{"id":22167,"date":"2010-11-25T16:47:30","date_gmt":"2010-11-25T16:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=22167"},"modified":"2010-12-02T03:15:18","modified_gmt":"2010-12-02T03:15:18","slug":"core-i7-vs-phenom-ii-x2-vs-x4-scaling-performance-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/core-i7-vs-phenom-ii-x2-vs-x4-scaling-performance-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"Core i7 vs. Phenom II X2 vs. X4 scaling performance analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><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>The review that we are presenting today evaluates the GTX 480, the HD 5870 and HD 5870 CrossFire with three CPUs from 2.6 to 3.6 GHz. \u00a0 It is an update to last November&#8217;s\u00a0 \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=13034\">Performance Meets Value<\/a>\u201d series where we used our GTX 280 and the HD 4870-X2 to benchmark our then brand-new Intel\u2019s Core i7-920 processor against the Phenom II 550 X2 and 720 X3 and also against our Q9550S at speeds up to 4.0 GHz.\u00a0 We concluded that series where we additionally benchmarked the Phenom II 955 X4 with our HD 4870-X2 and  HD 4870-X3 Tri-Fire in \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=14309\">Core i7 vs. Penryn vs. Phenom II with HD 4870-X2 &amp; TriFire<\/a>\u201d  which we published this January, 2010.<\/p>\n<p>Here is our conclusion from almost exactly one year ago and today we want to see if anything has changed over the past 12 months:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>If you are looking for bang for buck  now, with a single video card of the HD 5870 class of card or HD 4870  CrossFire, Core i7 is generally overkill for gaming and often it not the  fastest when compared to either our (now midrange) Q9550S or even the  decidedly budget Phenom IIs.  Of our fifteen gaming benchmarks, even with our HD 4870-X3 Tri-Fire  setup, 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 \u2013 and Core i7  was also the fastest.<\/p>\n<p>The rest of the benchmarks demonstrate that all  five of our CPUs run fairly close in performance to each other and the  results are satisfactory once they are overclocked a bit. We even note  that overclocking is not necessary if you don\u2019t mind sacrificing just a  few frame rates.  Our current conclusion from this and past testing would still confirm  that graphics are the single most important factor for determining most  game frame rates at maximum detail \u2013 not the CPU. 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>Our current performance versus value series has drawn to a close \u2013 for  now. We will revisit it in the future when we have much faster graphics  than our HD 4870-X3 Tri-Fire setup \u2013 perhaps with Fermi SLI or with HD  5870 CrossFire, this coming year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>That future is now, and we are expanding on our old review with more games to benchmark and powerful graphics: HD 5870, GTX 480 and HD 5870 CrossFire.\u00a0 And this time for our three competing CPU platforms, we are going to include AMD\u2019s 955 X4 and 550 X2 to test against our Core i7-920 at 3 core speeds. That means that we are now benchmarking with three CPUs at three clockspeeds each; 2.6 GHz, 3.2 GHz and 3.6 GHz. In over a month of solid benchmarking \u2013 literally hundreds of individual benchmark runs which we have gathered, analyzed and charted for you \u2013 we now have some more solid evidence which finally answers the question as to what kind of CPU is needed for really fast graphics at the end of 2010.<span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><em> <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <span style=\"font-size: small;\">We are continuing to test at two of the most popular demanding wide-screen resolutions, 1680&#215;1050 and 1920&#215;1200, plus at 2560&#215;1600.\u00a0 We use 4xAA or 8xAA plus 16xAF and with maximum DX11\/10.1\/10\/9c details whenever it is available and with our CPU underclocked to 2.6 GHz, at 3.2 GHz and overclocked each to 3.6 GHz to demonstrate CPU scaling with framerates.  We are particularly going to pay attention to our HD 5870 in CrossFire compared to the HD 5870 and GTX 480 by comparing framerates with our 3 CPUs at three clock speeds each.\u00a0 We have also condensed our usual charts so that only one is used for each resolution that we test at.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>We are benching our three CPU platforms with the GTX 480 our HD 5870, and HD 5870 CrossFire as the fastest graphics available to us this last Summer when we did the testing.\u00a0 Although this review got delayed by the flood of new hardware that ABT has received for evaluation over the past few months, it is still just as up to date as if it were benched with the latest drivers from this month as it will clearly show relative performance with CPU cores and scaling.<\/p>\n<p>For all of our testing in this review, we are benching with Catalyst 10-6 and GeForce 257.21 WHQL drivers; each one a very solid and stable driver set. We will now use our highest performing Phenom II, 955 X4, in addition to 550 X2 so as to test AMD quad- and dual-core CPUs against our quad-core Core i7 920 with HyperThreading on. So now we have a very high-performing and rather expensive Intel Core i7 system to set alongside the decidedly value AMD Phenom II X2 and X4. We will test each of our three video card configurations with each of our three CPUs at 2.6 GHz, 3.2 GHz and at 3.6 GHz for a clock-to-clock comparison which will demonstrate framerate increase with CPU scaling.<\/p>\n<p>When we say \u201cperformance meets value\u201d, we mean that the Core i7 X58 motherboard, CPU, and tri-channel DDR3 is much more expensive than its Phenom II counterpart. We will also note that the AMD motherboard\u2019s PCIe graphics bandwidth is limited to 8X + 8X which is half the PCIe bandwidth of the Intel motherboard.\u00a0 So, we naturally ask, \u201cis it worth it\u201d to buy the i7 system even for really fast graphics over the Phenom II system; and is quad-core <em>necessary<\/em> for med\/high-end PC gaming?<\/p>\n<p>Please continue on to the next page for the complete hardware and software setup of our platforms \u2013 AMD\u2019s Phenom II versus Intel&#8217;s Core i-7. We shall see what happens when high performance finally meets value in PC gaming with fast graphics at the end of 2010.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: Introduction--><!--nextpage--> <span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/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 style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"><strong>Test Configuration &#8211; Intel Hardware <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Intel Core i7 920 reference 2.66 GHz<\/span>, underclocked to 2.6 GHz and overclocked to 3.2 GHz and 3.6 GHz<span style=\"font-size: small;\">; Turbo is off. <\/span><\/li>\n<li>Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P (latest BIOS, PCIe 2.0 specification; CrossFire 8x+8x).<span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small;\">6 GB OCZ DDR3 PC 1800 Kingston RAM (3&#215;2 GB, tri-channel at PC 1600 speeds; 2&#215;2 GB supplied by Kingston)<\/span><\/li>\n<li>GeForce GTX 480, 1.5 GB reference design and clocks, supplied by Nvidia<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small;\">ATI Radeon HD 5870 (1GB, reference clocks, 850\/1200 MHz) by Diamond<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small;\">ATi Radeon HD 5870 (1GB, underclocked from factory to reference clocks, 850\/1200 MHz) supplied by AMD\/PowerColor<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Onboard Realtek Audio<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Two identical 250 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 hard drives configured and set up identically from drive image; one partition for Nvidia GeForce drivers and one for ATI Catalyst drivers<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Thermaltake ToughPower 775 W power supply unit supplied by Thermaltake<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Thermaltake Element G Case supplied by Thermaltake<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Noctua NH-U12P SE2 CPU cooler, supplied by Noctua<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Philips DVD SATA writer<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small;\">HP LP3065 2560&#215;1600 thirty inch LCD <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Test Configuration &#8211; AMD Hardware <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Phenom II 550 X2 overclocked from 3.1 to 3.2 GHz, underclocked to 2.6 GHz and overclocked to 3.6 GHz<\/li>\n<li>Phenom II 955 X4 at 3.2 GHz, underclocked to 2.6 GHz and overclocked to 3.6 GHz<\/li>\n<li>ECS A-A890 GXM-A, supplied by ECS (latest BIOS, PCIe 2.0 specification; CrossFire 8x+8x)<\/li>\n<li>2&#215;2 GB Kingston DDR3, supplied by Kingston (dual-channel at PC 1600 speeds)<\/li>\n<li>GeForce GTX 480, 1.5 GB reference design and clocks, supplied by Nvidia<\/li>\n<li>ATI Radeon HD 5870 (1GB, overclocked clocks, 850\/1200 MHz) by Diamond<\/li>\n<li>ATi Radeon HD 5870 (1GB, reference clocks, 850\/1200 MHz) supplied by AMD\/PowerColor<\/li>\n<li>Onboard Realtek Audio<\/li>\n<li>Two  identical 250 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 hard drives configured and  set up identically from drive image; one partition for Nvidia GeForce  drivers and one for ATI Catalyst drivers<\/li>\n<li>Thermaltake ToughPower 775 W power supply unit supplied by Thermaltake<\/li>\n<li>Thermaltake Element G Case supplied by Thermaltake<\/li>\n<li>Noctua NH-U12P SE2 CPU cooler, supplied by Noctua<\/li>\n<li>Philips DVD SATA writer<\/li>\n<li>HP LP3065 2560&#215;1600 thirty inch LCD<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #ffff00;\">Test Configuration &#8211; Software<\/span><\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small;\">ATi Catalyst 10-6; highest quality mip-mapping set in the driver, Catalyst AI set to \u201cStandard\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small;\">NVIDIA GeForce 257.21 WHQL drivers; High Quality<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Windows 7 64-bit; very latest updates<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small;\">DirectX May 2010<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small;\">All games are patched to their latest versions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small;\">vsync is forced off in the control panels.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small;\">4x or 8xAA enabled as noted in games and &#8220;forced&#8221; in each vendor&#8217;s control panel in<em> UT3<\/em> (<\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> Catalyst Control Center sets AA for Radeons in <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><em>Batman: Arkham Asylum <\/em>and it is set in-game for the GTX 480); all in-game settings are specified with 16xAF always applied; 16xAF forced in control panel for <em>Crysis.<\/em><\/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;\">Windows 7 64, all DX10 titles were run under DX10 render paths; DX11 titles under DX11 render paths.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #ffff00;\">The Benchmarks<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/strong><strong><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"> <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> Vantage<\/li>\n<li> <em>F.E.A.R.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> Enemy Territory: Quake Wars<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> Unreal Tournament 3<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> Call of Duty 4<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> X3:Terran Conflict<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> World-in-Conflict<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> Left4Dead<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> Batman: Arkham Asylum<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> Call of Juarez<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> Lost Planet<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> Crysis<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> Far Cry 2<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> Resident Evil 5<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> Serious Sam, Second Encounter HD (2010)<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> Just Cause 2<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> H.A.W.X.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> BattleForge<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> Alien vs. Predator<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> Dirt 2 <\/em><em> <\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> STALKER, Call of Pripyat<\/em><\/li>\n<li> Heaven 2.1<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--pagetitle: Test Configuration--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Vantage<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">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. Here is a scene from Vantage\u2019s second mini-game.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/3dmarkvantage-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: inline; border-width: 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: left;\">Let\u2019s go right to the graphs and first check the basic tests with the default benchmark scores.\u00a0 Unfortunately the GPU results were lost for HD 5870 CrossFire and are not included on this chart.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Vantage-BT1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22171\" title=\"Vantage-BT\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Vantage-BT1.jpg?resize=482%2C1401\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Vantage-BT1.jpg?resize=482%2C1401 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Vantage-BT1-103x300.jpg 103w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Vantage-BT1-352x1024.jpg 352w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">We note the rankings.  Unfortunately, they are completely meaningless when they are presented this way.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Vantage-MG1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22172\" title=\"Vantage-MG\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Vantage-MG1.jpg?resize=482%2C1203\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Vantage-MG1.jpg?resize=482%2C1203 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Vantage-MG1-120x300.jpg 120w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Vantage-MG1-410x1024.jpg 410w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">We see an interesting lineup. Unfortunately for our purposes, Vantage is a meaningless test with meaningless numbers in a weak attempt to compare one video card&#8217;s performance to another.  Let&#8217;s move on to PC games and to real world situations!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--pagetitle: Vantage--><!--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=\"display: inline; border: 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><em> <\/em> <em> <\/em><\/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.\u00a0 This is highlighted by the built-in performance test, although it was never updated.<\/p>\n<p>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. We test this game with the most demanding settings. We use fully maxed details with 4xAA\/16xAF; soft shadows \u2018off\u2019, as they do not play well with AA. Please note that we tossed out our maximums as they are ridiculously high and contribute nothing to the charts.  Let\u2019s start first at 2560&#215;1600:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/FEAR-25fixed.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22257\" title=\"FEAR-25fixed\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/FEAR-25fixed.jpg?resize=482%2C1048\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s now check out 1920&#215;1200 resolution with the same maxed out settings:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/FEAR-19fix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22256\" title=\"FEAR-19fix\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/FEAR-19fix.jpg?resize=482%2C1401\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/FEAR-19fix.jpg?resize=482%2C1401 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/FEAR-19fix-103x300.jpg 103w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/FEAR-19fix-352x1024.jpg 352w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now we move on to 1680&#215;1050:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/FEAR-16FIX.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22255\" title=\"FEAR-16FIX\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/FEAR-16FIX.jpg?resize=515%2C1401\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/FEAR-16FIX.jpg?resize=515%2C1401 515w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/FEAR-16FIX-110x300.jpg 110w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/FEAR-16FIX-376x1024.jpg 376w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 515px) 100vw, 515px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>There is not much difference in practically playing <em>F.E.A.R.<\/em> between the fastest and the slowest CPUs as the minimums are already sufficiently high except for one place where our underclocked Phenom II 955-X4 at 2.6 GHz has difficulty with the minimums with HD 5870 CrossFire.  There is also no real advantage of quad-core over dual-core in this aging but still beautiful, DX9 game.<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--pagetitle: F.E.A.R.--><\/ul>\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=\"display: inline; border: 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. <em> <\/em> <em> <\/em><\/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.<\/p>\n<p>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 8xAA plus 16xAF in game.  Unfortunately, we lost some of our CrossFire results with Phenom II and will present what we have.   First we test at 2560&#215;1600 resolution with all settings fully maxed in-game plus 8xAA\/16xAF:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/ETQW-251.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22182\" title=\"ETQW-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/ETQW-251.jpg?resize=482%2C1403\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/ETQW-251.jpg?resize=482%2C1403 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/ETQW-251-103x300.jpg 103w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Let&#8217;s next test at 1920&#215;1200 resolution.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/ETQW-191.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22183\" title=\"ETQW-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/ETQW-191.jpg?resize=482%2C1396\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Finally on to 1680&#215;1050:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/ETQW-16.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22184\" title=\"ETQW-16\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/ETQW-16.jpg?resize=482%2C1401\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/ETQW-16.jpg?resize=482%2C1401 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/ETQW-16-103x300.jpg 103w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/ETQW-16-352x1024.jpg 352w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Our framerates are pretty consistent except for our Phenom II 550-X2\/HD 5870 combination at 2.6 GHz falling  way short of its similarly clocked Intel counterpart.   Using a single HD 5870, we see almost no difference between Core i7-920 at any of its clocks and the Phenom II, either dual- or quad-core CPUs, at 2560&#215;1600.  We do see the Core i7-920 stumble a bit at 1920&#215;1200 compared to the Phenom II 944-X4 that we do not see at 1680&#215;1050, so we can assume it is a quirky driver issue.  There is not a lot of difference practically playing with any of our CPUs using either our HD 5870 or our GTX 480 &#8211; at any core speed.\u00a0 You can save your money on your CPU platform if you play <em>ET:QW<\/em>.<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--pagetitle: ET:QW--><\/ul>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h3>Unreal Tournament 3 (UT3)<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/ut3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"UT3\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/ut3.jpg?resize=150%2C150\" alt=\"UT3\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a> <\/em><\/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. UT3 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>. 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 2560 x 1600 and 1920 x 1200 with UT3\u2019s in-game graphics options set to their maximum values.<\/p>\n<p>One drawback of the way the UT3 engine is designed is that there is no support for anti-aliasing built in. We forced 8xAA for in each vendor\u2019s control panel; 8xQ for Nvidia to match AMD Graphics&#8217; 8xAA settings. 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.<\/p>\n<p>Here is Containment Demo, first at 2560&#215;1600:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/UT3-25fix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22291\" title=\"UT3-25fix\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/UT3-25fix.jpg?resize=459%2C1261\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/UT3-25fix.jpg?resize=459%2C1261 510w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/UT3-25fix-109x300.jpg 109w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 459px) 100vw, 459px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now at 1920&#215;1200:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/UT3-19fix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22292\" title=\"UT3-19fix\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/UT3-19fix.jpg?resize=482%2C1398\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/UT3-19fix.jpg?resize=482%2C1398 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/UT3-19fix-103x300.jpg 103w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/UT3-19fix-353x1024.jpg 353w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now we test at 1680&#215;1050:<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: UnrealTournament3--><em><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/UT3-16fix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22293\" title=\"UT3-16fix\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/UT3-16fix.jpg?resize=482%2C1398\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/UT3-16fix.jpg?resize=482%2C1398 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/UT3-16fix-103x300.jpg 103w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/UT3-16fix-353x1024.jpg 353w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/em>First of all, we notice that at our highest resolution pairing HD 5870 CrossFire with the Core i7-920, it scales with clockspeed, but paired with the Phenom II 955 X4, it does not; at lower resolutions, the X4 scales with clockspeed but not as dramatically.\u00a0 Our Phenom 550 X2 simply cannot keep up with our CrossFired HD 5870s at the highest resolution and they struggle with framerates at the lower resolutions once the CPU&#8217;s core speed drops below 3.6 GHz.\u00a0 Our single GPUs demonstrate much closer results with less performance difference between Core i7 920 and the dual-core Phenom although the Phenom dual-core really loses framerates when paired with a HD 5870 and underclocked; on the other hand, paired with a GTX 480, the dual-core Phenom II provides satisfactory framerates at all three speeds that we tested it at.<em> <!--nextpage--><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare<\/span><\/span><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/strong> <a rel=\"attachment wp-att-4367\" href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?attachment_id=4367\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-4367\" title=\"iw3mpcod4\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/iw3mpcod4.jpg?resize=150%2C150\" alt=\"iw3mpcod4\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><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>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> was also released with updated visuals but it is also not very demanding on graphics cards. 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.<span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span> <span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span> <span style=\"font-size: small;\">Here is <em>CoD4,<\/em> first at 2560&#215;1600 resolution with all in-game settings completely maxed out plus 4xAA:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoD4-251.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22191\" title=\"CoD4-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoD4-251.jpg?resize=482%2C1404\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Now we go on to 1920&#215;1200 and we shall reserve comment until after all of the graphs.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoD4-191.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22192\" title=\"CoD4-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoD4-191.jpg?resize=482%2C1397\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoD4-191.jpg?resize=482%2C1397 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoD4-191-103x300.jpg 103w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoD4-191-353x1024.jpg 353w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Finally we test at 1680&#215;1050:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoD4-16.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22193\" title=\"CoD4-16\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoD4-16.jpg?resize=482%2C1401\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoD4-16.jpg?resize=482%2C1401 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoD4-16-103x300.jpg 103w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoD4-16-352x1024.jpg 352w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\">This time we generally see Core i7-920 faster than our Phenom quad-core counterpart although it doesn&#8217;t make the gameplay practically any smoother.<\/span> <span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span> <span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><strong><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/strong><span style=\"font-size: small;\">We see results similar to <em>Unreal Tournament 3<\/em> where a popular multiplayer game is very playable even on midrange graphics cards from the last generation and it plays very smoothly with this generation&#8217;s top video cards.  Only with HD 5870 CrossFire at our highest resolution settings, do we see any differences between the dual-core and the quad-core Phenom II.  At no point did overclocking any of our CPUs make any practical difference to the gameplay although we do see the framerates increase with higher CPU core speeds.<\/span> <!--pagetitle: CoD4--><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p><em><strong><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Batman: Arkham Asylum<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/em><em><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/batmanaa_25x16.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-17938\" title=\"batmanAA_25x16\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/batmanaa_25x16.jpg?resize=300%2C187\" alt=\"batmanAA_25x16\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/batmanaa_25x16.jpg?resize=300%2C187 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/batmanaa_25x16-1024x640.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong> <\/strong><\/em><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Batman: Arkham Asylum<\/em> is an action-adventure\/stealth video game based on DC Comics&#8217; Batman.    Arkham Asylum is based directly on the long-running comic book&#8217;s Dark  Knight character. The Joker devised an elaborate plot from inside Arkham  Asylum that Batman is personally forced to put a stop to. The game&#8217;s  primary characters are superbly voiced.<\/p>\n<p>The game is played as an over-the-shoulder, third-person perspective  action-adventure game with a primary focus on Batman&#8217;s combat abilities,  stealth, detective skills and complete with an arsenal of gadgets that  can be used in both combat and as exploring in &#8220;detective mode&#8221;.The game  uses a &#8220;Freeflow&#8221; combat system as well as the ability to use Batarangs  and the Bat-Claw. The player also has access to progressively stronger  counter attacks as well as a special attack that can quickly take down a  single foe. Stealth tactics includes silent takedowns by sneaking up on  foes including dropping and\/or gliding from overhead perches.<\/p>\n<p><em>Batman: Arkham Asylum <\/em>uses a highly modified version of the  Unreal Engine 3.  It does not support AA natively but must be added in  and supported by the game&#8217;s developer.  Unfortunately we cannot compare <em>Batman: Arkham Asylum<\/em> using our GeForce <em>exactly<\/em> against the Radeon.  In the game&#8217;s control panel, the MSAA\u00a0 settings are also different, depending if you play with a GeForce or a  Radeon.<\/p>\n<p>The developer optimized MSAA for  GeForce cards in game but you must set non-optimized AA in the Catalyst  Control Center with a substantially higher performance hit on the Radeons.  Only the <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=20560\">Game of the Year Edition <\/a>(GotY) of <em>Batman: Arkham Asylum<\/em> supports in-game AA settings for both Radeon and GeForce cards.  We have purchased that GotY edition and we have begin to test with it in our latest evaluations.<\/p>\n<p>We begin testing at  2560&#215;1600 with details maxed and with 8xMSAA applied in the game&#8217;s setting control panel for the GTX 480 and it is forced in Catalyst Control Center for the HD 5870 and HD 5870 CrossFire.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Batman-25fix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22310\" title=\"Batman--25fix\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Batman-25fix.jpg?resize=455%2C1260\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Batman-25fix.jpg?resize=455%2C1260 505w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Batman-25fix-108x300.jpg 108w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 455px) 100vw, 455px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Let&#8217;s move on to 1920&#215;1200 resolution.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Batman-19fix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22311\" title=\"Batman--19fix\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Batman-19fix.jpg?resize=466%2C1137\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Batman-19fix-123x300.jpg 123w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Batman-19fix-420x1024.jpg 420w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 466px) 100vw, 466px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Finally we test at 1680&#215;1050:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Batman-16fix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22312\" title=\"Batman--16fix\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Batman-16fix.jpg?resize=462%2C1127\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span>This time we see our Core i7-920 score an advantage with HD 5870 CrossFire across the board over the Phenom II 955 X4.\u00a0 However, at no point does even the Phenom II 550 X2 drop low enough in the framerate&#8217;s minimums to make play unsatisfactory, judging by this benchmark at all resolutions and speeds we tested at.  The 955 X4 does gain increasing performance gains over the dual-core Phenom II as the resolution is dropped.<\/p>\n<p>Using our HD 5870, we see satisfactory minimum frame rates until we get to our highest tested resolution with the Phenom II 550 X2 downclocked to 2.6 GHz; the GTX 480 suffered frame rates below 30 FPS.  We note that there is some performance increase using quad- over dual-core and we definitely see framerate increase with higher CPU clockspeeds.  This becomes more noticeable as our resolution decreases and the workload shifts away from the GPU.\u00a0 We also notice that the GTX 480 is providing low minimums at 2560&#215;1600 that seems to have been remedied by later driver releases.\u00a0 However, we still see framerate scaling with CPU speed and a quad-core similarly-clocked Phenom II is faster than a dual-core Phenom II in <em>Batman<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: Batman--><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\"><em><strong>Left 4 Dead<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Left 4 Dead<\/em> <em>(L4D) <\/em>is a 2008 co-op first-person shooter that was developed by Turtle Rock Studios and purchased by Valve Corporation during its development. <em>Left 4 Dead<\/em> uses Valve&#8217;s proprietary Source engine and it replaces our older Souce benchmark which used<em> Half Life 2&#8217;s Lost Cost demo<\/em>. <em>L4D<\/em> is set in the aftermath of a worldwide pandemic which pits its four protagonists against hordes of the infected zombies. There are four game modes: a single-player mode in which your allies are controlled by AI; a four-player, co-op campaign mode; an eight-player online versus mode; and a four-player survival mode. In all modes, an artificial intelligence (AI), dubbed the &#8220;Director&#8221;, controls pacing and spawns, to create a more dynamic experience with increased replay value. It is best as a multiplayer game with humans.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">There is no built-in benchmark, so we used ABT Senior Editor BFG10K&#8217;s custom time demo which is very repeatable. The game is updated regularly by Steam and we chose the highest detail settings and 8xAA. We will save our comments until after we present all three charts. First we test at 2560&#215;1600 resolution:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/L4D-25.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22323\" title=\"L4D-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/L4D-25.jpg?resize=482%2C1403\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/L4D-25.jpg?resize=482%2C1403 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/L4D-25-103x300.jpg 103w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>On to our next chart at 1920\u00d71200:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/L4D-19.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22324\" title=\"L4D-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/L4D-19.jpg?resize=482%2C1399\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/L4D-19.jpg?resize=482%2C1399 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/L4D-19-103x300.jpg 103w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Finally at 1680&#215;1050:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/L4D-16.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22326\" title=\"L4D-16\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/L4D-16.jpg?resize=482%2C1400\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/L4D-16.jpg?resize=482%2C1400 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/L4D-16-103x300.jpg 103w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Here we see some pretty textbook scaling for both the CPU speed and the number of its cores with Source Engine.\u00a0 The only problem is that the engine is old and there is no practical difference playing with an overclocked Core i7-920 versus playing with an underclocked Phenom II dual-core.\u00a0 We also see that HD 5870 CrossFire does not particularly scale well over a single HD 5870 and sometimes it is negative with this driver set.<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: Left 4 Dead--><\/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=\"display: inline; border-width: 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><em> <\/em> <em> <\/em><\/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>. 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>First we note the results at 2560\u00d71600 with completely maxed out settings plus 8xAA:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/X3TC-25fix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22258\" title=\"X3TC-25fix\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/X3TC-25fix.jpg?resize=485%2C1261\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/X3TC-25fix.jpg?resize=485%2C1261 539w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/X3TC-25fix-115x300.jpg 115w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 485px) 100vw, 485px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now we test at 1920&#215;1200:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/X3TC-19fix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22259\" title=\"X3TC-19fix\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/X3TC-19fix.jpg?resize=482%2C1050\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/X3TC-19fix.jpg?resize=482%2C1050 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/X3TC-19fix-470x1024.jpg 470w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Finally we test at 1680&#215;1050:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/X3TC-16fix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22260\" title=\"X3TC-16fix\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/X3TC-16fix.jpg?resize=484%2C1262\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/X3TC-16fix.jpg?resize=484%2C1262 538w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/X3TC-16fix-115x300.jpg 115w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 484px) 100vw, 484px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This time all of our video cards run close to each other in a fairly tight grouping and CrossFire scaling is useless except with overclocked Core i7 920.\u00a0 The underclocked Phenom IIs quad- and dual-core also have the worst performance.\u00a0 If you are going to use a very fast GPU configuration, overclock your CPU for <em>X3:TC<\/em>.<!--pagetitle: X3 - Terran Conflict--><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><em><strong>Call of Juarez<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/coj_dx10-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: inline; border-width: 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><\/p>\n<p><em>Call of Juarez<\/em> is one of the very earliest DX10 games. It 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 is built into <em>Call of Juarez. <\/em> 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: left;\"><em> <\/em>Here are <em>Call of Juarez<\/em> DX10 benchmark results, first at 1920\u00d71200; there is no 2560&#215;1600 run available:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoJ-19fix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22304\" title=\"CoJ-19fix\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoJ-19fix.jpg?resize=473%2C1121\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Now we test at 1680&#215;1050:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoJ-16fix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22305\" title=\"CoJ-16fix\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoJ-16fix.jpg?resize=488%2C1119\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoJ-16fix.jpg?resize=488%2C1119 610w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoJ-16fix-446x1024.jpg 446w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 488px) 100vw, 488px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">There really isn&#8217;t much practical difference playing with any of our CPUs at any speed.  In this case, a dual-core CPU at 2.6 GHz is fine for HD 5870 CrossFire; the graphics card by far makes the most difference in playing <em>Call of Juarez<\/em>.  Our overclocked Core i7-920 is technically fastest although you will not be able to tell any practical difference between playing <em>Call of Juarez<\/em> with it, from an underclocked 2.6 GHz Phenom II.<!--nextpage--><!--pagetitle: Call of Juarez--><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><em><strong>CRYSIS<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/crysis64_1-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: inline; border-width: 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 style=\"text-align: left;\">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 style=\"text-align: left;\">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>. 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 style=\"text-align: left;\"><em><strong>G<\/strong><strong>PU Demo, Island<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">All of our settings are set to the in-game maximum&#8217;s &#8220;very high&#8221; including 4xAA even for 2560&#215;1600 and we force 16xAF in the control panels. Here is<em> Crysis\u2019 Island Demo <\/em>benchmark, first at 2560&#215;1600 resolution:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Crysis-25FIXed.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22254\" title=\"Crysis-25FIXed\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Crysis-25FIXed.jpg?resize=509%2C1403\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Crysis-25FIXed.jpg?resize=509%2C1403 509w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Crysis-25FIXed-371x1024.jpg 371w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 509px) 100vw, 509px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Here we see even HD 5870 CrossFire struggle at our highest settings and  with 4xAA enabled.  Neither the GTX 480 nor the single HD 5870 suffer the slideshow minimums of CrossFired HD 5870 which leads to us to believe that it is an issue with CrossFire.  A single HD 5870 struggles and a second one in  CrossFire does not remedy it; actually the microstutter and stutter becomes even  worse.  To properly take advantage of your second card, the first card  has to be able to play the game without choking; in that case, adding a  second card will add to the gaming experience.  When we update our testing with GTX 480 or GTX 580 SLI in a future article, we will examine multi-GPU and Crysis again.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Both of the single video cards show scaling with clock speed although the Phenom IIs take a higher performance hit in the minimums as they are clocked down from 3.6 GHz. Next we test at 1920&#215;1200.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Crysis-19FIX.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22252\" title=\"Crysis-19FIX\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Crysis-19FIX.jpg?resize=482%2C1389\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Crysis-19FIX.jpg?resize=482%2C1389 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Crysis-19FIX-104x300.jpg 104w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Crysis-19FIX-355x1024.jpg 355w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">This time we see CrossFired HD 5870s again stumble compared to the single card with the Phenom II X2 although the averages do improve; Core i7 920 at 3.8 GHz and CrossFired HD  5870s can actually play Crysis with our extreme settings.   No single video card can yet do this although the HD 5870 and GTX 480 scale with both CPU clock speed and the Phenom II X4 is ever so slightly faster across the board than the X2.  HD 5870 CrossFire is faster on Core i7 920 although it is a toss up between the Intel Platform and the AMD platform with the single GPU video cards.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Finally at 1680&#215;1050 resolution:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Crysis-16FIX.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22253\" title=\"Crysis-16FIX\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Crysis-16FIX.jpg?resize=482%2C1101\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Crysis-16FIX.jpg?resize=482%2C1101 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Crysis-16FIX-131x300.jpg 131w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Crysis-16FIX-448x1024.jpg 448w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here we see HD 5870 CrossFire again have the fastest framerates when paired with overclocked Core i7 920.  The GTS 480 and HD 5870 also are faster with Core i7-920 at all clockspeeds with frame rates increasing marginally with clockspeed.  However, we do not see the Phenom II X4 run much more quickly than the X2, so we would have to say that <em>Crysis<\/em> does not take advantage of more than two cores.  Overclocking you CPU will also help you especially with your minimums.<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: Crysis--><!--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=\"display: inline; border-width: 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><em> <\/em> <em> <\/em><\/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. First we test <em>Far Cry 2<\/em> Ranch Short benchmark at 2560&#215;1600 with AI enabled with ultra settings plus 8x<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/FC2-25fix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22306\" title=\"FC2-25fix\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/FC2-25fix.jpg?resize=487%2C1124\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/FC2-25fix.jpg?resize=487%2C1124 609w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/FC2-25fix-130x300.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 487px) 100vw, 487px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here we see CrossFired HD 5870s scaling very nicely except in the miniums.  We can clearly see that Phenom II 955 X4 beats the 550 X2 across the board at the same clockspeeds so we can see that <em>Far Cry 2<\/em> takes advantage of quad-core over dual-core CPUs.  However, we see the Phenom II 955 X4 and the Core i7-920 trade blows in the averages and minimums where it counts.  Let&#8217;s look next at 1920&#215;1200 resolution:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/FC2-19fix1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22308\" title=\"FC2-19fix\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/FC2-19fix1.jpg?resize=486%2C1265\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/FC2-19fix1.jpg?resize=486%2C1265 540w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/FC2-19fix1-115x300.jpg 115w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/FC2-19fix1-393x1024.jpg 393w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 486px) 100vw, 486px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>We see much the same thing as we saw at 2560&#215;1600 except now we see the Core i7-920 distinguish itself more from the Phenom II 955 X4.  However, there is almost no practical difference playing with either quad-core CPU platform. Underclocking our Phenom dual-core significantly drops the minimum framerates from relatively smooth to below 30 in this Ranch Short benchmark.  Let&#8217;s move on to 1680&#215;1050 resolution:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/FC2-16fix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22309\" title=\"FC2-16fix\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/FC2-16fix.jpg?resize=510%2C1265\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/FC2-16fix.jpg?resize=510%2C1265 567w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/FC2-16fix-121x300.jpg 121w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/FC2-16fix-413x1024.jpg 413w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Again the Core i7-920 distinguishes itself further from the Phenom II 955 X4 as the resolution is lowered.   Our Phenom II 550 X2 has trouble with its minimums with any of our more powerful video card configurations &#8211; GTX 480 and HD 5870 CrossFire &#8211; when it drops below its stock clocks.  Overclocking your CPU will probably make a practical difference for especially dual-core CPUs in <em>Far Cry 2<\/em>.  <!--pagetitle: Far Cry 2--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><!--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=\"display: inline; border-width: 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 style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 style=\"text-align: left;\">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.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">We start our benching at 2560&#215;1600:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/WiC-25fix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22328\" title=\"WiC-25fix\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/WiC-25fix.jpg?resize=450%2C1060\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/WiC-25fix.jpg?resize=450%2C1060 500w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/WiC-25fix-127x300.jpg 127w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here is last year&#8217;s poster child for quad-core CPUs again showing the quads leading the duals but practically dropping too low in this benchmark except perhaps for HD 5870 CrossFire paired with our 3.8 GHz pr Core i7-920.\u00a0 To be fair, this built-in benchmark has issues with providing probably the worst case scenario for minimum framerates that you will probably ever see actually playing <em>World-in-Conflict<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Next we see the results at 1920\u00d71200 resolution.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/WiC-19fix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22329\" title=\"WiC-19fix\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/WiC-19fix.jpg?resize=450%2C1076\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/WiC-19fix.jpg?resize=450%2C1076 500w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/WiC-19fix-125x300.jpg 125w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/WiC-19fix-428x1024.jpg 428w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>Again, this benchmark would only have you believe that this game is only playable with an overclocked Core i7 and HD 5870 CrossFire although the quad-core Phenom II provides faster framerates than its dual-core counterpart.\u00a0 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\/2010\/11\/WiC-16fix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22330\" title=\"WiC-16fix\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/WiC-16fix.jpg?resize=450%2C1022\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/WiC-16fix.jpg?resize=450%2C1022 500w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/WiC-16fix-132x300.jpg 132w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>World-in-Conflict<\/em> uses more than two CPU cores and we also see increased framerate scaling with faster core speed and also reasonable CrossFire scaling.\u00a0 Later drivers have also improved the GTX 480&#8217;s framerates noticeably.<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: World-in-Conflict--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Serious Sam Second Encounter HD (2010)<\/span><\/span><\/strong> <span style=\"font-size: small;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/SamHD_SS.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-20448\" title=\"SamHD_SS\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/SamHD_SS.jpg?resize=300%2C187\" alt=\"SamHD_SS\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/SamHD_SS.jpg?resize=300%2C187 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/SamHD_SS-1024x640.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/span> <span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><em>Serious Sam <\/em> is the title of a series of first-person shooters created by the Croatian development team Croteam. It follows the adventures of its hero Sam &#8220;Serious&#8221; Stone and his fight against the forces of the extraterrestrial overlord Mental who seeks to destroy humanity. It&#8217;s gameplay is a throwback to early first-person shooters like Quake and Doom with the twist of being set in wide-open environments with large groups of enemies attacking at any time, and there are many hidden areas and treasures to find and puzzles to solve.<em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Serious Sam<\/em> features cooperative gameplay and allows for split screen action supporting up to 4 players. <em>Serious Sam: The Second Encounter <\/em>was remade as &#8220;HD&#8221; using Serious Engine 3. It was released in April, 2010 for PC. Besides updated visuals, new game modes including &#8220;Co-op Tournament&#8221; and &#8220;Survival&#8221; for single player, were introduced in this remake. <em>Serious Sam 3<\/em> is currently in development by Croteam and is expected to debut at E3, 2011.<span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span> <span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span> <span style=\"font-size: small;\">We use the basic 3 &#8220;ultra&#8221; presets for benching <\/span><em>Serious Sam: The Second Encounter HD <\/em>and then we<span style=\"font-size: small;\"> further fine-tuned the settings to absolute maximum which made the game even more demanding plus 4xAA. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\">We test first at 2560&#215;1600<\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> resolution:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/SS-25.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22200\" title=\"SS-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/SS-25.jpg?resize=482%2C1202\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/SS-25.jpg?resize=482%2C1202 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/SS-25-120x300.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\">And now at 1920&#215;120<\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\">0 with the same completely maxed out ultra presets plus 8xAA:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/SS-19.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22203\" title=\"SS-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/SS-19.jpg?resize=482%2C1400\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/SS-19.jpg?resize=482%2C1400 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/SS-19-103x300.jpg 103w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>Finally we test at 1680&#215;1050 with maxed ultra settings plus 8xAA:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/SS-161.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22211\" title=\"SS-16\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/SS-161.jpg?resize=482%2C1401\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/SS-161.jpg?resize=482%2C1401 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/SS-161-103x300.jpg 103w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/SS-161-352x1024.jpg 352w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Serious Sam: The Second Encounter HD <\/em><span style=\"font-size: small;\">on the Serious 3 engine is quite demanding using the game&#8217;s built-in &#8220;ultra&#8221; presets with its individual settings fully maxed out. Except for the highest resolution with our Phenom II 550 X2 and GTX 480, we see that this game is completely GPU-bound at the fully maxed-out ultra presets that we choose<\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--pagetitle: Serious Sam SE 2010--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><em>Just Cause 2<\/em><\/strong> <strong> <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/justcause2_25x16.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-17937\" title=\"JustCause2_25x16\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/justcause2_25x16.jpg?resize=300%2C187\" alt=\"JustCause2_25x16\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/justcause2_25x16.jpg?resize=300%2C187 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/justcause2_25x16-1024x640.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Just Cause 2<\/em> is a 2010 sandbox-style action video game by Swedish developer Avalanche Studios and Eidos Interactive and is the sequel to the 2006 video game, <em>Just Cause<\/em>. <em>Just Cause 2<\/em> employs the Avalanche Engine 2.0 which an updated version of the engine used in the original and there are impressive visuals as it is made just for DX10. It is set on the fictional tropical island of Panau in Southeast Asia. Rico Rodriguez returns as the protagonist who aims to overthrow the evil dictator &#8220;Baby&#8221; Panay and also to confront his former boss, rogue agent Tom Sheldon.<\/p>\n<p>The game play is similar to that of its predecessor in that the player is free to roam the huge open world without a need to focus on the storyline. The <em>Just Cause 2 <\/em>AI has been rewritten to use a planning system which enables the in-game enemies to do more and there is also more vertical game play as well as a manual aiming system that allows the player to target enemy NPC&#8217;s specific limbs. <em>Just Cause 2<\/em> also includes an adaptive difficulty system which scales as the player progresses. There are also new weapons in <em>Just Cause 2<\/em> which include launching laser-controlled rockets as well as several new vehicles including a Boeing 737. <em>Just Cause 2<\/em> now includes dual-grappling hooks which give players the ability to tether unlimited objects to each other including the tethering of enemies to vehicles and to each other which works very well as one of your goals is to cause maximum chaos.  It is a lot of fun!<\/p>\n<p>Here are the maximum settings available to a GeForce card; the bottom two, the Bokeh Filter and GPU water simulation, are unavailable to Radeons and they are left off on all runs to give solid apples-to-apples comparisons for all of our tested video cards and we used the Dark Tower benchmark built into the retail game.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/JustCause2_GeForce2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-17926\" title=\"JustCause2_GeForce\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/JustCause2_GeForce2.jpg?resize=330%2C346\" alt=\"JustCause2_GeForce\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/JustCause2_GeForce2.jpg?resize=330%2C346 550w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/JustCause2_GeForce2-285x300.jpg 285w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 330px) 100vw, 330px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>First the benches at 2560&#215;1600:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/JC2-251.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22218\" title=\"JC2-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/JC2-251.jpg?resize=482%2C1404\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Now let&#8217;s look at the performance at 1920&#215;1200:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/JC2-191.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22219\" title=\"JC2-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/JC2-191.jpg?resize=482%2C1399\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/JC2-191.jpg?resize=482%2C1399 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/JC2-191-103x300.jpg 103w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Finally we test at 1680&#215;1050.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/JC2-16.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22220\" title=\"JC2-16\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/JC2-16.jpg?resize=482%2C1402\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/JC2-16.jpg?resize=482%2C1402 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/JC2-16-103x300.jpg 103w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/JC2-16-352x1024.jpg 352w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>At the highest resolution and with HD 5870 CrossFire, we see very little performance difference with our Core i7-920 at any tested core speed.\u00a0 The Phenom II 955 X-4, and to a lesser extent the 550 X2, at 3.8 GHz matches it but then has a steep performance drop off as they are underclocked. A similar thing occurs at the lower resolutions but it is not as severe a performance dropoff.\u00a0 The GTX 480 performs similarly but with an even less-steep penalty to decreasing core speed, becoming more noticeable as the resolution is decreased and the HD 5870 shows the least change with CPU core speed increases.\u00a0 We do see that quad-core is a bit faster generally than the dual-core and that the Core i7 is quickest with our two fastest graphics configurations.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--pagetitle: Just Cause 2--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2><strong><em>Lost Planet<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n<h2><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/lostplanet-jpg.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: 0pt none; display: inline;\" title=\"LostPlanet\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/lostplanet_thumb-jpg.jpg?w=720\" border=\"0\" alt=\"LostPlanet\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/h2>\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<\/em> Snow and Cave demos are run continuously by the performance test and blend into each other.Here are our benchmark results with the more demanding benchmark, Snow. All settings are fully maxed out in-game including 8xAA\/16xAF. Let&#8217;s start with 2560&#215;1600 resolution.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/LP-25_FIX.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22315\" title=\"LP-25_FIX\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/LP-25_FIX.jpg?resize=460%2C1262\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/LP-25_FIX.jpg?resize=460%2C1262 511w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/LP-25_FIX-109x300.jpg 109w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/LP-25_FIX-373x1024.jpg 373w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now at 1920&#215;1200:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/LP-19fix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22316\" title=\"LP-19fix\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/LP-19fix.jpg?resize=461%2C1265\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/LP-19fix.jpg?resize=461%2C1265 512w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/LP-19fix-109x300.jpg 109w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 461px) 100vw, 461px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Finally we test at 1680&#215;1050:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/LP-16fix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22317\" title=\"LP-16fix\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/LP-16fix.jpg?resize=464%2C1258\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Our two single-GPU video cards have issues with minimum framerates at the highest resolution; it takes HD 5870 CrossFire to give us a smooth playing experience and it does not matter which CPU we use nor which speed from 2.6 to 3.6 GHz; the game is evidently GPU-bound and also limited to two cores. <em> <\/em><!--pagetitle: Lost Planet--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h3><em><em>Resident Evil 5<\/em><\/em><\/h3>\n<p><em><em><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/re5dx10.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"RE5DX10\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/re5dx10.jpg?resize=150%2C150\" alt=\"RE5DX10\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/em><\/em> <em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Resident Evil 5<\/em> is a survival horror third-person shooter developed and published by Capcom that has become the best selling single title in the series. The game is the seventh installment in the Resident Evil series and it was released for Windows in September 2009. <em>Resident Evil 5 <\/em>revolves around two investigators pulled into a bio-terrorist threat in a fictional town in Africa.<\/p>\n<p><em>Resident Evil 5<\/em> features online co-op play over the internet and also takes advantage of NVIDIA\u2019s new GeForce 3D Vision technology. The PC version comes with exclusive content the consoles do not have. The developer&#8217;s emphasis is in optimizing high frame rates but they have implemented HDR, tone mapping, depth of field and motion blur into the game. Re5&#8217;s custom game engine, \u2018MT Framework&#8217;, already supports DX10 to benefit from less memory usage and faster loading. <em>Resident Evil 5 <\/em>gives you choice as to DX10 or Dx 9 and we naturally ran the DX10 pathway.<\/p>\n<p>There are two benchmarks built-into <em>Resident Evil 5<\/em>.  We chose the fixed benchmark as it is best suited for testing the CPU. Here it is at 2560&#215;1600 resolution with maxed out in-game setting plus 8xAA:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/RE5-251.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22227\" title=\"RE5-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/RE5-251.jpg?resize=482%2C1404\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here are the results at 1920\u00d71200 resolution:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/RE5-191.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22228\" title=\"RE5-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/RE5-191.jpg?resize=482%2C1398\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/RE5-191.jpg?resize=482%2C1398 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/RE5-191-103x300.jpg 103w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/RE5-191-353x1024.jpg 353w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>Finally at 1680&#215;1050 resolution:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/RE5-16.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22229\" title=\"RE5-16\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/RE5-16.jpg?resize=482%2C1404\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here we can clearly see that this benchmark favors the Core i7 architecture over the Phenom II.\u00a0\u00a0 We also note that the benchmark also appears to run faster on a quad-core over a dual and the game runs faster as the CPU is clocked higher.<!--pagetitle: Resident Evil 5--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\">Tom Clancy&#8217;s H.A.W.X.<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/hawx_dx10.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"HAWX_dx10\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/hawx_dx10.jpg?resize=150%2C150\" alt=\"HAWX_dx10\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Tom Clancy&#8217;s <em>H.A.W.X. <\/em>is an air combat video game developed by Ubisoft Romania and published by Ubisoft.  It was released in United States on March 6, 2009. 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.The game story takes place during the time of Tom Clancy&#8217;s <em>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. 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 style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>H.A.W.X. <\/em>runs on DX10.1 faster and with more detail than on the DX10 pathway. All of our video cards can take advantage of DX10.1. Let&#8217;s check it out <em>H.A.W.X.<\/em> with our top cards at 2560&#215;1600 with fully maxed out in-game settings and 8xAA:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/HAWX-251.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22234\" title=\"HAWX-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/HAWX-251.jpg?resize=482%2C1400\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/HAWX-251.jpg?resize=482%2C1400 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/HAWX-251-103x300.jpg 103w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>Here are our results at 1920\u00d71200 resolution:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/HAWX-191.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22235\" title=\"HAWX-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/HAWX-191.jpg?resize=482%2C1398\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/HAWX-191.jpg?resize=482%2C1398 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/HAWX-191-103x300.jpg 103w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/HAWX-191-353x1024.jpg 353w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Finally at 1680&#215;1050:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/HAWX-16.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22236\" title=\"HAWX-16\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/HAWX-16.jpg?resize=482%2C1392\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Although all of our configurations give a similar playing experience in this game with maxed out settings and 8xAA, generally we see the quad- faster than the dual-core and faster CPU clocks lead to faster frame rates.\u00a0 The Core i7 920 is fastest with HD 5870 CrossFire, and to a lesser extent with the GTX 480, compared with the Phenom II 955-X4. In contrast, using the least powerful video card, the HD 5870, the Phenom quad-core trades blows with Core i7.\u00a0 Choice of CPU definitely depends on what graphics card you plan to use for a balanced system.\u00a0 If you are running a midrange videocard, you do not need an extra-ordinarily fast CPU to pair up with it; conversely, if you have fast triple-GPU graphics, it makes sense to pick a very fast quad-core CPU.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Let&#8217;s check out our DX11 games.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--pagetitle: H.A.W.X.--><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p><strong>S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Call of Pripyat<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong> <\/strong><em> <\/em> <em><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/stalker_cs-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: inline; border-width: 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><\/em> <em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Call of Pripyat <\/em>became a new DX11 benchmark for us after GSC Game World released a another story expansion to the original <em>Shadows of Chernobyl.<\/em> It is the third game in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series. All of these games have non-linear storylines which feature role-playing game elements. In 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. <em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Call of Pripyat <\/em>features \u201ca living breathing world\u201d with highly developed NPC creature AI. Call of Pripyat utilizes the XRAY 1.6 Engine, allowing advanced modern graphical features through the use of DirectX 11 to be fully intregrated. Call of Pripyat is also compatible with DirectX 8, 9, 10 and 10.1. It uses the X-ray 1.6 Engine<strong> <\/strong>one outstanding feature being the inclusion of real-time GPU tesselation\u2013 a 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 and DX 11 versions do.<\/p>\n<p>We are using the stand-alone \u201cofficial\u201d benchmark by Clear Sky\u2019s creators. <em>Call of Pripyat<\/em> is top-notch and worthy to be part of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R\u2019s universe with even more awesome DX11 effects which help to create and enhance their game\u2019s already incredible atmosphere. As with <em>Clear Sky<\/em> before it, DX10 and now DX11 comes with steep hardware requirements and this new game still 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 and DX11 effects. We ran this benchmark fully maxed out in DX11.0 with \u201cultra\u201d settings plus 4xAA, including applying edge-detect MSAA which chokes performance even further.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoP-25fix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22318\" title=\"CoP-25fix\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoP-25fix.jpg?resize=515%2C1401\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoP-25fix.jpg?resize=515%2C1401 515w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoP-25fix-110x300.jpg 110w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoP-25fix-376x1024.jpg 376w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 515px) 100vw, 515px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here we present our maxed out DX11 settings for <em>S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Call of Pripyat <\/em>DX11 benchmark with 4xAA at 1920&#215;1200:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoP-19fix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22319\" title=\"CoP-19fix\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoP-19fix.jpg?resize=514%2C1402\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoP-19fix.jpg?resize=514%2C1402 514w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoP-19fix-375x1024.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 514px) 100vw, 514px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now we move on to 1680&#215;1050 with 4xAA:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoPJ-16fix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22320\" title=\"CoPJ-16fix\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoPJ-16fix.jpg?resize=525%2C1399\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoPJ-16fix.jpg?resize=525%2C1399 525w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/CoPJ-16fix-384x1024.jpg 384w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 525px) 100vw, 525px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here we see the Phenom II quad-core trade blows with the Core i7-920 with the dual-core not far behind except at the highest resolution with HD 5870 CrossFire.\u00a0 Again, we have managed to shift the load to the GPU with such high details and anti-aliasing applied.\u00a0 We do see HD 5870 CrossFire providing a relatively smooth experience at 1680&#215;1050 with all of our CPUs and at all three chosen core speeds.\u00a0 Clearly Phenom II 550 X2 is sufficient to provide as good an experience in this case as the much more expensive Core i7-920 CPU.<!--pagetitle: Call of Pripyat--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Aliens vs Predator<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span> <strong> <\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/AvP_SS.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-20450\" title=\"AvP_SS\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/AvP_SS.jpg?resize=300%2C187\" alt=\"AvP_SS\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/AvP_SS.jpg?resize=300%2C187 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/AvP_SS-1024x640.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/AvP_SS.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><em>Aliens vs. Predator<\/em>, known to fans as Aliens versus Predator 3 or AVP3 is a video game developed by Rebellion Developments, and published by Sega in February 2010. It is the sixth game of the Aliens versus Predator game series. There are three campaigns in the game, one for each race or faction (the Predators, the Aliens and the Colonial Marines), that form one main storyline although they differ in objectives depending on your choice of campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Alien vs Predators DX11 benchmark is a stand alone bench that as the name says is only for DX11 cards.  First we bench at 2560&#215;1600 with maxed out settings plus 4xAA.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/AvP-251.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22194\" title=\"AvP-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/AvP-251.jpg?resize=482%2C1403\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/AvP-251.jpg?resize=482%2C1403 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/AvP-251-103x300.jpg 103w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Now we test at 1920&#215;1200.<\/span> <span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/AvP-191.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22195\" title=\"AvP-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/AvP-191.jpg?resize=482%2C1398\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/AvP-191.jpg?resize=482%2C1398 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/AvP-191-103x300.jpg 103w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/AvP-191-353x1024.jpg 353w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Finally we test at 1680&#215;1050:<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/AvP-161.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22196\" title=\"AvP-16\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/AvP-161.jpg?w=720\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\">This stand alone DX11 benchmark is more demanding generally than the game.<\/span> However, at the extreme settings we have picked, it is again completely GPU bound.\u00a0 The video card primarily determines the framerates as long as the CPU is sufficient &#8211; in this case, a dual-core Phenom II 550 X2 at 2.6 GHz is enough to keep HD 5870 CrossFire as playable as with the Core i7-920 clocked +1000 MHz higher!<br class=\"spacer_\" \/> <!--pagetitle: AvP--> <strong><!--nextpage--><\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><em><strong>DiRT 2<\/strong><\/em> <em><strong> <\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/dirt2SS.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-20892\" title=\"dirt2SS\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/dirt2SS.jpg?resize=300%2C187\" alt=\"dirt2SS\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/dirt2SS.jpg?resize=300%2C187 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/dirt2SS-1024x640.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a> <\/strong><em>Colin McRae: <\/em><em>DiRT 2<\/em> is a racing game that was released in September 2009, and is the sequel to <em>Colin McRae: Dirt<\/em>. It includes many new race-events, including stadium events as your RV travels from one event to another in many real-world environments across four continents. <em>Dirt 2<\/em> includes five different event types even allowing you to compete at new locations. It also includes a new multiplayer mode. <em>Dirt 2<\/em> is powered by an updated version of the EGO engine which was featured in <em>Race Driver: Grid<\/em>. This updated EGO engine also features an updated physics engine.<\/p>\n<p>We are using the <em>Dirt 2<\/em> full retail game&#8217;s built-in benchmark at the highest &#8220;ultra&#8221; DX11 setting with 8xAA applied.  First we test at 2560&#215;1600:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Dirt2-252.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22215\" title=\"Dirt2-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Dirt2-252.jpg?resize=434%2C1260\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Dirt2-252.jpg?resize=434%2C1260 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Dirt2-252-103x300.jpg 103w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 434px) 100vw, 434px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>What about 1920&#215;1200?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Dirt2-19fix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22313\" title=\"Dirt2-19fix\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Dirt2-19fix.jpg?resize=423%2C1133\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Dirt2-19fix.jpg?resize=423%2C1133 522w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Dirt2-19fix-382x1024.jpg 382w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 423px) 100vw, 423px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Now we test at 1680&#215;1050:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Dirt2-16fix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22314\" title=\"Dirt2-16fix\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Dirt2-16fix.jpg?resize=440%2C1119\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>At the highest resolution with HD 5870 CrossFire, the Phenom quad-core is about as fast as the Core i7 920, clock-for-clock.\u00a0 However, we see the Intel CPU provide faster framerates as the resolution gets lowered.\u00a0 The Phenom II dual-core is barely sufficient to keep things fluid when its core speed is dropped to 2.6 GHz.\u00a0 We can see that <em>DiRT 2<\/em> scales with CPU clockspeed and will take advantage of more than two CPU cores.\u00a0 However, two CPU cores are sufficient to play this game at even 2560&#215;1600 resolution and at the most demanding details plus 8xAA.<!--pagetitle: Dirt 2--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>BattleForge<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/battleforge.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"battleforge\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/battleforge.jpg?resize=150%2C150\" alt=\"battleforge\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>BattleForge<\/em> is an online PC game developed by EA Phenomic and published by Electronic Arts. The full game was released in March 2009. <em>BattleForge<\/em> is a card-based RTS that revolves around acquiring and winning by means of micro-transactions for buying new cards. By May, 2009, <em>BattleForge<\/em> became a Play 4 Free game with fewer cards than the retail version. <em>BattleForge<\/em> supports Directx 11 with full support for hardware tesselation. It is very impressive visually and quite demanding on any system.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">First we test with our cards at 2560&#215;1600 using the <em>BattleForge<\/em> built-in benchmark with all of its settings completely maxed out and with 8xAA:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/BF-251.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22294\" title=\"BF-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/BF-251.jpg?resize=482%2C1402\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/BF-251.jpg?resize=482%2C1402 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/BF-251-103x300.jpg 103w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/BF-251-352x1024.jpg 352w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Now we test at 1920&#215;1200.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/BF-191.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22295\" title=\"BF-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/BF-191.jpg?resize=482%2C1402\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/BF-191.jpg?resize=482%2C1402 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/BF-191-103x300.jpg 103w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/BF-191-352x1024.jpg 352w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Finally we test at 1680&#215;1050:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/BF-16.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22296\" title=\"BF-16\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/BF-16.jpg?resize=482%2C1398\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/BF-16.jpg?resize=482%2C1398 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/BF-16-103x300.jpg 103w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/BF-16-353x1024.jpg 353w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Core i7-920 just barely edges the Phenom II 955 X4 which in turn edges the dual core CPU at the higher resolutions &#8211; but not so that you would notice any difference except perhaps at 1680&#215;1050 and at at the slowest CPU speeds we tested.\u00a0\u00a0 <em>BattleForge<\/em> performance is mostly dependent on your video card especially if you use maximum details and enable higher levels of anti-aliasing.<!--pagetitle: BattleForge--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\">Heaven 2.0 Unigine<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/unigine-1-0.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"unigine-1.0\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/unigine-1-0.jpg?resize=150%2C150\" alt=\"unigine-1.0\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Finally we come to our last benchmark, Heaven 2.0, on the Unigine engine.   It is a synthetic benchmark that uses DX11 and heavy tessellation which will strain any graphics card.\u00a0 We use the setting for &#8220;extreme tessellation&#8221; and high shaders and we also set AF to 16x.\u00a0  Here is Heaven 2.0 benchmark with maxed settings, extreme tessellation and 4xAA at 2560&#215;1600:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Heaven2-25.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22299\" title=\"Heaven2-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Heaven2-25.jpg?resize=482%2C1403\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Heaven2-25.jpg?resize=482%2C1403 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Heaven2-25-103x300.jpg 103w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>And now we test at 1920&#215;1200:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Heaven2-19.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22300\" title=\"Heaven2-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Heaven2-19.jpg?resize=482%2C1403\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Heaven2-19.jpg?resize=482%2C1403 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Heaven2-19-103x300.jpg 103w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Finally we test at 1680&#215;1050:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Heaven2-16.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22301\" title=\"Heaven2-16\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Heaven2-16.jpg?resize=482%2C989\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Heaven2-16.jpg?resize=482%2C989 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Heaven2-16-146x300.jpg 146w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This is a synthetic benchmark and we will withhold judgment until we play PC games using the Unigine engine.  However, at the settings we choose, it is completely dependent on your video card as long as you have a decent dual-core CPU. <!--pagetitle: Heaven 2.0--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h3>Conclusion<\/h3>\n<p><!--pagetitle: Conclusion--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">This has been quite an enjoyable exploration for us in comparing our Core i7 with Phenom II 550 X2 and 955 X4. We finally do see that higher performing graphics make more of a difference then they did with our last testing setup for the previous review with the GTX 280, HD 4870, HD 4870-X2 and even HD 4870-X3 Tri-Fire.<\/p>\n<p>As you can see from our benchmarks, if you want absolutely the very fastest frame rates with HD 5780 CrossFire \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. We also see that as your graphics gets more powerful, generally your CPU needs to also be progressively faster to match it. We noted that there was generally less difference with varying clock speeds and the amount of CPU cores needed with our single HD 5870; results similar to the review we did last year.\u00a0 We also can see that often the differences are magnified by using the faster GTX 480 and they become even more noticeable with the HD 5870 CrossFire setup. So, future and more powerful video card purchases should always be considered whenever you upgrade your CPU.<\/p>\n<p>However, this fact is to be noted. If you are looking for bang for buck now with a single video card of the HD 5870 or GTX 480 class of card, Core i7 is generally overkill for gaming and sometimes it not the fastest solution when compared to our relatively low-budget Phenom IIs.<\/p>\n<p>Since last year, a few more new games have joined our benchmarking list along with <em>World in Conflict<\/em> that seem to really benefit from a quad-core so as to make a practical difference to the game play \u2013 and Core i7 is now generally also the fastest. The rest of the benchmarks still demonstrate that our three CPUs run fairly close in performance to each other and the results are satisfactory once they are overclocked a bit. We even note that overclocking is not always necessary if you don\u2019t mind sacrificing just a few frame rates or lowering details or anti-aliasing.<\/p>\n<p>Our current conclusion from this and past testing would still confirm that your graphic cards are the single most important factor for determining the most game frame rates at maximum detail \u2013 not the CPU.\u00a0 As long as you have a decent dual-core, you are not really losing much by not having four CPU cores in many games.<\/p>\n<p>Our current performance versus value series has drawn to a close \u2013 for now. We will revisit it again and again in the future when we have faster graphics than our HD 5870 CrossFire setup \u2013 perhaps with GTX 580 SLI or with HD 69&#215;0 CrossFire, next year.\u00a0  Stay tuned, there is a lot coming from us at ABT including a GTX 460 Showdown between Galaxy and EVGA this week.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Mark Poppin<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">ABT Senior Editor<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px; text-align: left;\">Please join us in our <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/abt\/index.php\" target=\"_blank\">Forums<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px; text-align: left;\">Become a Fan on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/AlienBabelTech\/123268467142\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/AlienBabelTech\/123268467142', 'Facebook']);\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px; text-align: left;\">Follow us on <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/alienbabeltech\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/twitter.com\/alienbabeltech', 'Twitter']);\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px; text-align: left;\">For the latest updates from ABT, please <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?feed=rss2\" target=\"_blank\">join our RSS News Feed<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px; text-align: left;\">Join our Distributed Computing teams<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left; padding-left: 60px;\">\n<li>Folding@Home &#8211; Team AlienBabelTech &#8211; 164304<\/li>\n<li>SETI@Home &#8211; Team AlienBabelTech &#8211; 138705<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldcommunitygrid.org\/reg\/viewRegister.do?teamID=3P39R3SRV1\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.worldcommunitygrid.org\/reg\/viewRegister.do?teamID=3P39R3SRV1', 'World Community Grid &#8211; Team AlienBabelTech']);\" target=\"_blank\">World Community Grid &#8211; Team AlienBabelTech<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=22167\"><img decoding=\"async\" align=top title=\"Author: Mark Poppin\" src=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/i7-X2-X4.png\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":22402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2533,7814,6,7],"tags":[144,2944,392,3058,3800,4321,1930,2947],"class_list":["post-22167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abt-news","category-articles","category-news","category-technology","tag-core-i7","tag-core-i7-920","tag-cpu-scaling","tag-gtx-480","tag-hd-5870-crossfire","tag-hd5870","tag-phenom-ii-550-x2","tag-phenom-ii-955-x4"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22167","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=22167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}