P55 vs FSX, OCZ DDR3-2400, and TankGuys

We had a significant amount of requests for Flight Simulator X results in our Core i5/i7 and P55 coverage. I was able to run some quick comparison results between the Bloomfield and Lynnfield platforms last night to answer most of the email and comments requests. However, I am still running the Phenom II and Core 2 Quad benches. I do not know if we will be able to have those results in our P55 roundups that start in a couple of days. If not, I will follow up with these particular performance updates in another blog.

Test Setup-

We are utilizing our standard P55/X58 setups for this test. The 920/860/870 platforms are using 7-7-7-20 1T DDR3-1600 memory configurations. The 750 platform is running at DDR3-1333 with 6-6-6-18 1T timings since the 12x multiplier is not available on the i5/750. The X58 platform is equipped with 6GB of memory and the P55 with 8GB. Turbo mode and Hyper-Threading is enabled as designed and shipped from Intel. All other BIOS settings are at stock ratios.

We enabled DX10, AA/AF, set the Aircraft, Scenery, Weather, and Traffic sliders to Ultra High, and then measured a pre-recorded six minute flight around Honolulu with FRAPS at 1920x1080. Our variability with this benchmark averages around 0.5%. The benchmark is run five times with the median score reported for our results. FSX responds well to both increases in GPU and CPU improvements, but especially differences in CPU clock speeds.

When overclocked to 4.2GHz, the 920 and 860 are basically even in this title. The big differences though are the improvements in frame rates, especially the minimum frame rate with a 36% increase compared to the stock 860/870 results. The average frame rates increase 14~21% over the 860/870 stock results.

Due to very aggressive turbo modes, the 860/870 offer the best performance at stock clock settings. No real surprise there, but the improved turbo mode on the i5/750 does allow it to stay even with the i7/920 in this title. All of the processors offered a very enjoyable gaming experience as minimum frame rates were excellent, especially when the processors were overclocked. For those originally wondering, the i5/750-P55 combination will not have any problems running this title at 1920x1080 resolutions with Ultra High quality settings.

OCZ Technology

OCZ recently sent us their upcoming DDR3-2400 C9 4GB Blade series kit. The official specifications call for 9-10-9-24 1T timings at 1.65V VDimm on the P55 platform. We tossed it in our Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 motherboard with an i7-870 overclocked to 4.2GHz (21x200), set the memory multiplier to 12x for 2400MHz on the memory, and manually set timings to 9-10-9-24 1T, VDimm to 1.65V, VCore to 1.375V, and VTT to 1.370V.

The OCZ DDR3-2400 Blade kit worked perfectly at its rated specifications on one of the least expensive P55 boards you can purchase. We will have further results shortly.

TankGuys

I normally do not do this, but we were needing a couple i7/860 processors plus a few additional Intel G2 80GB SSD drives quickly for the 860 review and for the expanded motherboard test suite. Normally, we would go to the larger e-tailers like Newegg or others for these items. Well, I was not satisfied with the pricing or availability on either item, so I hit up Ben at TankGuys to see what he could do for us.

Let's just that TankGuys came through with flying colors. Not only did they ship the items before Newegg had them in stock, but their prices were extremely competitive. We spent $269.99 for our i7/860 compared to $299.99 ($289.99 today) at Newegg. Also,the Intel X25-M G2 80GB SSD was $349.99 at Newegg ($309.99 today) compared to $269.99 at TankGuys when we placed our orders. So, it does pay to shop around and sometimes the smaller guys might just be able to offer better prices than the large resellers.