{"id":13034,"date":"2009-11-21T00:23:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-21T00:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=13034"},"modified":"2009-12-03T16:31:03","modified_gmt":"2009-12-03T16:31:03","slug":"performance-meets-value-core-i7-vs-penryn-vs-phenom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/performance-meets-value-core-i7-vs-penryn-vs-phenom\/","title":{"rendered":"Performance Meets Value &#8211; Core i7 vs. Penryn vs. Phenom II"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\/\/ <![CDATA[\n  google_ad_client = \"pub-7021221536180758\"; \/* 468x60, created 11\/11\/09 *\/ google_ad_slot = \"1949837292\"; google_ad_width = 468; google_ad_height = 60;\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><br \/>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p>In our never ending quest to help you decide on which hardware is right for you, we are examining CPU platforms again.\u00a0 We have recently purchased Intel&#8217;s Core i7 920 processor from NewEgg.com and are going to benchmark it for you.\u00a0 We started out benchmarking well over a year ago with Intel&#8217;s E4300 which we managed to overclock from its stock 1.8 GHz, to 3.33 GHz.\u00a0 We next purchased Intel&#8217;s E8600 which clock-for-clock convincingly beat the overclocked E4300&#8217;s older architecture at its stock 3.33 GHz; never mind that we could get way more performance from E8600 with it overclocked to 4.25 GHz.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/i71.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-13283\" title=\"i7\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/i71.jpg?resize=232%2C300\" alt=\"i7\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/i71.jpg?resize=232%2C300 232w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/i71.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 232px) 100vw, 232px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We have consistently tested all of our CPU platforms with our HD 4870, HD 4870-X2, HD 4870-X3 TriFire and GTX 280 as our top GPUs.\u00a0 We always test at 1680&#215;1050 and 1920&#215;1200 resolutions and always with maxed out DX10 settings (whenever possible) and always with 4xAA\/16xAF applied.<\/p>\n<p>Last year ABT got an engineering sample of Q9550S from Intel that reaches 4.0 GHz and we put our E8600 to the test where it failed to meet the quad-core\u2019s performance in the few games that use more than two cores despite the fact that it overclocked +260 MHz higher.\u00a0 We then purchased an AMD value system from Newegg.com and compared the Athlon II 250 X2 with our Phenom II 550 X2\u00a0 and with the Phenon II 720 X3 against our flagship Q9550S at stock, 3.5 GHz and at 3.9 to 4.0 GHz, depending on how far we could individually overclock each CPU.<\/p>\n<p>We continued to test with our HD 4870-X2 and the GTX 280.\u00a0 Our HD 4870-X2 is very representative of the new HD 5870 performance as well as HD 4870 CrossFire.\u00a0 The GTX 280 is roughly equivalent to the GTX 275 or the HD 4890.\u00a0 These latest tests were run <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=10085&amp;all=1\">here<\/a> and we tested with Catalyst 9-6 and GeForce 186.18.<\/p>\n<p>For our new testing in this review, we use these same two video cards but are now benching with Catalyst 9-9 and GeForce 191.07.\u00a0 This time, we will now use only our highest performing Phenom II that was available to us last month, 720 X3.\u00a0 We will test it against our Q9550S and our new Core i7 920 that we just purchased from NewEgg.com together with a Gigabyte EX58-UD3R motherboard and 2&#215;2 GB Kingston DDR3 PC18000.\u00a0 We added it to the 1&#215;2 GB for tri-channel that we got from Kingston earlier this year which Karan tested and found it to be extremely fast and stable in his review <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=10535\">here<\/a>.\u00a0 So now we have the highest performing and rather expensive Core i7 system from Intel to set alongside their now midrange Penryn Q9550S and also to compare with the decidedly value AMD Phenom II X3.\u00a0 We will test performance at their stock clocks, 3.5 GHz and at each CPU&#8217;s maximum overclock.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/gig_mb.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-13281\" title=\"Gig_mb\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/gig_mb.jpg?resize=216%2C174\" alt=\"Gig_mb\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/gig_mb.jpg?resize=216%2C174 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/gig_mb.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 216px) 100vw, 216px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/kingstonpc18000.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-13282\" title=\"KingstonPC18000\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/kingstonpc18000.jpg?resize=243%2C175\" alt=\"KingstonPC18000\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/kingstonpc18000.jpg?resize=243%2C175 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/kingstonpc18000.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 243px) 100vw, 243px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>When we say <em>&#8220;performance meets value&#8221;<\/em>, we mean that the Core i7 X58 motherboard is almost double the price of its Phenom II counterpart, the i7 920 CPU itself is almost $100 more expensive than AMD&#8217;s flagship quad processor and the tri-channel DDR3 RAM is also more than double what one would pay for memory for the AMD DDR2 platform.\u00a0 So we naturally ask, &#8220;is it worth it?&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>We also expect our review to be in two parts \u2013 this one with the HD4870-X2 and the GTX 280 &#8211; and Part 2 which will cover HD 4870-X3 Tri-Fire and Catalyst 9-10.\u00a0 Since we want to really push our Core i7, we will also use the fastest graphics available to us &#8211; Tri-Fire\u2019s HD 4870-X2 + HD 4870<em>.<\/em> We will also retest our Phenom II 720 X3 and 550 X2 and add our newly purchased Phenom II 955 X4 into the mix to see how AMD quads stack up to Penryn&#8217;s Q9550 and Core i7 CPUs when coupled with relatively fast multi-GPU graphics.<\/p>\n<p>Please continue on to the next page for the complete hardware and software setup of our three platforms &#8211; AMD\u2019s Phenom II versus Intel\u2019s Penryn versus Core i7.\u00a0 We shall see what happens when performance meets value in PC gaming.<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: Introduction--><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"><strong>Test Configuration<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffff00\"><strong> <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"><strong>Test Configuration &#8211; Intel Hardware Core i7<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">Intel Core i7 920 reference 2.66 GHz and overclocked to 3.5 and 3.8 GHz); Turbo (21X multiplier for 3.97 GHz) is on.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">Gigabyte <\/span>EX58-UD3R <span style=\"font-size: small\">(Intel X58 chipset, latest BIOS, PCIe 2.0 specification; CrossFire 16x+16x).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">6 GB OCZ DDR3 PC 18000 Kingston RAM (3&#215;2 GB, tri-channel at PC 16000 speeds)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">ATi Radeon HD 4870-X2 (2GB, reference clocks 750\/900) by VisionTek<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 (1GB, reference clocks) by BFG Tech<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">Onboard Realtek Audio<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">250 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 hard drives<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small;\">OCZ 850 watt power supply<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"><strong>Test Configuration &#8211; Intel Hardware Penryn<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550S (engineering sample reference 2.83 GHz and overclocked to 3.5 and 4.0 GHz)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">ASUS Rampage Formula (Intel X48 chipset, latest BIOS, PCIe 2.0 specification; CrossFire 16x+16x).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">4 GB OCZ DDR2 PC8500 RAM (2&#215;2 GB, dual-channel at PC 8500 speeds)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">ATi Radeon HD 4870-X2 (2GB, reference clocks 750\/900) by VisionTek<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 (1GB, reference clocks) by BFG Tech<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">Onboard Supreme FX-II (ASUS Rampage Formula motherboard daughter-card)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">250 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 hard drives<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small;\">OCZ 850 watt power supply<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"><strong>Test Configuration &#8211; AMD Hardware<\/strong><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"> <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">Phenom II 720 X3 at 2.8 GHz and overclocked to 3.5 and 3.9 GHz<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P (latest BIOS, PCIe 2.0 specification; CrossFire 8x+8x).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">4 GB OCZ Fatal1ty DDR2-PC8500 RAM (2&#215;2 GB, dual-channel at PC 8500 speeds)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">ATi Radeon HD 4870-X2 (2GB, reference clocks 750\/900) by VisionTek<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">Nvidia GeForce GTX280 (1GB, reference clocks) by BFG Tech<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">Onboard Realtek Audio<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">250 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 hard drives<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span style=\"font-size: small\">Cooler Master Silent Power 600 M, 600 watt power supply<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #ffff00;\">Test Configuration &#8211; Software<\/span><\/strong> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">ATi Catalyst 9-9; highest quality mip-mapping set in the driver, Catalyst AI set to \u201cStandard\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">GeForce 191.07; high quality filtering; optimizations off and LOD clamp enabled<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">Windows Vista 64-bit SP1; very latest updates<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">DirectX August 2009.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">All games are patched to their latest versions.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">vsync is off in the control panel and is never set in-game.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">4xAA enabled in all games and &#8220;forced&#8221; in Catalyst Control Center for<em> UT3<\/em>; all in-game settings at &#8220;maximum&#8221; or &#8220;ultra&#8221; with 16xAF always applied<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">All results show average, minimum and maximum frame rates except as noted.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">Highest quality sound (stereo) used in all games.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">Vista 64, all DX10 titles were run under DX10 render paths<\/span><\/li>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: Test Configuration--><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2><strong><strong>3DMark06<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>3DMark06 still remains the number one utility used for a system benchmark. We find that it is mostly useful for tracking changes within a single system. There are four \u201cmini-games\u201d that it uses for benchmarking graphics, as well as two CPU tests. The scores are weighed and added together to give an overall \u201cscore\u201d and there is a further frame rate breakdown possible with these mini-games that we are charting for you.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/3dmark06-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"3DMark06\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/3dmark06_thumb-jpg.jpg?resize=244%2C196\" border=\"0\" alt=\"3DMark06\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Above is a scene from\u00a0 3DMark06. \u00a0 These tests will still give your PC a real workout even though its default resolution is only 1280\u00d71024.\u00a0 Here are the results of our 3DMark06 benchmark comparison using the benchmark at its default settings:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/3dm06.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13042\" title=\"3DM06\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/3dm06.jpg?resize=507%2C564\" alt=\"3DM06\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/3dm06.jpg?resize=507%2C564 634w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/3dm06-269x300.jpg 269w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 507px) 100vw, 507px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Well, if the synthetics are anything to go by, Core i7 &#8220;wins&#8221;.\u00a0 Now let&#8217;s check the mini-games which are used to benchmark graphics performance:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/3dm06_mg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13037\" title=\"3DM06_MG\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/3dm06_mg.jpg?resize=514%2C549\" alt=\"3DM06_MG\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/3dm06_mg.jpg?resize=514%2C549 634w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/3dm06_mg-280x300.jpg 280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 514px) 100vw, 514px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As though we were \u2018playing\u2019 the 3DMark06 mini-games, we note the frame rate rankings and note that all three of our CPUs scale with the core clock increase.\u00a0 If they were games, they would all be quite playable and they would be indistinguishable from each others platform.\u00a0 So, let\u2019s move on to our second synthetic benchmark, Vantage.<br \/>\n<!--pagetitle: 3DMark06--><\/p>\n<h2><!--nextpage--><strong>Vantage<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Vantage is Futuremark\u2019s latest test. It is really useful for tracking changes in a<em> single <\/em>system \u2013 especially driver changes. There are two mini-game tests, <em>Jane Nash<\/em> and <em>Calico<\/em> and also two CPU tests, but we are still focusing on the graphics performance.<\/p>\n<p>Here is a scene from Vantage\u2019s second mini-game.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/3dmarkvantage-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"3DMarkVantage\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/3dmarkvantage_thumb-jpg.jpg?resize=244%2C154\" border=\"0\" alt=\"3DMarkVantage\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Let\u2019s go right to the graphs and first check the Basic Tests with the default benchmark scores:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/vantage_basic.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13052\" title=\"Vantage_Basic\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/vantage_basic.jpg?resize=505%2C561\" alt=\"Vantage_Basic\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/vantage_basic.jpg?resize=505%2C561 631w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/vantage_basic-270x300.jpg 270w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 505px) 100vw, 505px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Again a nice advantage for Core i7 but they are really just meaningless numbers.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/vantage_mg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13053\" title=\"Vantage_MG\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/vantage_mg.jpg?resize=515%2C566\" alt=\"Vantage_MG\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/vantage_mg.jpg?resize=515%2C566 644w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/vantage_mg-272x300.jpg 272w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 515px) 100vw, 515px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We note the frame rates with our GTX 280 and with the HD 4870-X2 and all three of our CPUs.\u00a0 Enough of the synthetics as we move on to PC games and to real world situations!<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: Vantage--><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2><em><strong>Call of Juarez<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/coj_dx10-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"CoJ_DX10\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/coj_dx10_thumb-jpg.jpg?resize=244%2C154\" border=\"0\" alt=\"CoJ_DX10\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a> <em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Call of Juarez<\/em> is one of the very earliest DX10 games. Techland\u2019s <em>Call of Juarez<\/em> is loosely based on Spaghetti Westerns that became popular in the early 1970s. <em>Call of Juarez <\/em>features its Chrome Engine using Shader Model 4 with DirectX 10. Our benchmark isn\u2019t built into <em>Call of Juarez, <\/em>but is an official stand-alone that is identical to the one that is built-into the game.\u00a0 It runs a simple flyby of a level that is created to showcase its DX10 effects. It offers good repeatability and it is a good stress test for DX10 features in graphics cards, although it is not quite the same as actual gameplay because the game logic and AI are stripped out of this demo.<\/p>\n<p>Performing <em>Call of Juarez<\/em> benchmark is easy. You are presented with a simple menu to choose resolution, anti-aliasing, and two choices of shadow quality options. We set the shadow quality on \u201chigh\u201d and the shadow map resolution to the maximum, 2048\u00d72048. At the end of the run, the demo presents you with the minimum, maximum, and average frame rate, along with the option to quit or run the benchmark again. We always ran the benchmark at least a second time and recorded that generally higher score.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Here are <em>Call of Juarez<\/em> DX10 benchmark results at 1920\u00d71200:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/coj_19.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13047\" title=\"CoJ_19\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/coj_19.jpg?resize=509%2C563\" alt=\"CoJ_19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/coj_19.jpg?resize=509%2C563 636w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/coj_19-271x300.jpg 271w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 509px) 100vw, 509px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Call of Juarez<\/em> shows very little difference at 1920&#215;1200 resolutions with either the HD 4870-X2 or our GTX 280.\u00a0 There is only one oddity with the GTX 280 paired with the\u00a0 Q9550S where maximums and averages take a big jump over our other CPUs.\u00a0 Clearly frame rates are mostly dependent on the graphics cards, not the CPU in <em>Call of Juarez<\/em>.\u00a0 Now on to 1650&#215;1080 resolution:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/coj_16.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13054\" title=\"CoJ_16\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/coj_16.jpg?resize=513%2C568\" alt=\"CoJ_16\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/coj_16.jpg?resize=513%2C568 641w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/coj_16-270x300.jpg 270w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 513px) 100vw, 513px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here it again appears that simple clockspeed is not the biggest variable.\u00a0 The Phenom II at its stock speed is a little weaker than our other CPUs in the minimums and averages when paired with our HD 4870-X2.\u00a0 However, there is really no practical difference in the game playing experience once the Phenom II is overclocked.\u00a0 However,\u00a0 with our GTX 280 at 1920\u00d71200 we see that there is not a lot of difference with any CPU.<\/p>\n<p>It really takes our multi-GPU video card to play <em>Call of Juarez<\/em> fully maxed out.\u00a0 The HD 4870-X2\u2019s frame rates are completely satisfactory at 1920\u00d71200 with completely maxed-out details and with 4xAA\/16xAF applied with any of our CPUs.\u00a0 To play <em>Call of Juarez<\/em> satisfactorily with the GTX 280, you will need to lower some details and\/or AA with any CPU you choose.\u00a0 Clearly this game is dependent on the graphics once you get a reasonably fast CPU to pair it with.<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: Call of Juarez--><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2><em><strong>CRYSIS<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/crysis64_1-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"crysis64_1\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/crysis64_1_thumb-jpg.jpg?resize=244%2C154\" border=\"0\" alt=\"crysis64_1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Next we move on to <em>Crysis,<\/em> a science fiction first person shooter by Crytek. It remains one of the most demanding games for any PC and it is also still one of the most beautiful games released to date. <em>Crysis <\/em>is based in a fictional near-future where an alien spacecraft is discovered buried on an island near the coast of Korea. The single-player campaign has you assume the role of USA Delta Force, \u2018Nomad\u2019 who is armed with futuristic weapons and equipment. <em>Crysis<\/em> uses DirectX10 for graphics rendering.<\/p>\n<p>A standalone but related game, <em>Crysis Warhead<\/em> was released last year. CryEngine2 is the game engine used to power <em>Crysis<\/em> and <em>Warhead <\/em>and it is an extended version of the CryEngine that also powers <em>FarCry<\/em>.\u00a0 As well as supporting Shader Model 2.0, 3.0, and DirectX10\u2019s 4.0, CryEngine2 is also multi-threaded to take advantage of dual core SMP-aware systems and Crytek has developed their own proprietary physics system, called CryPhysics. However, it is noted that actually playing this game is a bit slower than the demo implies.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>G<\/strong><strong>PU Demo, Island<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>All of our settings are set to \u2018maximum\u2019 including 4xAA and we force 16xAF in the control panel. Here is<em> Crysis\u2019 Island Demo <\/em>benchmark, first at 1920\u00d71200 resolution with the HD 4870-X2, the GTX 280, and our three CPUs; but we will save our comments until after our charts are displayed:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/crysis_19.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13091\" title=\"Crysis_19\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/crysis_19.jpg?resize=508%2C567\" alt=\"Crysis_19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/crysis_19.jpg?resize=508%2C567 635w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/crysis_19-268x300.jpg 268w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 508px) 100vw, 508px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">And now at 1680&#215;1050:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/crysis_16.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13095\" title=\"Crysis_16\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/crysis_16.jpg?resize=507%2C570\" alt=\"Crysis_16\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/crysis_16.jpg?resize=507%2C570 634w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/crysis_16-266x300.jpg 266w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 507px) 100vw, 507px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Crysis<\/em> is quite playable with our HD 4870-X2 and with all of our overclocked CPUs, even with 4xAA\/16xAF, if you are willing to tweak some of your settings a bit downward.\u00a0 Here we generally see our overclocked CPUs sitting within a couple of frames per second, except at 1680\u00d71050 with the HD 4870-X2 where the Q9550S pulls ahead &#8211; even over Core i7.\u00a0 Pure core speed is most important with our slower stock clocked tri-core losing to both of the faster-clocked Intel CPUs.<\/p>\n<p>With the GTX 280, there is very little difference in the frame rates no matter where we look at either resolution.\u00a0 At most, one or two frames per second separate the fastest CPU from the slowest.<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: Crysis--><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2><strong><em>S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Clear Sky<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/stalker_cs-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"STALKER_CS\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/stalker_cs_thumb-jpg.jpg?resize=244%2C154\" border=\"0\" alt=\"STALKER_CS\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Prologue:<\/em> <em>S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Clear Sky<\/em> became a brand new DX10 benchmark for us when GSC Game World released a prequel story expansion to the original <em>Shadows of Chernobyl, <\/em>last year. Both games have non-linear storylines which feature role-playing game elements. In<em> <\/em>both games, the player assumes the identity of a S.T.A.L.K.E.R.; an illegal artifact scavenger in \u201cThe Zone\u201d which encompasses about 30 square kilometers. It is the location of an alternate reality story surrounding the Chernobyl Power Plant after another (fictitious) explosion.<\/p>\n<p><em>S.T.A.L.K.E.R.<\/em>, <em>Clear Sky<\/em> features \u201ca living breathing world\u201d with highly developed NPC creature AI.<em> <\/em>It<em> <\/em>uses the X-ray Engine \u2013 a DirectX8.1\/9\/DX10\/10.1 Shader model 3.0 &amp; 4.0 graphics engine featuring HDR, parallax and normal mapping, soft shadows, motion blur, weather effects and day-to-night cycles. As with other engines using deferred shading, the original DX9c X-ray Engine does not support anti-aliasing with dynamic lighting enabled, although the DX10 version does.<\/p>\n<p>We are using the stand-alone \u201cofficial\u201d benchmark by <em>Clear Sky\u2019s <\/em>creators. <em>Clear Sky<\/em> is top-notch and worthy to be <em>S.T.A.L.K.E.R\u2019<\/em>s successor with even more awesome DX10 effects which help to create and enhance their game\u2019s already incredible atmosphere. Unfortunately, DX10 comes with steep hardware requirements and this new game really needs multi-GPU to run at its maximum settings. We picked the most stressful test out of the four, \u201cSun shafts\u201d. It brings the heaviest penalty due to its extreme use of shaders to create DX10\/DX10.1 effects. We ran this benchmark fully maxed out in DX10.0 with \u201cultra\u201d settings plus 4xAA, but did not apply edge-detect MSAA which chokes performance even further.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">We present<em> S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Clear Sky<\/em> DX10 benchmark \u201cSun shafts\u201d at 1920\u00d71200:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/cs_19.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13096\" title=\"CS_19\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/cs_19.jpg?resize=510%2C567\" alt=\"CS_19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/cs_19.jpg?resize=510%2C567 638w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/cs_19-269x300.jpg 269w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Now at 1680&#215;1050:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/cs_16.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13097\" title=\"CS_16\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/cs_16.jpg?resize=511%2C565\" alt=\"CS_16\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/cs_16.jpg?resize=511%2C565 639w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/cs_16-271x300.jpg 271w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 511px) 100vw, 511px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This time, with our HD 4870-X2 or our GTX 280 we do not see much variance in frame rates anywhere.\u00a0 Less than two or three frames per second separate the fastest CPU from the slowest one &#8211; and that is generally at the maximum which makes zero difference to the playing experience. Practically there is no real difference gained with any CPU; the video card will make the most difference with <em>Clear Sky\u2019s<\/em> performance.<\/p>\n<p>Are we starting to see a pattern?<br \/>\n<!--pagetitle: SALKER, Clear Sky--><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2><em><strong>PT Boats: Knights of the Sea<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/ptboats-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"PT-Boats\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/ptboats_thumb-jpg.jpg?resize=244%2C154\" border=\"0\" alt=\"PT-Boats\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>PT Boats: Knights of the Sea <\/em>is a stand-alone DX10 benchmark utility released by Akella last year. It is actually a tech demo of their upcoming simulation-action game. This DX10 benchmark test runs reliably and apparently provides very accurate and repeatable results.<\/p>\n<p>We set the only settings options available to us as follows:<\/p>\n<p>DirectX Version: DirectX 10<br \/>\nResolution: 1920\u00d71600 and 1680\u00d71050 at 60 Hz<br \/>\nImage Quality: High<br \/>\nAnti aliasing: 4x<\/p>\n<p><strong><em> <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Here are the results of the<em> PT Boats<\/em> DX10 benchmark, first at 1920\u00d71200:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/pt_19.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13098\" title=\"PT_19\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/pt_19.jpg?resize=511%2C564\" alt=\"PT_19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/pt_19.jpg?resize=511%2C564 639w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/pt_19-271x300.jpg 271w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 511px) 100vw, 511px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Now at 1680&#215;1050 resolution:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/pt_16.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13099\" title=\"PT_16\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/pt_16.jpg?resize=506%2C565\" alt=\"PT_16\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/pt_16.jpg?resize=506%2C565 632w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/pt_16-268x300.jpg 268w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 506px) 100vw, 506px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We note that with our HD 4870-X2 we see the stock Phenom II lagging a bit behind the Q9550S and Core i7 \u2013 until it is overclocked.\u00a0 Strangely, our Core i7 seems to have the worst minimums when paired with our HD 4870-X2, but not with the GTX 280.\u00a0 It could be driver issues or perhaps something to do with i7&#8217;s hyper-threading. We feel that most users with i7 will not do any adjustments in their BIOS just to play games, so we left hyper-threading on for all of our current testing.\u00a0 Soon we will begin to test with it on versus off to see if this is an issue with some games.\u00a0 With our single GPU, GTX 280, there is no practical difference running <em>PT Boats<\/em> on any CPU.<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: PT Boats--><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2><em><strong>FarCry 2<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/farcry2-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"farcry2\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/farcry2_thumb-jpg.jpg?resize=244%2C154\" border=\"0\" alt=\"farcry2\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>F<\/em><em>ar Cry 2 <\/em>uses the name of the original <em>Far Cry <\/em>but it is not connected to the first game as it brings you a new setting and a new story. Ubisoft created it based on their Dunia Engine. The game setting takes place in an unnamed African country, during an uprising between two rival warring factions<em>.<\/em> Your mission is to kill \u201cThe Jackal\u201d; the Nietzsche-quoting mercenary that arms both sides of the conflict that you are dropped into.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Far Cry 2 <\/em>game world is loaded in the background and on the fly to create a completely seamless open world. The Dunia game engine provides good visuals that scale well. The<em> Far Cry 2<\/em> design team actually went to Africa to give added realism to this game. One thing to especially note is <em>Far Cry 2\u2019s <\/em>very realistic fire propagation by their engine that is a far cry from the scripted fire and explosions that we are used to seeing.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">First we test <em>Far Cry 2<\/em> benchmark at 1920\u00d71200 \u2013 both of the resolutions we tested at are with AI enabled:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/fc2_19fix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13129\" title=\"FC2_19Fix\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/fc2_19fix.jpg?resize=510%2C567\" alt=\"FC2_19Fix\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/fc2_19fix.jpg?resize=510%2C567 637w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/fc2_19fix-269x300.jpg 269w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">This time Core i7 is slower when paired with our GTX 280 and a tad faster with the HD 4870-X2 but not enough to make any practical difference. Now let&#8217;s check out 1680X1050:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/fc2_16.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13101\" title=\"FC2_16\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/fc2_16.jpg?resize=509%2C568\" alt=\"FC2_16\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/fc2_16.jpg?resize=509%2C568 636w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/fc2_16-268x300.jpg 268w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 509px) 100vw, 509px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We see the same thing with 1920&#215;1200 as we do with 1680&#215;1050.\u00a0 Both of our video cards can play <em>Far Cry 2<\/em> very satisfactorily at the resolutions chosen for them with any CPU including the Phenom II at its stock clock at even the minimum frame rate, although it has a nice increase when it is overclocked and especially when paired with our HD 4870-X2.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, we see that the results are mixed with our GTX 280 and this time our Phenom II 720 X3 trades blows with the Q9550S and even beats the Core i7 in the minimums and averages.\u00a0 One would hope that you did not upgrade to Core i7 just to play <em>Far Cry 2<\/em>, although its performance results are still very good.<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: Far Cry 2--><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2><strong><em>World in Conflict<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/wic-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"wic\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/wic_thumb-jpg.jpg?resize=244%2C154\" border=\"0\" alt=\"wic\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>World In Conflict<\/em> is set in an alternate history Earth where the Cold War did not end and Russia invaded the USA in 1989 and the remaining Americans decided to strike back. <em>World in Conflict (WiC)<\/em> is a real-time tactical\/strategy video game developed by Massive Entertainment. Although it is generally considered a real-time strategy (RTS) game, <em>World in Conflict <\/em>includes gameplay typical of real-time tactical (RTT) games. <em>WiC<\/em> is filled with real vehicles from both the Russian and the American military. There are also tactical aids, including calling in massive bombing raids, access to chemical warfare, nuclear weapons, and far more.<\/p>\n<p>Here is yet another amazing and very customizable and detailed DX10 benchmark that is available in-game or as a stand-alone. The particle effects and explosions in <em>World in Conflict<\/em> are truly spectacular! Every setting is fully maxed out. First we see the results at 1920\u00d71200 resolution:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/wic_19.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13105\" title=\"WiC_19\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/wic_19.jpg?resize=515%2C566\" alt=\"WiC_19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/wic_19.jpg?resize=515%2C566 644w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/wic_19-272x300.jpg 272w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 515px) 100vw, 515px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">And now at 1680&#215;1050:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/wic_16.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13106\" title=\"WiC_16\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/wic_16.jpg?resize=511%2C567\" alt=\"WiC_16\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/wic_16.jpg?resize=511%2C567 639w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/wic_16-270x300.jpg 270w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 511px) 100vw, 511px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This time the HD 4870-X2 is really handicapped by two factors with our Phenom II X3.\u00a0 First, its stock clock speed is barely enough to keep <em>World in Conflict<\/em>&#8216;s minimum frame rates\u00a0 in the teens; an overclock is <em>required<\/em> to do better.\u00a0 Secondly, it appears that the Core i7 and the Q9550S &#8220;extra&#8221; core makes a small difference over tri-core.\u00a0 We will test AMD&#8217;s quad- versus tri- and dual-core in part two of this review to get a better idea of how much difference the number of cores make to this game&#8217;s performance.\u00a0 We also see great scaling with CPU speed and this time our Core i7 pulls ahead of Penryn and Phenom II.<\/p>\n<p>This same pattern with our HD 4870-X2 is repeated with the GTX 280 \u2013 clock speed matters and evidently more than a dual-core CPU is needed for the minimums of <em>World in Conflict<\/em>.\u00a0 We even note that our Intel quad-core CPUs at 3.5 GHz are pulling away from the AMD tri-core clocked +400 MHz higher.<\/p>\n<p>Finally we see a &#8220;win&#8221; for Core i7.<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: World in Conflict--><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2><strong><em>X3: Terran Conflict<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/x3tc-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"X3TC\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/x3tc_thumb-jpg.jpg?resize=244%2C154\" border=\"0\" alt=\"X3TC\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>X3:Terran Conflict<\/em><em> (X3:TC) <\/em>is another beautiful stand-alone benchmark that runs multiple tests and will really strain a lot of video cards. <em>X3:TC <\/em>is a space trading and combat simulator from Egosoft and is the most recent of their X-series of computer games. <em>X3:TC<\/em> is a standalone expansion of <em>X3: Reunion<\/em>, based in the same universe and on the same engine. It complements the story of previous games in the X-Universe and especially continues the events after the end of <em>X3: Reunion<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Compared to<em> Reunion, Terran Conflict<\/em> features a larger universe, more ships, and of course, new missions. The X-Universe is huge. The Terran faction was added with their own set of technology including powerful ships and stations. Many new weapons systems were developed for the expansion and it has generally received good reviews. It has a rather steep learning curve.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">First we note the results at 1920\u00d71200:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/x3tc_19.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13107\" title=\"X3TC_19\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/x3tc_19.jpg?resize=511%2C565\" alt=\"X3TC_19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/x3tc_19.jpg?resize=511%2C565 639w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/x3tc_19-271x300.jpg 271w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 511px) 100vw, 511px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Now at 1680&#215;1050:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/x3tc_16.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13324\" title=\"X3TC_16\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/x3tc_16.jpg?resize=510%2C571\" alt=\"X3TC_16\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/x3tc_16.jpg?resize=510%2C571 637w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/x3tc_16-267x300.jpg 267w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>There is no reason to be dissatisfied with any of the configurations that we tested, except at the minimums.\u00a0 Playing with the HD 4870-X2, we prefer the fastest clock speed possible from any CPU although the Phenom II lags behind the Intel CPUs.\u00a0 With the GTX 280, we would generally prefer our Core i7 CPU if at the same clocks as our Q9550S or AMD CPU.\u00a0 Core i7 wins for the second time, but not by much over Penryn.<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: X3 - Terran Conflict--><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2><em><strong>Enemy Territory: <strong>Quake Wars <\/strong><\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/etqw_image-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"etqw_image\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/etqw_image_thumb-jpg.jpg?resize=244%2C154\" border=\"0\" alt=\"etqw_image\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Enemy Territory: Quake Wars <\/em>is an objective-driven, class-based first person shooter set in the Quake universe. It was developed by id Software and Splash Damage and published by Activision. <em>Quake Wars<\/em> pits the combined human armies of the Global Defense Force against the technologically superior Strogg, an alien race who has come to earth to use humans for spare parts and food. It allows you to play a part, probably best as an online multi-player experience, in the battles waged around the world in mankind\u2019s desperate war to survive.<\/p>\n<p><em>Quake Wars<\/em> is an OpenGL game based on id\u2019s Doom3 game engine with the addition of their MegaTexture technology. It also supports some of the latest 3D effects seen in today\u2019s games, including soft particles, although it is somewhat dated and less demanding on video cards than many DX10 games. id\u2019s MegaTexture technology is designed to provide very large maps without having to reuse the same textures over and over again. For our benchmark we chose the flyby, <em>Salvage Demo<\/em>. It is one of the most graphically demanding of all the flybys and it is very repeatable and reliable in its results. It is fairly close to what you will experience in-game. All of our settings are set to \u2018maximum\u2019 and we also apply 4xAA\/16xAF in game.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">First we test at 1920\u00d71200 resolution:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/etqw_19.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13110\" title=\"ETQW_19\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/etqw_19.jpg?resize=514%2C565\" alt=\"ETQW_19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/etqw_19.jpg?resize=514%2C565 642w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/etqw_19-272x300.jpg 272w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 514px) 100vw, 514px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>Now at 1680&#215;1050:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/etqw_16.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13111\" title=\"ETQW_16\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/etqw_16.jpg?resize=509%2C568\" alt=\"ETQW_16\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/etqw_16.jpg?resize=509%2C568 636w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/etqw_16-268x300.jpg 268w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 509px) 100vw, 509px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>We would like to point out that the results of our <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=10085&amp;page=12\">last testing<\/a> with Catalyst 9-6 and our Phenom II CPUs were evidently in error.\u00a0 The results of the Phenom II&#8217;s frame rates were evidently overstated.\u00a0 We cannot go back in time to find out exactly why; however, when we set up the older drivers on this install, the results are very similar to what we are posting here.<\/p>\n<p>At any rate, all of these video cards and CPU combinations at any clockspeed have no trouble handling this game fully maxed out.\u00a0 Phenom II at all of its tested clocks, trades blows with Penryn and Core i7.<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: ET:QW--><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2><em><strong>F.E.A.R.<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/fear-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"FEAR\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/fear_thumb-jpg.jpg?resize=244%2C184\" border=\"0\" alt=\"FEAR\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>F.E.A.R. \u2013 First Encounter Armed Assault<\/em> \u2013 is a DX9c game by Monolith Productions that was originally released in October 2005 by Vivendi Universal Production. Later, there were two expansions with the latest, <em>Perseus Mandate<\/em>, released in 2007. Although the game engine is aging, it still has some of the most spectacular effects of any game. <em>F.E.A.R.<\/em> showcases a powerful particle system, complete with sparks and smoke for collisions as well as featuring bullet marks and other effects including \u201csoft shadows\u201d. This is highlighted by the built-in performance test, although it was never updated. This performance test will tell you how<em> F.E.A.R.<\/em> will run, but both of its expansions are progressively more demanding on your PC graphics and will run slower than the demo. We always run at least two sets of tests with all in-game features at \u2018maximum\u2019. <em>F.E.A.R.<\/em> uses the Jupiter Extended Technology engine from Touchdown Entertainment.<\/p>\n<p>We test with the most demanding settings. Fully maxed details with 4xAA\/16xAF; soft shadows \u2018off\u2019, as they do not play well with AA. Let\u2019s start first at 1920\u00d71200:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/fear_19.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13112\" title=\"FEAR_19\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/fear_19.jpg?resize=512%2C566\" alt=\"FEAR_19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/fear_19.jpg?resize=512%2C566 640w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/fear_19-271x300.jpg 271w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Now at 1680&#215;1050:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/fear_16.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13113\" title=\"FEAR_16\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/fear_16.jpg?resize=529%2C567\" alt=\"FEAR_16\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/fear_16.jpg?resize=529%2C567 661w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/fear_16-279x300.jpg 279w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 529px) 100vw, 529px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In this case, our GTX 280 has the best minimum frame rates as the HD 4870-X2 still appears to be having driver issues and some hiccups with its minimums as it did with the earlier Catalyst drivers.\u00a0\u00a0 Even so, there\u00a0 is not much difference between the fastest and the slowest CPU with either card as the maximums are already ridiculously high; it doesn&#8217;t matter if Core i7 has maximums in the 600s while Phenom II is in the 400 frames per second rate range.\u00a0 There is really no practical difference that you will see playing<em> F.E.A.R.<\/em> with any CPU combination we tested.<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: F.E.A.R.--><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2><strong><em>Lost Planet <\/em><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/lostplanet-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"LostPlanet\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/lostplanet_thumb-jpg.jpg?resize=244%2C154\" border=\"0\" alt=\"LostPlanet\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Lost Planet: Extreme Condition<\/em> is a Capcom port of an Xbox 360 game. It takes place on the icy planet of E.D.N. III which is filled with monsters, pirates, big guns, and huge bosses. This frozen world highlights high dynamic range lighting (HDR) as the snow-white environment reflects blinding sunlight as DX10 particle systems toss snow and ice all around. The game looks great in both DirectX 9 and 10 and there isn\u2019t really much of a difference between the two versions except perhaps shadows. Unfortunately, the DX10 version doesn\u2019t look that much better when you\u2019re actually playing the game and it still runs slower than the DX9 version.<\/p>\n<p>We use the in-game performance test from the retail copy of <em>Lost Planet<\/em> and updated through Steam to the latest version for our runs. This run isn\u2019t completely scripted as the creatures act a little differently each time you run it, requiring multiple runs. <em>Lost Planet\u2019s Snow<\/em> and <em>Cave<\/em> demos are run continuously by the performance test and blend into each other.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Here are our benchmark results with the more demanding benchmark, <em>Snow<\/em>. All settings are fully maxed out in-game including 4xAA\/16xAF.\u00a0 First at 1920\u00d71200 resolution:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/lp_19.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13114\" title=\"LP_19\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/lp_19.jpg?resize=510%2C568\" alt=\"LP_19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/lp_19.jpg?resize=510%2C568 638w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/lp_19-269x300.jpg 269w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">And now at 1680&#215;1050:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/lp_16.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13115\" title=\"LP_16\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/lp_16.jpg?resize=511%2C569\" alt=\"LP_16\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/lp_16.jpg?resize=511%2C569 639w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/lp_16-269x300.jpg 269w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 511px) 100vw, 511px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here we see that CPU clock speed is not important with<em> Lost Planet <\/em>with either of our video cards.\u00a0 There is no real difference with any combination of hardware that we used at either resolution.\u00a0 If anything, Phenom II is the strongest in the minimums over both Core i7 and\u00a0 Penryn when paired with our HD 4870-X2.<br \/>\n<!--pagetitle: Lost Planet--><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2><em><strong>Unreal Tournament 3<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/ut3-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"UT3\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/ut3_thumb-jpg.jpg?resize=244%2C154\" border=\"0\" alt=\"UT3\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Unreal Tournament 3 (UT3)<\/em> is the fourth game in the Unreal Tournament series. <em>UT3<\/em> is a first-person shooter and online multiplayer video game by Epic Games. <em>Unreal Tournament 3<\/em> provides a good balance between image quality and performance, rendering complex scenes well even on lower-end PCs. Of course, on high-end graphics cards you can really turn up the detail. <em>UT3<\/em> is primarily an online multiplayer title offering several game modes and it also includes an offline single-player game with a campaign.<\/p>\n<p>For our tests, we used the very latest game patch for <em>Unreal Tournament 3,<\/em> released after its \u2018Titan\u2019 pack. The game doesn\u2019t have a built-in benchmarking tool, so we used FRAPS and did a fly-by of a chosen level. Here we note that performance numbers reported are a bit higher than compared to in-game. The map we use is called \u201cContainment\u201d and it is one of the most demanding of the fly-bys. Our tests were run at resolutions of 1920 x 1200 and 1680 x 1050 with <em>UT3\u2019s<\/em> in-game graphics options set to their maximum values.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">One drawback of the way the UT3 engine is designed is that there is no support for anti-aliasing built inso we forced 4xAA in each vendor\u2019s control panel. We record a demo in the game and a set number of frames are saved in a file for playback. When playing back the demo, the game engine then renders the frames as quickly as possible, which is why you will often see it playing it back more quickly than you would actually play the game.<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Here is <em>Containment Demo<\/em>, first at 1920\u00d71200 with our two video cards shown side-by-side:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/ut3_19.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13117\" title=\"UT3_19\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/ut3_19.jpg?resize=506%2C569\" alt=\"UT3_19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/ut3_19.jpg?resize=506%2C569 633w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/ut3_19-267x300.jpg 267w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 506px) 100vw, 506px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Now at 1680&#215;1050:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/ut3_16.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13118\" title=\"UT3_16\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/ut3_16.jpg?resize=514%2C569\" alt=\"UT3_16\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/ut3_16.jpg?resize=514%2C569 642w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/ut3_16-270x300.jpg 270w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 514px) 100vw, 514px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>There is absolutely no problem playing this game fully maxed out with any of our video cards and with any of our CPUs at our chosen resolutions.\u00a0 We do notice that both overclocking and the amount of cores do make a difference with the Unreal engine; there is good scaling from both overclocking and from moving from tri- to the quad-core CPUs.<\/p>\n<p>Next time, we will include Phenom II 550 X2, 720 X3 and Phenom II 955 X4 so that we can directly compare AMD&#8217;s CPU performance in this game.<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: Unreal Tournament 3--><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2><em><strong>Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/iw3-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"iw3\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/iw3_thumb-jpg.jpg?resize=244%2C154\" border=\"0\" alt=\"iw3\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (CoD4)<\/em> is a first person shooter running on a custom engine. It has nice graphics but the engine is somewhat dated compared to others and it runs well on modern PCs. It is the first <em>CoD<\/em> installment to take place in a modern setting instead of in World War II. It differs from the previous <em>Call of Duty<\/em> games by having a more film-like plot that uses intermixed story lines from two perspectives; that of a USMC sergeant and a British SAS sergeant. There is also a variety of short missions where players control other characters in flashback sequences to advance the story. <em>Call of Duty 4\u2019s<\/em> move to modern warfare introduced a variety of modern conventional weapons and technologies including plastic explosives.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">There are currently about 20 multiplayer maps in <em>CoD4<\/em>. It is very popular and there is a new expansion for it. <em>CoD Modern Warfare <strong>2<\/strong><\/em> has also just been released and we will soon add it to our benchmark suite.\u00a0 For multiplayer, <em>CoD4<\/em> includes five preset classes and introduces the Perks system. Perks are special abilities which allow users to further customize their character to suit their personal style. Our timedemo benchmark was created by ABT\u2019s own Senior Editor and lead reviewer, BFG10K. It is very accurate and totally repeatable.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Here are the results at 1920\u00d71200 resolution:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/cod4_19.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13119\" title=\"CoD4_19\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/cod4_19.jpg?resize=511%2C567\" alt=\"CoD4_19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/cod4_19.jpg?resize=511%2C567 639w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/cod4_19-270x300.jpg 270w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 511px) 100vw, 511px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">How about almost no variation between the three CPU&#8217;s performance?\u00a0 Let&#8217;s check out 1680&#215;1050:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/cod4_16.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13120\" title=\"CoD4_16\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/cod4_16.jpg?resize=510%2C568\" alt=\"CoD4_16\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/cod4_16.jpg?resize=510%2C568 637w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/cod4_16-269x300.jpg 269w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We see results similar to <em>Unreal Tournament 3<\/em>.\u00a0 A popular multiplayer game is very playable even on mid-range graphics cards from the last generation and it plays very smoothly with this generation\u2019s video cards and stock clocked CPUs.\u00a0 This time the frame rates do not even appear to be tied to the CPU\u2019s clock speed \u2013 nor the number of cores with our HD 4870-X2. We do see a bit of difference between the tri-core Phenom II in lower maximums than our two Intel quads, but all of our tested configurations just breeze through this benchmark.<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: CoD4 MW--><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2><em><strong>Half-Life 2: Lost Coast<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/hl22-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"hl2-2\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/hl22_thumb-jpg.jpg?resize=244%2C154\" border=\"0\" alt=\"hl2-2\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Half-Life 2<\/em> is still a popular game and it is the oldest game that we review for this series.\u00a0 <em>Half-Life 2: Lost Coast<\/em> is an additional level for this 2004 game. <em>Lost Coast<\/em> was released October, 2005 as a free download to all purchasers of <em>Half-Life 2. Lost Coast<\/em> was developed as a playable tech demo that was evidently intended to showcase the newly-added high definition range (HDR) lighting features of the Source Engine. A flyby of this level is played during the HL2 video stress test and it is very repeatable. All in-game settings are maxed out, including 4xAA\/16xAF.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">As usual, we test first at 1920\u00d71200:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/hl2_19.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13121\" title=\"HL2_19\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/hl2_19.jpg?resize=510%2C425\" alt=\"HL2_19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/hl2_19.jpg?resize=510%2C425 637w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/hl2_19-300x250.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">At stock clocks, our Phenom II X3 lag a bit behind the Intel quads but not so as to make any practical difference.\u00a0 Let&#8217;s check out 1680&#215;1050:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/hl2_16.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13122\" title=\"HL2_16\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/hl2_16.jpg?resize=511%2C430\" alt=\"HL2_16\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/hl2_16.jpg?resize=511%2C430 639w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/hl2_16-300x252.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 511px) 100vw, 511px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Although all of our configurations breeze through this benchmark, clock speed makes the biggest difference in the frame rates we experience with our two video cards.\u00a0 Perhaps the Source engine slightly favors Penryn over Phenom II or the tri-core is slightly handicapped compared to the quad; but that is left for our next testing with Phenom II&#8217;s X4 versus X3 and versus X2.<br \/>\n<!--pagetitle: HL 2--><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2><strong><em>ARMA 2<\/em><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/arma2demo-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"ArmA2Demo\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/arma2demo_thumb-jpg.jpg?resize=244%2C154\" border=\"0\" alt=\"ArmA2Demo\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>ARMA 2 is our newest benchmark and it is taken from the third installment in their series of realistic modern military simulation games from Bohemia Interactive.\u00a0 It features a player-driven story with more than 70 weapons and over 100 different vehicles. With a game world of 225 square km that is taken from actual surveillance photos, you can expect truly massive online battles with five distinct armed groups to choose from.\u00a0 ARMA2 can be considered a tactical shooter where the player commands a squad of AI \u2013 or many squads &#8211; with elements of real-time tactics.<\/p>\n<p>ARMA 2 Demo was released in late June, 20o9 and coming in at 2.6 GB, the ARMA 2 demo allows you to experience the same game play that is featured in the full version of ARMA 2 \u2013 including multiplayer, as well as a few of the vehicles, weapons and units. The ARMA2 demo also contains a part of Chernarus terrain, a small section of the full game world set in the fictional \u201cBlack Russia\u201d. There is also a massive performance hit on any platform when maximum details are enabled at the resolutions that we test; AA is set to &#8220;high&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Here are our results at 1920\u00d71200 resolution:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/arma2_19.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13123\" title=\"ARMA2_19\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/arma2_19.jpg?resize=512%2C413\" alt=\"ARMA2_19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/arma2_19.jpg?resize=512%2C413 640w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/arma2_19-300x241.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>Clockspeed matters in ARM2 as we clearly see CPU scaling.\u00a0 Let&#8217;s look at 1680&#215;1050 results:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/arma2_16.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13124\" title=\"ARMA2_16\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/arma2_16.jpg?resize=507%2C424\" alt=\"ARMA2_16\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/arma2_16.jpg?resize=507%2C424 634w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/arma2_16-300x250.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 507px) 100vw, 507px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We see some rather interesting results with ARMA2 that require further investigation.\u00a0 It appears that there is more than just frame rate scaling tied to CPU core speed; here the tri-core 720 X3 falls behind both of the Intel quad-core CPUs.\u00a0 In this case, our Q9550S beats Core i7 in most of the test and the Phenom II is a distant third.\u00a0 We are looking forward to revisiting this benchmark with our new quad core AMD X4 CPU in part 2 of this short series.<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: ARMA2--><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2><em>Tom Clancy&#8217;s <\/em><strong><em>H.A.W.X.<\/em><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/hawx-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"HAWX\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/hawx_thumb-jpg.jpg?resize=244%2C154\" border=\"0\" alt=\"HAWX\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Tom Clancy&#8217;s H.A.W.X.<\/em> is an air combat video game developed by Ubisoft Romania and published by Ubisoft for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It was released in United States on March 6, 2009.\u00a0 You have the opportunity to fly 54 aircraft over real world locations and cities in somewhat realistic environments that are created with satellite data. This game is a more of a take on flying than a real simulation and it has received mixed reviews.<\/p>\n<p>The game story takes place during the time of <em>Tom Clancy&#8217;s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. H.A.W.X.<\/em> is set in the year 2014 where private military companies have replaced government-run military in many countries. The player is placed into the cockpit as an elite ex-military pilot who is recruited by one of these corporations to work for them as a mercenary.\u00a0 You later return to the US Air Force with a team as you try to prevent a full scale terrorist attack on the United States which was started by your former employer.<\/p>\n<p><em>H.A.W.X.<\/em> runs on DX10.1 faster and with more detail than on the DX10 pathway.\u00a0 ATI video cards can take advantage of DX10.1 while our GTX 280 is necessarily restricted to the DX10 pathway.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>H.A.W.X.<\/em> is our newest benchmark. Here are our results at 1920\u00d71200 resolution:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/hawx_19.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13125\" title=\"HAWX_19\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/hawx_19.jpg?resize=515%2C420\" alt=\"HAWX_19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/hawx_19.jpg?resize=515%2C420 644w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/hawx_19-300x244.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 515px) 100vw, 515px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Strange.\u00a0 With our HD 4870-X2, Phenom II falls behind and Core i7 wins over Penryn.\u00a0 With the GTX 280, the situation reverses and Penryn is king and Phenom II matches Q9550S and beats Core i7.\u00a0 We look forward to retesting with the next set of drivers and also including more AMD CPUs into the benchmarking mix &#8211; Phenom II&#8217;s 550 X2 and 955 X4.\u00a0 Let&#8217;s see what testing at 1680&#215;1050 shows.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/hawx_16.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13126\" title=\"HAWX_16\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/hawx_16.jpg?resize=512%2C430\" alt=\"HAWX_16\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/hawx_16.jpg?resize=512%2C430 640w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/hawx_16-300x252.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Again we see some rather interesting results with <em>H.A.W.X.<\/em> With the HD 4870-X2, the Phenom II falls behind and Core i7 beats up on Penryn.\u00a0 However, with our GTX 280, Core i7 is now beaten by Phenom II in every category and Penryn is king.<br \/>\n<!--pagetitle: H.A.W.X.--><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>This has been quite an enjoyable exploration for us in comparing our Penryn Core2Quad Intel PC with Intel&#8217;s highest performing CPU Core i7 and also with Phenom II 720 X3.\u00a0 We will continue to expand on it in the weeks to come by testing Phenom II X4 versus X3 versus X2, compared with Q9550S and Core i7.\u00a0 We will also up the graphics performance with HD 4870-X3 TriFire and perhaps also GTX 280 SLI, to see if higher performing graphics make more of a difference then they do with our current testing setup for this review.<\/p>\n<p>As you can see from our benchmarks, if you want absolutely the very fastest frame rates with your HD 4780-X2 or your GTX 280 \u2013 and cost is no object \u2013 you will chose the fastest quad-core CPU you can afford and overclock it as far as you can.\u00a0 We also see that as your video card gets more powerful, generally your CPU needs to also be progressively faster to match it.\u00a0 We noted that there was generally less difference with varying clock speeds and the amount of CPU cores needed with our single GTX 280; often the differences were magnified by using the faster HD 4870-X2.\u00a0 So, future and more powerful video card purchases should be considered whenever you upgrade your CPU.<\/p>\n<p>However, this fact is to be noted.\u00a0 If you are looking for <em>bang for buck<\/em> now, with a single video card of the HD 5870 class of card or HD 4870 CrossFire, Core i7 is absolutely overkill for gaming and often it not the fastest when compared to either our (now midrange) Q9550S or even the decidedly budget Phenom II 720 X3.<\/p>\n<p>Of our fifteen gaming benchmarks, only <em>World in Conflict <\/em>seems to really benefit from a quad-core so as to make any practical difference to the game play &#8211; and Core i7 was also the fastest.\u00a0 The rest of the benchmarks demonstrate that all three of our CPUs run fairly close in performance to each other and the results are satisfactory once they are overclocked a bit.\u00a0 We even note that overclocking is not necessary if you don&#8217;t mind sacrificing just a few frame rates.<\/p>\n<p>Our current conclusion from this and past testing would have us believe that the video card is the single most important factor for determining most game frame rates at maximum detail.\u00a0 As long as you have a decent tri- or dual-core, you are not really losing much by not having four CPU cores \u2013 other than bragging rights \u2013 in most games.<\/p>\n<p>We intend to return again to this subject in a couple of weeks as we add our brand new Phenom II X4 955 to the benching mix so that we can directly compare with our Phenom II 550 X2 and 720 X3.\u00a0 We are also expecting to add SLI to the mix in that same review.\u00a0 We will update to the next set of drivers as we continue to benchmark our CPUs with even faster graphics.\u00a0 Stay tuned.\u00a0 The fun has just begun.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, feel free to comment below, ask questions or have a detailed discussion in our ABT forum. We want you to join us and<em> Live in Our World.<\/em> It is fast expanding and we think you will like what you progressively discover here.<\/p>\n<p>Mark Poppin<\/p>\n<p>ABT Senior Editor<br \/>\n<!--pagetitle: Conclusion--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Please join us in our <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/abt\/index.php\">Forums<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow us on <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/alienbabeltech\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/twitter.com\/alienbabeltech', 'Twitter']);\" >Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n<p>For the latest updates from ABT, please <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?feed=rss2\">join our RSS News Feed<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=13034\"><img decoding=\"async\" align=top title=\"Author: Mark Poppin\" src=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/Performance-Meets-Value.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":13326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2533,7814,7],"tags":[144,392,170,1676,1916,190],"class_list":["post-13034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abt-news","category-articles","category-technology","tag-core-i7","tag-cpu-scaling","tag-gtx280","tag-hd-4870-x2","tag-phenom-ii-720-x3","tag-q9550s"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}