Our testing methods
We had numerous problems getting the 790FX chipset's SB600 south bridge component working correctly in AHCI mode. Not only do you need an auxiliary storage controller (or a slipstreamed SP1 disc) to install Vista, but we've found that you also have to choose between drivers that offer strong performance with poor CPU utilization or those that exhibit low CPU utilization with weak performance. Given these issues, you're better off running the SB600 in native IDE mode, which we did for our testing. The nForce 780a SLI has no problems running in AHCI mode, which is what we used for that platform.
This first wave of tests were run with HybridPower disabled. We'll get to the mGPU in a moment.
All tests were run three times, and their results were averaged.
| Processor | Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition | |
| System bus | 2GHz HyperTransport | |
| Motherboard | MSI K9A2 Platinum | Asus M3N-HT Deluxe |
| Bios revision | 1.3 | T0425A |
| North bridge | AMD 790FX | Nvidia nForce 200 |
| South bridge | AMD SB600 | Nvidia nForce 780a SLI MCP |
| Chipset drivers | Catalyst 8.4 | ForceWare 18.11 |
| Memory size | 2GB (2 DIMMs | 2GB (2 DIMMs) |
| Memory type | Corsair CM2X2048-8500C5 DDR2 SDRAM at 714MHz | |
| CAS latency (CL) | 4 | 4 |
| RAS to CAS delay (tRCD) | 4 | 4 |
| RAS precharge (tRP) | 4 | 4 |
| Cycle time (tRAS) | 12 | 12 |
| Command rate | 2T | 2T |
| Audio codec | ALC888 with 1.91 drivers | AD1988B with 6.10.1.6320 drivers |
| Graphics | GeForce 8800 GT 1GB PCIe with ForceWare 169.25 drivers | |
| Hard drive | Western Raptor X 150GB | |
| OS | Windows Vista Ultimate x86 with Service Pack 1 | |
Thanks to Corsair for providing us with memory for our testing.
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.
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 2008 13.12
- WorldBench 6.0 Beta 2
- TCD Labs HD Tach 3.01
- Call of Duty 4 1.4
- RightMark Audio Analyzer 6.06
- NTttcp
- CASE Lab Euler3d CFD benchmark multithreaded edition
- Intel IOMeter v2004.07.30
- Crysis 1.21
- Enemy Territory: Quake Wars 1.4
- Half-Life 2: Episode 2
- 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.
