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Test system specifications and Methodology

Our Core i7 test system was provided as a complete system by Intel, indicative of a typical high end enthusiast class system. We updated the BIOS and used our own Kingston SSD in lieu of the installed WDC 500GB Black HDD

ProcessorIntel 2nd Generation Core i7-3960X 3.3GHz
Motherboard INTEL Extreme Series Desktop Board DX79SI SIX7910J.86A.0380.2011.1128.1456 BIOS
Memory 8 GB - 4x 2GB GEIL Value RAM DDR3-1333 CL9
Cooling

CPU: INTEL RTS2011LC Liquid Cooling Solution

Chassis: Two front intake fans and two top exhaust fans

Graphics

AMD HD7970 3GB - AMD Radeon HD7970 Reference Card @ 925/1375MHz. Video Bios Version 015.12.000.004

NVIDIA GTX460 768MB - 2x Gigabyte 460OC-768GI @ 715/1804MHz Video BIOS Version 70.04.1B.00.01

Disk Drive KINGSTON HyperX SH100S3120G 120GB SATA 6Gbit/s Solid State Drive
Optical Drive None
Chassis ANTEC P280 Performance Medium Tower
Power ANTEC HCP-850 High Current Pro 850 Watts Power Supply
Display DELL Ultrasharp U2412M 24" LED backlit LCD Monitor
Operating System MICROSOFT Windows 7 Ultimate Service Pack 1 64bit. Latest updates as of Dec 2011
Graphics Driver

AMD HD7970 Press Driver [Based on Catalyst 11.12]

NVIDIA GeForce 290.53 Beta Driver

Storage Driver INTEL Rapid Storage Technology Enterprise 3.0.0.3020

We were unable to enable PCI Express 3.0 in our Intel i7/X79 Platform as it not supported by the most recent public BIOS for the Intel DX79SI motherboard.

All software was patched to their latest builds. For games, we list our settings below.

All game, web and professional graphics benchmarks conducted at 1920x1200 resolutions. V-sync was disabled where possible.

SoftwareVersionTest Settings @ 1920x1200 resolution.
Cyberlink MediaEspresso 6.5.2119_41281

Hardware Encoding and Decoding Enabled for GPU, disabled for CPU.

Test Video: big_buck_bunny_1080p_h264.mov

Dirt2 / Dirt 3 1.1 / 1.2 Ultra Pre-set, 4x MSAA
Trackmania Nations Forever 2.11.26 VHQ Pre-set, 4x AA, 16x AF
HAWX 2 Benchmark v1.04 Maximum details, 4x AA With Tessellation. DirectX 11
Grand Theft Auto IV Title Update 7

Maximum details, 16x AF, Detail distances 50,50,100

Settings Override switch used to launch game

Just Cause 2 Demo 1.0.0.2

Maximum details on NVIDIA, Maximum Details on AMD

4x AA, 16x AF.

Deus Ex Human Revolution 1.3.643.1

MLAA, 16x AF, Soft Shadows, High SSAO, High DOF

Triple Buffering, Post Processing, Tessellation

Alien V Predator Bench Benchmark V1.03

Texture Quality 3, Shadow Quality 3, Anisotropic 16, SSAO 1

Tessellation 1, Advanced Shadows 1, MSAA 4. DirectX 11

Lost Planet 2 Benchmark Maximum details Including Motion Blur, 4x AA. DirectX 11
Resident Evil 5 Benchmark 1.0.0.29 Maximum details Including Motion Blur, 4x AA. DirectX 10
Street Fighter IV Benchmark 1.0.0.1 Maximum details except Ink,4x AA, 16x AF
World In Conflict Demo 1.0 Maximum details, 4x AA, 16x AF. DirectX 10
SPEC viewperf 11 4x AA