Our testing methods
As ever, we did our best to deliver clean benchmark numbers. Tests were run at least twice, and the results were averaged.

Our test systems were configured like so:

ProcessorAthlon 64 3800+ 2.4GHzAthlon 64 3800+ 2.4GHz
System busHT 16-bit/800MHz downstream
HT 16-bit/800MHz upstream		HT 16-bit/800MHz downstream
HT 16-bit/800MHz upstream
MotherboardMSI K8T Neo 2VIA K8T890 reference
BIOS revision3.0 070604Beta
North bridgeK8T800 ProK8T890
South bridgeVT8237VT8237
Chipset drivers4-in-1 v.1.11 beta (9/7/04)4-in-1 v.1.11 beta (9/7/04)
Memory size1GB (2 DIMMs)1GB (2 DIMMs)
Memory typeCorsair XMS3200XL DDR SDRAM at 400MHZCorsair XMS3200XL DDR SDRAM at 400MHZ
CAS latency22
Cycle time66
RAS to CAS delay33
RAS precharge36
Command rate2T2T
Hard driveMaxtor MaxLine III SATA 250GB
AudioIntegrated
Graphics Radeon 9600 XT 128MB AGP Radeon X600 XT 128MB PCI-E
OSMicrosoft Windows XP Professional
OS updatesService Pack 2, DirectX 9.0c

Thanks to Corsair for providing us with memory for our testing. If you're looking to tweak out your system to the max and maybe overclock it a little, Corsair's RAM is definitely worth considering.

The test systems' Windows desktops were set at 1152x864 in 32-bit color at an 85Hz screen refresh rate. Vertical refresh sync (vsync) was disabled for all tests.

We used the following versions of our test applications:

The tests and methods we employ are generally publicly available and reproducible. If you have questions about our methods, hit our forums to talk with us about them.