Our testing methods
Today we'll be comparing the DKA790GX Platinum's performance with that of another board based on AMD's 790GX chipset, Gigabyte's GA-MA790GP-DS4H. You can get the full scoop on the Gigabyte board in our 790GX launch coverage.
All tests were run three times, and their results were averaged.
| Processor | Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition | |
| System bus | 1.8GHz HyperTransport | |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H | MSI DKA790GX Platinum |
| Bios revision | F3H | 1.4 |
| North bridge | AMD 790GX | AMD 790GX |
| South bridge | AMD SB750 | AMD SB750 |
| Chipset drivers | Catalyst 8.12 | Catalyst 8.12 |
| Memory size | 2GB (2 DIMMs) | 2GB (2 DIMMs) |
| Memory type | Corsair CM2X1024-9136C5D DDR2 SDRAM at 1066MHz | |
| CAS latency (CL) | 5 | 5 |
| RAS to CAS delay (tRCD) | 5 | 5 |
| RAS precharge (tRP) | 5 | 5 |
| Cycle time (tRAS) | 18 | 18 |
| Command rate | 2T | 2T |
| Audio codec | ALC889A with 2.13 drivers | ALC888 with 2.13 drivers |
| Graphics | Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB with ForceWare 180.48 drivers | |
| Hard drive | Western Raptor X 150GB | |
| OS | Windows Vista Ultimate x86 with Service Pack 1 | |
All of our test systems were powered by OCZ GameXStream 700W power supply units. Thanks to OCZ for providing these units for our use in testing.
Thanks to Corsair for providing the Dominator DIMMs we used for testing.
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
- RightMark Audio Analyzer 6.06
- NTttcp
- CASE Lab Euler3d CFD benchmark multithreaded edition
- Far Cry 2 1.01
- 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.
