AMD’s FX-8150 and CrossFire Scaling – Bulldozer Part 2, the Conclusion
Test Configuration
Test Configuration – Hardware
- Intel Core i7 920-reference 2.66GHz and overclocked to 3.8GHz; 21x multiplier for 3.97 GHz, Turbo Boost is on.
- AMD FX-8150 stock clocked at 3.6GHz with Turbo Core enabled and also overclocked to 4.4GHz with Turbo Core disabled.
- Gigabyte EX58-UD3R (Intel X58 chipset, latest BIOS, PCIe 2.0 specification; CrossFire/SLI 16x+16x).
- ASUS CrossHair V AM3+ RoG motherboard (PCIe 3.0 Specifications; CrossFire/SLI 16x+16x)
- 6 GB DDR3 PC1800 Kingston RAM (3×2 GB, at PC1600 speeds for Intel’s tri-channel; 2×2 GB supplied by Kingston)
- 4 GB DDR3 PC1600 Kingston RAM (2×2 GB, at PC1600 speeds; RAM supplied by Kingston)
- AMD Radeon HD 6990 (4GB, overclocked clocks, 880/1375MHz), supplied by AMD
- AMD Radeon HD 6970 (2GB, reference clocks, 880/1375MHz) supplied by AMD
- AMD Radeon HD 6950 (2GB, flashed to stock HD 6970; 880/1375MHz) supplied by AMD
- Two identical 500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 hard drives configured and set up identically from drive image; one partition for Intel drivers and one for AMD drivers
- 2 x Thermaltake ToughPower 775W power supply units supplied by Thermaltake
- OCZ 850W power supply unit
- Thermaltake Element G Case supplied by Thermaltake for the Intel platform
- Coolermaster Elite 430 Case, supplied by Coolermaster for the AMD Phenom II platform
- Thermaltake Chaser Mk I full tower case supplied by Thermaltake for the FX plaftform
- Noctua NH-U12P SE2 CPU cooler (for Intel CPU), supplied by Noctua
- Thermalright UltraExtreme120 CPU cooler (for AMD platform)
- Philips DVD SATA writer
- HP LP3065 2560×1600 thirty inch LCD.
Test Configuration – Software
- ATi Catalyst 11.9 WHQL driver for all Radeons for games and Preview 11.10 for all other tests; highest quality mip-mapping set in the driver; surface performance optimizations are off; “use applications settings” are checked
- Windows 7 64-bit; very latest updates
- DirectX July/November 2010
- All games are patched to their latest versions.
- vsync is forced off in the control panel.
- Varying AA enabled as noted in games; all in-game settings are specified with 16xAF always applied if possible; 16xAF forced in control panel for Crysis.
- All results show average rates as noted.
- Highest quality sound (stereo) used in all games.
- Windows 7 64, all DX9 titles were run under DX9 render paths, DX10 titles were run under DX10 render paths and DX11 titles under DX11 render paths.
The Game Benchmarks
- Vantage
- 3DMark11
- Batman: Arkham Asylum
- Serious Sam, Second Encounter HD (2010)
- Wolfenstein
- Left 4 Dead
- Mafia II
- Crysis
- World in Conflict
- Far Cry 2
- Just Cause 2
- Resident Evil 5
- Alien vs. Predator
- Battleforge
- STALKER, Call of Pripyat
- F1 2010
- Metro 2033
- Lost Planet 2
- H.A.W.X. 2
- Civilization 5
- Dirt 3
- Crysis 2
- Heaven 2
We have got an interesting project going. We finally get to see what happens with CrossFire scaling when we overclock our FX-8150 to 4.4GHz.
