UPDATED, Part 4 of Benches out! E8400 vs Core i7 with my 5970,5870 and 5850

[Apocalypse23]

As some of you know, I have an original thread here regarding my purchase of my Asus 5970/5870/5850s. I plan on running and comparing Crossfire and single card benchmarks in the coming weeks. I conducted tests and determined that my E8400@3.9ghz was a bottleneck, I compared this with another similar system (see my signature for details) and tested PCI-E 1.0 vs PCI-E 2.0 comparisons as well.


Edit: E8400@3.9Ghz vs i7 930@stock with turbo off conducted on Asus 5870/5970/5850:

Test System:
Intel Core i7 930
Gigabyte X58A-UD3R
Crucial Ballistix DDR3 1600 2*3 6GB 8-8-8-24 2T RAM
Scythe Mugen 2 Rev B Heatsink
Corsair TX950 950W PSU
Asus 5870/Asus 5970/Asus 5850
Coolermaster Storm Sniper Black Edition Case
Asus 24x DVD ROM
ATI CAT 10.3a driver



New updates: added 5850 and 5970+5850+5870 benches:


3d Mark Vantage

Unigine Heaven 2.0

Metro 2033

Just Cause 2 Demo- Benchmark

Dirt 2 and Crysis Warhead

Battlefield Bad Company 2

Comments: Overall the i7's stock performance felt way smoother while playing, you could sense that although the fps may be low, the game felt crisp as ever, the Quads are really helping. The FPS alone may not give you the overall picture. Further testing at 4.3Ghz speed and CF benches to come this weekend.


Please see below:

Rig 1:
Intel Core2Duo E8400@3.9ghz
ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP -- PCI-E 1.0
Patriot 8GB 4x2GB PC2-6400
OCZ Vendetta2
Corsair 750W PSU

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/7372/cpuidb.png

Rig 2:
Intel Core2Duo E8400@3.9ghz
ASUS P5Q-PRO --PCI-E 2.0
Corsair Dominator 2x2GB PC2-8500
OCZ Vendetta1
OCZ PSU 600W

http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/2847/rig2shot1.png

Benchmarks: PCI-E 1.0 vs PCI-E 2.0 on E8400@3.9ghz

Clearly my 5970 is being bottle-necked severely due to my dual core processor. It's almost useless having a beast like this on any Dual core setup. Hence forth I can't wait to try it on my new i7 setup and post some comparisons in the next week or so.

Here are my three cards:
http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/2025/dsc00537lc.jpg
http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/3366/dsc00535x.jpg

Stay tuned for some hybrid CF benches next week!

 

[cbn]

Looks pretty close.

 

[NoQuarter]

I read some reviewer averages multiple runs of Dirt 2 because the computer AI controlled cars during the benchmark give different results each run, do you think this is why the 5970 on PCI-e 1.0 scored so high?

 

[Apocalypse23]

I read some reviewer averages multiple runs of Dirt 2 because the computer AI controlled cars during the benchmark give different results each run, do you think this is why the 5970 on PCI-e 1.0 scored so high?

I'm not quite sure as to why it scored higher in that particular test. It could be an instance of a car crashing into a wide open ditch thereby resulting in higher fps, I'd have to rerun that instance to be completely sure though.

 

[RussianSensation]

Hey, I really love the faux carbon fibre look on those cards.

Make sure you do an average of 3 runs though to weed out any unusual results in the benches.

Can't wait to see Dirt2 benches with an overclocked Core i7 to compare minimum framerates. Also those mins in Crysis should rise with a Core i7.

When do the parts arrive? Did you get a nice cooler for the i7 btw?

 

[tweakboy]

GPU will always remain your renderer and graphics. CPU does other stuff like compute and AI and all that jazz,,

 

[NoQuarter]

GPU will always remain your renderer and graphics. CPU does other stuff like compute and AI and all that jazz,,

..?

 

[Apocalypse23]

Pics coming..

 

[Apocalypse23]

Hey, I really love the faux carbon firbe look on those cards.

Make sure you do an average of 3 runs though to weed out any unusual results in the benches.

Can't wait to see Dirt2 benches with an overclocked Core i7 to compare minimum framerates. Also those mins in Crysis should rise with a Core i7.

When do the parts arrive? Did you get a nice cooler for the i7 btw?

Thanks, I'll do my best with the benches.

Went to ncix today and picked up my giga board and a WD caviar black 500gb harddrive. The Scythe heatsink is on back order and i will be picking that up at another ncix outlet. The coolermaster storm sniper black edition case is coming on Thursday. The i7 and ram shipper made an error on his part and reshipped the item last Friday. It should be here by Monday-ish ( I know..)

Some new pics for the board and HD:

 

[RussianSensation]

Nice board. Shiny new hardware ()

That 1st PCI Express x1 slot makes me want to laugh.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Hey, I really love the faux carbon fibre look on those cards.

Make sure you do an average of 3 runs though to weed out any unusual results in the benches.

Can't wait to see Dirt2 benches with an overclocked Core i7 to compare minimum framerates. Also those mins in Crysis should rise with a Core i7.

I just received my Sapphire 5970HD yesterday. It will be interesting to see how my results compare to Apocalypse23's i7 benches. At 1680X1050 with all settings maxed, I was seeing min frames in the 70's with Dirt 2 in DX11. Rig is below. Yes, I know the card is overkill for my monitor.

Core i7 860 @3.8Ghz
8GB DDR3 1600
Asus P55D Pro
Sapphire Radeon 5970HD
Tagan 1100W PSU
NEC 20WMGX2

 

[Genx87]

Awesome thread. I have an E8400 and want to know if it is worth upgrading to an i series chip with these new cards. Cant wait to read your results soon.

 

[MrK6]

Looks good so far, keep it up .

 

[Sho'Nuff]

So have you got that I7 setup up and running yet? I'd love to see what benches you get with just the 5970. Mine seem . . . uninspired as yet.

 

[RussianSensation]

. At 1680X1050 with all settings maxed, I was seeing min frames in the 70's with Dirt 2 in DX11.

Is that with 8AA/16AF?
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/geforce-gtx-480_10.html#sect0

5970 is a beast for Dirt 2! I want.

 

[Apocalypse23]

So have you got that I7 setup up and running yet? I'd love to see what benches you get with just the 5970. Mine seem . . . uninspired as yet.

My i7 and Ram are in customs Canada, just awaiting for further release time, tomorrow if I'm lucky or Monday ish.

I ordered a 950 W Corsair TX PSU from Canada computers, but some are suggesting I purchase a 1500W PSU to run a 5970+5870+5850 on OC with i7@4ghz + 4hds...so I'm not too sure...

I made a PSU thread here.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Is that with 8AA/16AF?
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/geforce-gtx-480_10.html#sect0

5970 is a beast for Dirt 2! I want.

Yes.

 

[Apocalypse23]

Got the case today, this thing is massive for a Mid Tower case, bigger than most Full towers and really wide...it just dwarfs my Coolermaster Elite Rc-330..

The scythe mugen 2 rev B:

 

[1h4x4s3x]

nice socks

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Apocalypse:

FYI, I ran some vantage benchmarks last night. I was seeing an average of 22,000 3d marks with the system below, using the "performance" preset. That is ~41% higher than your E8400 at roughly the same clock speed! So you should see a nice jump with your i7.

I also ran some benches at the "high" preset, and was seeing an average of ~18,000 3d marks. The "Ultra" preset is not available to me because my resolution is capped at 1680X1050. Will post screen shots of my results later tonight (in my own thread. I don't want to take yours over). EDIT: Here is the link to my thread with the benches: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2065010

I7 860 @~3.8 Ghz.
8 GB DDR3 1600
Asus P55D Pro
Sapphire Radeon HD5970 (stock speeds)
NEC Multisync 20WGMX2
ABS (Tagan) 1100W PSU

 

[Attic]

Nice work and nice pics and layout. I'm still on PCI-E 1.0 (P965 FTW) so this great info for me. I wouldn't lose any sleep dropping a 5870 into this board.

 

[Apocalypse23]

Nice work and nice pics and layout. I'm still on PCI-E 1.0 (P965 FTW) so this great info for me. I wouldn't lose any sleep dropping a 5870 into this board.

Thanks, still waiting for my CPU and RAM to arrive.

 

[Apocalypse23]

Meanwhile I got my Corsair 950TX PSU today.

6 PCI-E 6+2 pin connectors = Tri-Crossfire goodness.

Here are some other shots of the case:

 

[Apocalypse23]

Okay, since I have 3 cards and a nice setup, I might as well add some more benchmarks. At this point I'm thinking of the following benches:

5870 stock, 5870 OC
5970 stock, 5970 OC
5850 stock, 5850 OC
5970 + 5870 stock, 5970 + 5870 OC
5870 + 5850 stock, 5870 + 5850 OC
5970 + 5870 + 5850 stock, 5970 + 5870 + 5850 OC (might need a bigger PSU, will try)

Games and Programs:
3d Mark Vantage
Dirt 2
BFBC2
Crysis Warhead
Metro 2033 (yeah might as well include this one)

Resolutions:
1920x1080 (this is all I have)

Filtering level:
4xMSAA,16xAF
4xSSAA, 16xAF (super sampling, I'll see if I get here later)

This benchmark will take some time, any thoughts or suggestions on what else to include, let me know.

 

[RussianSensation]

Hey, You realize that if you run tripple cards on that board, you will be running PCIe 2.0 at 8x. This would be identical to the bandwidth provided by PCIe 1.0 16x (Gen 1).

"(Note 2) The PCIEX8_1 and PCIEX8_2 slots share bandwidth with the PCIEX16_1 and PCIEX16_2 slots espectively. When PCIEX8_1 is populated with an expansion card, the PCIEX16_1 slot will operate at up to x8 mode; when PCIEX8_2 is populated with an expansion card, the PC IEX16_2 slot will operate at up to x8 mode."

Also, you might as well do 8AA