Testing methodology - all change
Comparison systems |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Motherboard | Gigabyte Z77-D3H | ASUS P8Z68-V PRO | |||||
| Motherboard BIOS | F10 | 3203 | |||||
| Chipset driver | Intel Inf 9.3.0.1020 and IMEI 8.0.1399 | ||||||
| Processor | Intel Core i7-2700K | ||||||
| Memory | G.Skill 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 | ||||||
| Memory timings | 9-9-9-24-2T @ 1,600MHz | ||||||
| Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB and Intel HD 3000 Graphics | ||||||
| Graphics driver | ForceWare 301.10 and Intel 8.15.10.2696 | ||||||
| Disk drive | Corsair V128 SSD | ||||||
| Optical drive | Sony AD-7263S | ||||||
| Chassis | Corsair Graphite 600T | ||||||
| Power supply | Corsair AX750 | ||||||
| Operating system | Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64-bit | ||||||
CPU and memory benchmarks |
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| AIDA64 v2.30.1900 |
Benchmark that analyses memory bandwidth and latency | ||||||
| MediaEspresso 6.5 |
Encodes 720p episode (55m) into BlackBerry Bold-friendly 480x360 version in mp4 | ||||||
| PCMark 7 |
An all-encompassing test to evaluate system performance | ||||||
| HEXUS.PiFast |
Our number-crunching benchmark stresses a single core by calculating Pi to 10m places | ||||||
| wPrime 2.0.8 | Another number-crunching benchmark that stresses all available CPU cores/threads | ||||||
| CINEBENCH 11.5 | Using Cinebench's multi-CPU render, this cross-platform benchmark stresses all cores | ||||||
GPU benchmarks |
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| 3DMark 11 b1.1 | DX11, run with the performance preset | ||||||
| 3DMark Vantage b1.2 | DX10, run at the default performance preset | ||||||
| Just Cause 2 | DX10, 1,280x720 low/medium and 1,920x1,080 high settings | ||||||
| Batman: Arkham City | DX11, 1,920x1,080 with very high quality settings | ||||||
General benchmarks |
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| Storage performance | USB 3.0 read and write speed, SSD average read and write speed | ||||||
| Power consumption | While idling and when running wPrime and 3DMark Vantage | ||||||
Notes
All change, all change. We've built these platforms from scratch. The choice of CPU, Core i7 2700K, isn't accidental, and it may give you an inkling into which Ivy Bridge processor we have for comparative results that are due to be published soon.
We're now using a GeForce GTX 680 GPU as the discrete card. Doing so enables us to see where the graphics bottlenecks lie, plus it provides crazy-high numbers. There's a significant change in the gaming benchmarks and we'll explain all in the commentary.
The comparison here is to see how the budget Gigabyte Z77 board performs against a well-tuned Z68 from ASUS. Both boards are tested with the latest BIOS and, as far as we can determine, with the same settings. We'll be adding Intel X79 and AMD 990FX results once a certain IB chip becomes available. All tests are run with the GeForce GTX 680 in the system unless otherwise stated.