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Review: Intel P4P 660 and 3.73 Extreme
Edition
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2
IL-2:
Sturmovik Forgotten Battles - Aces Expansion Pack
was tested in OpenGL and with all video options set to medium
(normal for Objects detail) using the Black Death track.
Maddox Games' title shows the most
appreciation for a faster front side bus, giving at 640x480
almost a 15% increase between the 3.4 and 3.46 EEs and almost
7% between the 660 and 3.73. The advantage does lessen slightly
as the resolution increases, and the 3.46 commands a noticeable
performance lead over the newer parts, again showing that
higher frequencies enabled by a deeper pipeline are no guarantee
of better performance in all applications.
Far
Cry is undoubtedly the most graphically advanced title
in SimHQ's current benchmark suite (though this is likely
to change once Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is released). As
such, all in-game advanced video options were placed at low-medium
settings to hopefully prevent the Radeon X800 XT from bottlenecking
the test results. Testing consisted of repeated run-throughs
of the Research map in God mode since that particular level
includes an excellent combination of the beach, jungle, and
interior settings found throughout the game.
As expected Far Cry scales extremely
well with graphics processing, and this is born out by the
scores generated with the Radeon X800 XT in use. Nevertheless,
performance between the processors tested was less than 5%,
even at 640x480, with that small delta vanishing at higher
resolutions as the game's frame rate obviously becomes limited
by the graphics card. None of the CPUs are truly able to differentiate
themselves here.
Call
of Duty is based on id Software's Quake 3 engine, and
as such in-game video settings were placed at their highest
options since the title hardly stresses the latest high-end
graphics boards. Scores were derived from the Dawnville demo
using the in-game timedemo utility to capture performance.
The "com_maxfps" console command was also used to
lift the default frame rate cap of 85.
Call of Duty seems to benefit
from the 925XE's 1066 MHz FSB more than core clock speed,
though it's possible that the frame rates at lower resolutions
are limited at a driver level for the graphics card.
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