AMD Crossfire Xpress 3200 Chipset for Core 2 Rolls, But Doesn't Rock

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Test Setup

This is not a graphics shootout, but a platform shootout. Darren Polkowski will provide some dual graphics benchmarks with RV600 as soon as it launches. We took the same basic setup that we used for two articles that compared Intel’s and Nvidia’s chipset offerings for Socket 775 processors :

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Processor and Platform
Socket 775Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 (Conroe 65 nm, 2.93 GHz, 4 MB L2 Cache)
MotherboardDFI LANPARTY UT ICFX3200-T2R/GChipset : AMD 580X Crossfire, BIOS : 2006/12/22
Components
RAM2x 1024 MB DDR2-8000 (CL 3.0-4-3-9)Corsair CM2X1024-6400C3 XMS6403v1.1
Graphics CardHIS X1900XTX IceQ3GPU : ATI Radeon X1900XTX (650 MHz)RAM : 512 MB GDDR3 (1550 MHz)
Hard Drive I (read)1x 150 GB 10,000 RPM, 8 MB Cache, SATA/150Western Digital WD1500ADFD
Hard Drive II (write)1x 150 GB 10,000 RPM, 8 MB Cache, SATA/150Western Digital WD1500ADFD
DVD-ROMGigabyte GO-D1600C (16x)
Software
ATI GraphicsCatalyst Suite 6.11
ATI ChipsetCatalyst Suite 6.11
DirectXVersion : 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
OSWindows XP, Build 2600 SP2

Benchmarks And Settings

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Benchmarks and Settings
3D-Games
Call Of Duty 2Version : 1.3 RetailVideo Mode : 1280x960Anti Aliasing : 4xGraphics Card : mediumTimedemo demo2
Quake 4Version : 1.2 (Dual-Core Patch)Video Mode : 1280x1024Video Quality : UltraTHG Timedemo waste.maptimedemo demo8.demo 1 (1 = load textures)
Video
TMPEG 3.0 ExpressVersion : 3.0.4.24 (no Audio)182 MB VOB MPEG2-source (704x576) 16:9
DivX 6.4Version : 6.4 (4 Logical CPUs)Profile : High Definition ProfileMultipass, 3000 kbit/sEncoding mode : Insane Quality
XviD 1.2.0Version : 1.2.0 SMP BetaEncoding type : Twopass - Single passProfile @ Level : DXN HT PALTarget size (kbytes) : 570000
MainConcept H.264 Encoder v2Version : 2.12:19 min MPEG2-source 1920x1080 to H.264Profile : HighAudio : AACStream : Program
Audio
Lame MP3Version 3.97 Beta 2 (11-29-2005)Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 74 minwave to mp3160 kbps
OGGVersion 1.1.2 (Intel P4 MOD)Version 1.1.2 (Intel AMD MOD)Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 74 minwave to oggQuality : 5
Applications
WinrarVersion 3.61 (Multi-Core)(303 MB, 47 Files, 2 Folders)Compression = BestDictionary = 4096 kB
Autodesk 3D Studio MaxVersion : 8.0Characters "Dragon_Charater_rig"rendering HTDV 1920x1080
Adobe Photoshop CS 2Version : 9.0.1VT-Runtime ScriptRendering from 5 Pictures (66 MB, 7 Filters)
CinebenchVersion 9.564 BitnCPU, 1 CPU
Synthetic
PCMark05 ProVersion : 1.1.0CPU and Memory TestsWindows Media Player 10.00.00.3646Windows Media Encoder 9.00.00.2980
SiSoftware Sandra 2007Version 2007.5.11.17CPU Test = CPU Arithmetic / MultiMediaMemory Test = Bandwidth BenchmarkMemory Latency Test = ns
Storage Benchmarks
Performance MeasurementsSimpliSoftware HDTach 3.0.1
I/O-PerformanceIOMeter 2003.05.10Fileserver BenchmarkWebserver BenchmarkDatabase BenchmarkWorkstation Benchmark
USB PerformanceMicrosoft Robocopy XP010
Patrick Schmid