the HD4890 will eventually replace the HD4870 1GB. When you think about it, it's not really filling the gap in the line-up, but instead it's just a slightly improved version of the existing card. Hey, if Nvidia can do that each time, I think we can excuse ATI this once.

Nvidia GTX275

Nvidia was supposed to launch this card much later, but at the last moment decided to pull the launch forward to - well, you guessed it, 2 April. I guess the thought of another blockbuster from ATI really scared them, and it also makes great fodder for an article for guys like us, so everyone wins.

Looks familiar? That's because the GTX275 is essentially a single PCB (and core) GTX295. If you remember, the GTX295 is a dual GPU, dual PCB card pre-configured in SLI. The GTX275 has exactly the same specifications as the GTX295, with 240 shaders and 896MB of GDDR3 memory running on a 448-bit memory bus. It's actually a very interesting card. I mean, think about it, you have the 240 cores of the GTX280; couple it with the stripped down memory bus of the GTX260, and you have a powerful graphics card in the 17-18K range. The GTX260 (216 shaders) anyways retails for around 17K and shares the same features; when we buy the GTX275, we get the full shader count of 240 for just a little more, making it more attractive.

Two things may happen, either the GTX275 may eat into the sales of the GTX260 (216 shaders), or Nvidia will drop the price further and chuck out the old 65nm GTX260 (192 shaders).

Now that we know what lies ahead, let take a closer look at the two offerings, the XFX HD4890 and the Zotac GTX275.

The Contenders

There you go, the rival cards in the same frame. Nothing much has changed in the cooling department, as both the HD4890 and the GTX275 continue to use the same reference cooler like their predecessors. The HD4890 still uses the same cooler with the large blower style fan. The GTX275 too uses the same cooler and is slightly longer compared to the HD4890.

We have the reference connectors for both cards here; both feature two dual-link DVI ports and a S-video out port. The dual slot design is needed to exhaust the hot air these cores churn out.

Looking at the cards from the top, we see that the cooler of the HD4890 is slightly thicker as compared to Nvidia's cooler.

Both the cards come with two 6-pin power connectors. The Nvidia card still needs a SPDIF audio connector in order to get sound over HDMI. ATI has the audio decoding chip built into the board itself, which is a lot less of a hassle.

Testbench

CPU: Intel Core 2 Extreme X9770 at 3.2 GHz

Motherboard: Asus Rampage Extreme

RAM: 2 x 1GB DDR3 1600 MHz Corsair Dominators

HDD: Hitachi 250 GB SATA II (7200 rpm)

PSU: CoolerMaster 1000W

Cabinet: CoolerMaster Mystique

Monitor: Viewsonic G90fB monitor (19-inch, Max Res. 1920 x 1440)

OS: Windows Vista Ultimate

VGA Driver: Forceware 185.63, ATI Catalyst 9.12

3DMark 06

3DMark Vantage

Far Cry 2 (DX 10)

We used the FarCry 2 benchmark tool 1.0.0.1. Everything was set to High in Overall Quality with Direct3D 10, and the game was looped three times before a final average score was obtained. Filtering and AA were set as Application Controlled in the drivers.

Crysis (DX 10)

We used the Crysis benchmarking tool with High Quality preset. We set the Shadows Quality, Physics Quality, and Sound Quality as Low, and selected DirectX 10, and the game was looped three times before a final average score was obtained. Filtering and AA were set as Application Controlled in the drivers.

Overclocking and Power Consumption

RivaTuner did not detect either of the cards, so we had to use an alternate route. Luckily, Zotac has their FireStorm software bundled in with their driver CD. With this, we were able to take the standard edition of the GTX275 and push the core all the way to 680MHz from the stock 633MHz. The memory as usual didn't go up by much, and settled at a stable 2268MHz. Overall, we got a decent boost of 7%, but sadly this did not reflect much in the scores of 3DMark 06 or Vantage, giving me just a 2% increase.

The ATI Overdrive just refused to work for some weird reason. We tried the latest driver (Catalyst 9.3) and even the one AMD provided, but the Overdrive page continued to be blank. Really strange. Well, hopefully, we'll have it working for the full review.

The HD4890 idles at just 55W and the GTX275 at 43W; that's a 10W difference. But things change dramatically once we fire up a game. The tables turn with the HD4890 consuming just 160W, while the GTX275 needs 30% more power at 190W.