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Platform and testing methodology
We performed the usual tests on the Core i7 3960X CPU. To this we added additional processors in our possession, we performed comparative tests on all of them with the default frequency and for further comparison we also performed a 'clock to clock' test at a frequency of 4.0GHz in order to have a better performance comparison of the different analyzed architectures. The overclock to 4GHz has been made only by the multiplier, trying to maintain the base clock, so you can better assess the intrinsic potential of architecture.
All tests were undertaken on the following platform:
So, in this review we have focused our tests to quantify the potential of the CPU benchmarks tested on the following tools:
SYNTHETIC
- 3DMark Vantage: produced by Futuremark, 3Dmark Vantage is a useful tool to test the performance of your system. Primarily designed to track the performance of the graphics card, the 3DMark Vantage is suited for testing of the CPU that are increasingly a bottleneck in the system when it comes to graphics applications. The test was carried out only in relation to the CPU, disabling the 2 steps related only to vga.
- AIDA64: AIDA64 is a software product from FinalWire that monitors the system by providing detailed information on hardware components. The software includes a utility inside the bench capable of testing memory and cache inside the processor.
DATA COMPRESSION AND MULTIMEDIA
- 7zip 9.20: this well-known archive software contains within it a tool that can analyze system performance, reporting a value expressed in MIPS (million istruction per second).The test includes compression, decompression, and overall value.
- Winrar 3 Beta 4: Another famous compression and decompression software for data archives. Inside it there is a benchmark utility that compresses a standard file suitable for this purpose; the software will return the compression speed in KB/s.
- Cinebench 11.5 and 10: Software products from Maxon that allow, through the development of three-dimensional images and content, to test the CPU performance. Both the release allow to test the CPU using a single core, or all the cores inside the processor.
- X264 HD Benchmark 3.0: software to measure the performance of the CPU using the x264 video encoding.
- Handbrake 0.9.5: Multi-threaded video encoding software with which we will transform a file (a movie) to MP4; the process includes x264 video encoding, FAAC audio encoding and muxing into final MP4 container. The time it takes for the CPU to perform this task will be taken into consideration.
