Test System Specs:

AMD Athlon64 3800+
AMD Athlon64 FX-53 Socket939
AMD Athlon64 FX-53 Socket940

MSI MS-7032 (Via K8T880Pro Chipset) for Socket 939 chips
Corsair TwinX DDR XMS3200LL (Socket939)
Asus SK8N (Nforce3 pro 150 chipset) for Socket 940 chip
Corsair TwinX ECC/REG DDR XMS3500LLPT (Socket940)

ATI Radeon X800Pro 256mb
Samsung 80Gb/7200rpm/8mb cache Sata Drive
AKASA AK-855 Cooler
Sony CRX300E DVD/CDRW
Sony Floppy Drive
Mercury 400W PSU
AOC 19” 9GLR CRT

Software:
Windows SP1a
Direct X 9.0b
VIA Hyperion 4.51v WHQL
Nforce Driver 4.24 WHQL
Catalyst 4.5 WHQL
PC Mark 04 Build 120
Photoshop 7
Painkiller 1.15
Colin McRae Rally 04
Imtoo DVD 2.0.12.331
Sisoft Sandra2004 SP1
3dMark03 Build 340
DivX Codec 5.1.1

The test system was built from scratch, a format of the hard drive was performed (NTFS) and then Windows XP was installed. Following the completion of the install the only updates applied were SP1a and Direct X 9.0b and Windows Media Player/Encoder 9. Next the N-force/Hyperion drivers were installed and following a reboot the Catalyst 4.5 drivers were installed. The benchmarking tools were installed and finally the hard drive was de-fragmented. For all tests the display drivers were set to best image quality.

Good Benchmarking Practice:
Each benchmark was performed 3 times and the middle result for each resolution/setting is shown in the tables which follow. All games/applications had their latest patches applied.

 

Next: PcMark04

 

Select 1. Introduction 2. Test Setup 3. Pcmark04 4. Sandra 2004 5. Colin McRae 4 6. Painkiller 7. ImToo DVD 8. Photoshop 9. Overclocking 10. Conclusion