Feature Articles

Intel's 1600MHz FSB Platform: Tried, Tested, Judged

By Zachary Chan - 16 Apr 2008

Test Setup

Test Setup

For this article, we will be benchmarking a full 1600MHz FSB platform that consists of the new Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 processor, Intel X38 reference motherboard and some DDR3-1600 memory. This system will be compared against Intel's current 1333MHz FSB platform. From the test bed below, there are a few things to take note of. Because the QX9770 and QX9650 are both running at different base FSB frequencies, the 200MHz difference in their clock speeds must be accounted for as well. Also, two different sets of memory are used, but we normalized their timings to match so only the speed difference should matter.

  • 1600MHz FSB Platform
  • Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 processor (3.20GHz, 1600MHz FSB, 12MB L2)
  • Intel X38 reference motherboard
  • 2 x 1GB Patriot DDR3-1600 @ 7-7-20 CAS 7.0
  • Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 200GB SATA hard disk drive (one single NTFS partition)
  • MSI GeForce 8800 GT 512MB - with ForceWare 169.21 drivers
  • Intel INF 8.3.1.1009 and AHCI 7.8.0.1012 driver set
  • Microsoft Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 (and DirectX 9.0c)

  • 1333MHz FSB Platform
  • Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 processor (3.00GHz, 1333MHz FSB, 12MB L2)
  • Intel X38 reference motherboard
  • 2 x 1GB Kingston HyperX DDR3-1333 @ 7-7-20 CAS 7.0
  • Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 200GB SATA hard disk drive (one single NTFS partition)
  • MSI GeForce 8800 GT 512MB - with ForceWare 169.21 drivers
  • Intel INF 8.3.1.1009 and AHCI 7.8.0.1012 driver set
  • Microsoft Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 (and DirectX 9.0c)

 

Benchmarks

As we wanted more comprehensive and conclusive results, our performance testing this time around called for the complete set of benchmarks we usually reserve for full processor reviews.

  • BAPCo SYSmark 2007 Preview 1.02
  • SPEC CPU2000 v1.3
  • Lightwave 3D 7.5
  • Futuremark PCMark 2005 Pro
  • Cinebench 10
  • XMpeg 5.0.3 (DivX 6.8 encoding)
  • Futuremark 3DMark06
  • AquaMark3
  • World in Conflict 1.05
  • Crysis 1.1

 

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