Our testing methods
We've color-coded our results to make them a little easier to read, putting our 965 configurations in blue and the 920 in gold.
All tests were run three times, and their results were averaged.
| Processor | Intel Core i7-920 2.66GHz | Intel Core i7-920 2.66GHz (16x167MHz) | Intel Core i7-920 2.6GHz (13x200MHz) | Intel Core i7-965 Extreme 3.2GHz | ||||
| System bus | QPI 4.8GT/s (2.4GHz) | |||||||
| Motherboard | Asus P6T Deluxe | |||||||
| Bios revision | 0703 | |||||||
| North bridge | Intel X58 Express | |||||||
| South bridge | Intel ICH10R | |||||||
| Chipset drivers |
Chipset: 9.1.0.1007 AHCI: 8.1.5.0.1032 |
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| Memory size | 2GB (2 DIMMs) | 3GB (3 DIMMs) | 3GB (3 DIMMs) | 3GB (3 DIMMs) | 3GB (3 DIMMs) | 3GB (3 DIMMs) | 3GB (3 DIMMs) | 3GB (3 DIMMs) |
| Memory type | Kingston KHX14400D3K3/3GX DDR3 SDRAM | |||||||
| Memory bus speed | 1066MHz | 1066MHz | 1066MHz | 1333MHz | 1600MHz | 1066MHz | 1333MHz | 1600MHz |
| CAS latency (CL) | 9 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 8 |
| RAS to CAS delay (tRCD) | 9 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 8 |
| RAS precharge (tRP) | 9 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 8 |
| Cycle time (tRAS) | 27 | 27 | 20 | 20 | 24 | 20 | 20 | 24 |
| Command rate | 1T | 1T | 1T | 1T | 1T | 1T | 1T | 1T |
| Audio codec | Analog Devices AD2000B with 6.10.1.6520 drivers | |||||||
| Graphics | 2 x Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB in SLI with ForceWare 180.44 drivers | |||||||
| Hard drive | Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB SATA | |||||||
| OS | Windows Vista Ultimate x64 with Service Pack 1 | |||||||
Our test system was powered by a BFG Tech ES-800 800W power supply unit. The ES-800 took home a TR Recommended award in our last PSU round-up, and it has enough power and all the right connectors for our dual GeForce GTX 280 graphics cards in SLI.
Finally, we'd like to thank Western Digital for sending Raptor WD1500ADFD hard drives for our test rigs.
We used the following versions of our test applications:
- SiSoft Sandra Standard 2009 15.42
- WorldBench 6.0 Beta 2
- HD Tach 3.03
- Call of Duty 4 1.4
- Far Cry 2 v1.01
- NTttcp
- CASE Lab Euler3d CFD benchmark multithreaded edition
- MyriMatch proteomics benchmark
- Crysis 1.21
- Enemy Territory: Quake Wars 1.4
- Half-Life 2: Episode Two
- CPU-Z 1.41
The test systems' Windows desktop was set at 1280x1024 in 32-bit color at an 85Hz screen refresh rate. Vertical refresh sync (vsync) was disabled for all tests.
All the tests and methods we employed are publicly available and reproducible. If you have questions about our methods, hit our forums to talk with us about them.
