Test methodology
To provide comparative numbers, we'll be comparing Gigabyte's GA-X58A-UD9 with a high-end offering from ASUS; the P6X58D Premium Deluxe.
Pushing the platforms into extreme territory, we'll load the boards with an Intel Core i7 980X processor, 12GB of DDR3 1,600MHz memory and AMD ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics.
Those ingredients are applicable to both systems, but what we really want to know is; does the UD9's quartet of PCIe x16 slots warrant the extra outlay? To find out, we'll be benchmarking two-way, three-way and four-way HD 5870 CrossFire configurations.
Has CrossFire matured enough to offer decent scaling with more than two cards? We'll put it to the test across seven popular PC titles using AMD's most recent driver release, Catalyst 10.6.
Here's our complete system specifications, along with descriptions of our benchmark suite:
Comparison systems |
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|---|---|---|
| Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD9 (£465.99*) | ASUS P6X58D Premium Deluxe (£239.90*) |
| Motherboard BIOS | F3 (28/05/2010) | 0808 (20/04/2010) |
| Processor | Intel Core i7 980X (3.33GHz, 12MB L3 cache, hexa-core) | Intel Core i7 980X (3.33GHz, 12MB L3 cache, hexa-core) |
| Memory | Corsair 12GB (6 x 2GB) DDR3 | Corsair 12GB (6 x 2GB) DDR3 |
| Memory timings | 8-8-8-24-1T @ 1,600MHz | 8-8-8-24-1T @ 1,600MHz |
| Graphics | AMD ATI Radeon HD 5870 (in x1, x2, x3 and x4 CrossFire configurations) |
AMD ATI Radeon HD 5870 |
| Graphics frequencies | GPU clock: 850MHz Memory: 1,200MHz |
GPU clock: 850MHz Memory: 1,200MHz |
| Graphics driver | Catalyst 10.6 | Catalyst 10.6 |
| Disk drive | 120GB OCZ Vertex SSD | 120GB OCZ Vertex SSD |
| Optical drive | Generic 24x DVD-RW | Generic 24x DVD-RW |
| Chassis | N/A | Corsair Obsidian Series 800D |
| Power supply | Corsair HX1000W | Corsair HX1000W |
| Operating system | Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit | Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit |
CPU and memory benchmarks |
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| HEXUS.PiFast |
Our number-crunching benchmark stresses a single core by calculating Pi to 10m places. | |
| wPrime | A number-crunching benchmark that stresses all available CPU cores/threads. | |
| Cinebench 11.5 | Using Cinebench's multi-CPU render, this cross-platform benchmark stresses as many cores as possible. Run using high-performance mode. | |
| Geekbench 2.1.6 | A cross-platform benchmark used to measure memory and processor performance. Run using high-performance mode. | |
| SiSoft Memory Bandwidth | Used to measure system memory bandwidth. | |
| SiSoft Memory Latency | Used to measure system memory latency. | |
GPU benchmarks |
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| AvP | DX11, 2,560x1,600, 4xAA, 16xAF, very high quality. | |
| Battlefield: Bad Company 2 | DX11, 2,560x1,600, 8xAA, 16xAF, ultra quality, FRAPS-recorded benchmark. | |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 | DX9, 2,560x1,600, 4xAA, ultra quality, FRAPS-recorded benchmark. | |
| Crysis Warhead | DX10, 2,560x1,600, 4xAA, 16xAF, enthusiast quality, Train map, FRAPS-recorded benchmark. | |
| DiRT 2 | DX11, 2,560x1,600, 4xAA, ultra quality, London map. | |
| Far Cry 2 | DX10, 2,560x1,600, 4xAA, 16xAF, ultra quality. | |
| HAWX | DX10.1, 2,560x1,600, 4xAA, ultra quality. | |
General benchmarks |
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| Power consumption | To provide best- and worst-case scenarios, we record mains power draw when idle and whilst running the GPU-intensive Furmark stress test. | |
| *price correct at the time of writing, June 24 2010 | ||