Test Setup

Hardware

• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P
• CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE (4,2GHz CORE/2,9GHz IMC)
• RAM: 2x 2GB OCZ Platinum (1550MHz 6-6-6)
• Monitor: LG W2600HP-BF 1920×1200 pixels
• GPU: Two ATI HD 5770 1Gb (Crossfire) & one ATI HD 5870 1Gb

Software

• MS Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit
• Catalyst 10.3 February preview (driver package 8.71.3-100205a-095620E)
• Fraps
• Battlefield Bad Company 2
• Aliens vs. Predator
• Borderlands
• Half Life 2
• Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

The FPS where recorded over a 20 second period using Fraps. Multiple runs where completed for each game, and the average values where then calculated for each game and GPU setup. Vertical Sync where disabled for all tests. And the highest possible quality settings where used, unless else is noted.

Battlefield – Bad Company 2
1920×1200, 8x MSAA, 16x AF, HBAO, DX11

(x-axis = seconds, y-axis = fps)

It’s pretty close, but the 5870 managed to push out a few more FPS. Very much playable on both setups. But guess a few more FPS could always be desired for online play.

Aliens vs. Predator
1920×1200, 16x AF, DX11

(x-axis = seconds, y-axis = fps)

At a first glimpse this looks like extremely poor, or no Crossfire support at all. However, I made sure that both 5770 GPU’s where active during testing. And after some additional research, this does indeed seem to be a reasonable result in AvP on two crossfired 5770s…  The 5870 is really flexing its muscles in this one!

Borderlands
1920×1200, 16x AF

(x-axis = seconds, y-axis = fps)

I where not able to bypass a FPS limit of 62 in this game. But decided to include the chart anyway, as both card setups stayed under that limit most of the time.

Half Life 2
1920×1200, 4x MSAA, 16x AF

(x-axis = seconds, y-axis = fps)

Both setups managed to push out a healthy amount of pixels. And still, quite impressive graphics for such a old title!

Call of Duty – Modern Warfare 2
1920×1200, 4x AA, “Extra”

(x-axis = seconds, y-axis = fps)

Towards the end of the run when things heat up a little, the crossfired pair of 5770s closed the gap to their bigger brother. But the 5870 is still a head nonetheless.

Quick Final Thoughts
Well there isn’t much to say really. But if you have plans to grab one of these cards, then go for the 5870 if you can. But a pair of 5770s is still to be counted on, and it has proven to be a very potent setup. Nonetheless fun for the tinkerer! But I bet two 5870s is even more fun…

Be sure to check out TestFreaks for more expert reviews on the Radeon HD5770 & HD5870.

First off, a recap of the system that the tests will be run under:
E8400/ QX9650 //\\ Fuzion V2 Water Cooled
ASUS Maximus 2 Formula P45 //\\ Swiftech MCR320 tri rad
PC Power and Cooling 750quad //\\ Swiftech MCP655 pump
BFG GTX 280 1GB //\\ Danger Den DD-Tieton Water Cooled
2×2 GB Corsair Dominators Creative SupremeFX X-Fi

Windows XP SP3 //\\ Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit

Now lets dive into this picture crazed explanation of everything that is going on with the 2 different operating systems.

First off lets get the E8400 STOCK XP photos rolling:

Alright for now that should be good for the XP. No worries, for all you picture lovers I have plenty more! For now, we will start with these.

Now lets see the E8400 STOCK Win7 photos:

Tired of looking at pictures yet? Just be glad you did not have to take them all! I have a lot more pics with different tests, I think I will save them for something else or a different segment. Well, now that everyones eyes are burning from all those pictures lets talk numbers and what all we see there.

If you bothered to look at all those pictures and compare them with their counterpart from the opposite OS, you probably noticed the same thing I did.  Windows XP seems to have some higher scores over all in the world that is benching. However, Win7 does hold its own in a few benchmarks. So if you are a striving world overclocking champion or ‘Mr. I run stock benches’ you would most likely want to stay away from Windows 7. Now note I did not go into Windows 7 and dumb it down(nor did i do that in WinXP). By that i mean, go in and turn everything off that does not need to be run or turn off any extra gadgits or things of that nature. This is a stock Windows 7, everything you would see when you first install it is what I ran my benchmarks on. So maybe if you really care and want to get the most out of your benchmarks you could spend an extra 30 minutes or an hour cleaning out everything you do not want running. However, if you were going to do that then why even upgrade in the first place. Am I right? Well of course I am right!

Lets toss out a few examples of what I am talking about when I say WinXP, for the most part, is faster with the benchmarks than Win7.

Super PI 1M/32M

XP

Win7

Did you happen to see the Super PI results?  In the overclocking community, the standard program provides a benchmark for enthusiasts to compare world record pi calculation times. With Super PI running on WinXP I had times of 16.516s in the 1M calculation and 16 minutes 13.390s in the 32M calculation. When we take a gander at Win7 Super PI results which were 15.643s in 1M and 15m 38.845s in 32M. This seems to be the one anomaly in my testing. Super PI runs noticeably quicker, for the experienced benchmark person, in Win7 than in WinXP. Is it just my system or possible a lucky stretch where my CPU felt frisky? I am not sure but I ran the tests a couple times and took the lowest run on each just to be sure once i saw this outcome. I guess if my tests hold true all the Super PI guys should be installing Win7 right about now!

Now on the flip side, tests like 3dmark01, pcmark05, and the Gun Metal benchmark you can see that XP has taken the advantage with the higher scores.

3dMark01

XP

Win7

The 3dmark01 showdown proved WinXP to be the victor. WinXP beat Win7 by an impressive 14,552 points by scoring 59087 to Win7’s lonely 44535 mark. I was really shocked by this one and yes I had to run the tests again because I wanted to make sure and got pretty much the same numbers. Take note for all you 3dmark01 benchers this could be your answer to high scores! So chalk one up for WinXP.

PcMark05

XP

Win7

Now with the PCmark05 it was closer, but once again Win7 just barely edges out WinXP with scores of 9018 to 8843 respectively. This I would say could be called a tie since its only 175 point difference so either way nothing extremely eye popping about it.

Gun Metal Benchmark

XP

Win7

The Gun Metal Benchmark you can see for WinXP the FPS marks were Min. 46.44 Avg. 86.81 Max. 142.15 and Win7’s FPS marks were Min. 40.20 AVG. 50.95 Max. 71.57. I would call this a substantial increase especially if your system is just barely getting by in some games. With a higher minimum frame rate you will cut out the lag spikes that can hit when something intense comes across with the game you are playing. AVG frame rate is another part i consider important because this is mostly your running around doing whatever you want. If it is decently high you will enjoy a lag free environment and therefore better enjoy your game, but if your AVG frame rate is low then I am sure you will not be happy with how the game is playing on your system. Once again WinXP i would say impressively takes the lead on this test also.

Part 2 Conclusion:

To conclude what you have seen above, unless you are ‘that’ guy who jumps to the wrap up instead of reading. As you saw for the most part WinXP right now is ahead by, I would call it, a slight margin. Considering Win7 actually won a benchmark and a pretty important one to boot, I can not sit here and say right now that WinXP is dominating Win7. However, I can say from the looks of it, that it really depends on what you would like to do with your computer. If you are a benching guru or if you are a gaming guru you probably just took 2 different conclusions from this section. Right now I will say that WinXP does have a noticeable advantage in the gaming arena. That is something to keep in mind when choosing your operating system. Win7 does put up a decent, shall I say a better fight, when it comes to CPU benchmarks leaving the GFX stuff alone. This is another thing to keep in mind while considering what you want to do with your computer.

Part 3 Teaser

Part 3 will cover the E8400 overclocked in WinXP and Win7. I split it up from this one because there is a ton of pictures  already and did not want to bore you with them. So I chose to split them to make things a little more entertaining and not a chore to read. You can thank me later!

Also, a little news update. The QX9650 is in the mail today so I should have that Monday or Tuesday so I can start overclocking and benching that bad boy later in the week.

Cheers!

I want to explore just how dominant the QX9650 is over the dual core E8400. Does it come close to anything the QX can do? Would it justify the upgrade albeit the same 775 socket? Does the performance suffer if you upgrade to Windows 7 64bit operating system? If so, how much? Do you gain anything from the upgrade apart from just a shiny new GUI (graphical user interface) Is it even worth the money to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7? What are some nifty changes some users my not realize?

Well in my multi segment review, yes I said multi segment review, I will answer or at least try to answer every question above. Heck I may even answer stuff I didn’t even mean to or set out and to try to do. The reason for multiple segments is that there will be a lot of pictures and information that would put people to sleep in 1 read. So with knowing that I decided to make more than 1 and plus I can post as I go for the most part. That is what makes it all worth it and fun to boot. The unknown is out there and I am going to try and wrangle it, tie it down, kick a little dirt in its face and make it give me answers!

So with that said here is a list of my plans of action for this multi allotment review.

1) I will run benches and other tests at stock speeds (Win7 / XP).
2) I will run benches and other tests at overclocked speeds (Win7 / XP).
3) I will run benches and other tests with just the CPU overclocked and Just the GFX card overclocked so people can see what they add separately and see how important each is to the tests.
3) I will overclock the Nvidia 280 along the way and supply results and benches of its performance and see what all I can get out of the beast.
4) I will provide my best commentary and hopefully some well thought out repartee along the way
5) At the end of this I will hopefully be able to answer all the questions and come to some solid conclusions as to whats better or is the upgrade legit ect. ect.

Programs I plan on running: (the list is subject to change. I may add or subtract stuff along the way)

• PCMark05, 3DMark05, 3DMark06, 3DMark2001 SE
• Gun Metal Benchmark
• SiSoftware Sandra Lite 2009 ( Processor Arithmetic, Multi-Media, Multi-Core Efficiency, Power Management Efficiency, Cryptography, Video Rendering, GPU Processing, GPU Bandwidth)
• Aquamark3
• Wprime
• Cinebench R10
• Meta Bench
• Copying DVDs
• Super PI – 1M, 32M

I think I have enough programs to keep me busy and put out a nice overall review on everything.

Soooooo with all of that said lets check the system out that will be running the tests:

E8400/ QX9650   //\\ Fuzion V2 Water Cooled
ASUS Maximus 2 Formula P45 //\\ Swiftech MCR320 tri rad
PC Power and Cooling 750quad //\\ Swiftech MCP655 pump
BFG GTX 280 1GB //\\ Danger Den DD-Tieton Water Cooled
2×2 GB Corsair Dominators Creative SupremeFX X-Fi

Windows XP SP3 //\\ Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit

Keep checking back because I have already started benching the E8400 and I should be working on typing up part 2 in the next few days.

Cheers!