Page 9 -- Benchmarks

Benchmarks!

So, we can safely say that the Neptune won't tank.  We didn't bother running benchmarks at the stock 3.2GHz speed, so these are for 4GHz.  Also, the GTX280 cards were left at their underwhelming setting of 615MHz, even though they had plenty of room for overclocking.

The following tools and drivers were used in the benchmarks:

• nVidia driver 182.08 
• 3DMark Vantage
• SiSoft Sandra Lite 2009.SP2
• FarCry2 Benchmark
• FRAPS 2.9.8, build 7778
• CPUID 1.50
• Everest Ultimate 5.0.1650.0
• Prime95 25.8
• RivaTuner 2.24

DhryStone and Whetstone CPU test

We make use of a multi-threaded Dhrystone test from SiSoftware Sandra, which basically is a suite of arithmetic and string manipulating programs. Since the whole program should be really small, it fits into the processor cache. It can be used to measure two aspects, both the processor's speed as well as the optimizing capabilities of the compiler. The resulting number is the number of executions of the program suite per second.

First up, The DhryStone and Whetstone test. These two tests are pure unadulterated 100% CPU test that runs completely within the CPU + cache memory itself. A perfect test to see the general efficiency per core. Though one of the oldest, Dhrystone remains one of the most simple yet extremely accurate and effective ways to show you RAW CPU processing performance making it a very good indicator.

The basis of comparison is the stock clocked Intel Core i7 965, measured at another Rampage II extreme. The Neptune comes pre-overclocked at standard.

Memory Read test

Obviously we also had to peek at memory bandwidth performance. Now, obviously Intel has an advantage here, triple-channel memory. This explains the tremendous amount of read performance for Core i7 platforms. Obviously the sky is the limit here, pop in DDR3 2000 MHz memory and you'll reach another 25% performance benefit.

Queen and ZLib test

This simple integer benchmark focuses on the branch prediction capabilities and the misprediction penalties of the CPU. It finds the solutions for the classic "Queens problem" on a 10 by 10 sized chessboard. At the same clock speed theoretically the processor with the shorter pipeline and smaller misprediction penalties will attain higher benchmark scores. For example -- with HyperThreading disabled -- the Intel Northwood core processors get higher scores than the Intel Prescott core based ones due to the 20-step vs 31-step long pipeline. However, with enabled HyperThreading the picture is controversial, because due to architectural bottlenecks the Northwood core runs out of internal resources and slows down. Similarly, at the same clock speed AMD K8 class processors will be faster than AMD K7 ones due to the improved branch prediction capabilities of the K8 architecture.

CPU Queen test uses only the basic x86 instructions, it consumes less than 1 MB system memory and it is HyperThreading, multi-processor (SMP) and multi-core aware and thus is a multithreading CPU Benchmark with MMX, SSE2 and SSE3 optimizations. The Neptune is very impressive to say at the least.

   Far Cry 2

Throw your memory back to the year 2004 and the release of the innovative Far Cry on PC. Developer Crytek managed to fashion one of the most convincing and striking locales in all of gaming, and satisfied gamers with the freedom to pass through the landscape and tackle enemies in almost any way they saw fit. You surely remember Jack Carver and that things were about to get seriously messed up for you? Well, tough luck. You are no longer at that deserted tropical island but hop into a jeep and arrive at the sandy savannah surroundings of Africa. And that's a change... as much as you'll no longer run into any mutants, aliens, or any superpowers or psychic powers. Also - you are no longer Jack Carver, you assume the role of one of nine different mercenaries who are embedded in the midst of a brutal civil war which rages in an imaginary African nation.
Everything that goes down is involved in a dirty little bush war in central Africa and you'll have to use a rusty AK-47 and whatever bits of scavenged land mine you can duct-tape together. Two factions struggle for supremacy: the United Front for Liberation and Labor and the Alliance for Popular Resistance, and both are known for blood and control.

And now have a look at this. Neptune default it the stock non overclocked Neptune, then Guru3D rig is our test platform for this case equipped with 2x GTX 280 in SLI. And then in red, the measly 4 GHz CPU overclock :) Oh yeah, overclocking helps when you are not GPU bound.

To top it off, this is very high quality DX10 mode with no less than 8x AA (anti-aliasing) and 16x AF (anisotropic filtering). That doesn't suck huh ?

3DMark Vantage (DirectX 10)

3DMark Vantage focuses on the two areas most critical to gaming performance: the CPU and the GPU. With the emergence of multi-package and multi-core configurations on both the CPU and GPU side, the performance scale of these areas has widened, and the visual and game-play effects made possible by these configurations are accordingly wide-ranging. This makes covering the entire spectrum of 3D gaming a difficult task. 3DMark Vantage solves this problem in three ways:

1. Isolate GPU and CPU performance benchmarking into separate tests,
2. Cover several visual and game-play effects and techniques in four different tests, and
3. Introduce visual quality presets to scale the graphics test load up through the highest-end hardware.

To this end, 3DMark Vantage has two GPU tests, each with a different emphasis on various visual techniques, and two CPU tests, which cover the two most common CPU-side tasks: Physics Simulation and AI. It also has four visual quality presets (Entry, Performance, High, and Extreme) available in the Advanced and Professional versions, which increase the graphics load successively for even more visual quality. Each preset will produce a separate, official 3DMark Score, tagged with the preset in question.

The graphics tests will have four quality presets available: Entry, Performance, High and Extreme. Each preset specifies a certain setting for the rendering options listed in section 5.6. The graphics load increases significantly from the lowest to the highest preset. The Performance preset is targeted for mid-range hardware with 256 MB of graphics memory. The Entry preset is targeted for integrated and low-end hardware with 128 MB of graphics memory. The higher presets require 512MB of graphics memory, and are targeted for high-end and multi-GPU systems.

The 3DMark Vantage P Score

Some hate it, some love it, here are the 3DMark Vantage score results. We start off with the standard test run, above you can observe the P (performance) score. The results are all done with a GeForce GTX 280 graphics card in SLI for the Neptune, as such it positions itself above GTX 295 and under GTX 295 Quad SLI. On the next page, we'll overlock the GPUs a little as well ;)