Phenom II X3 720BE & CrossFire X Performance - Does it Compete?
by Gary Key on March 28, 2009 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
The oldest title in our test suite is still the most played. CoH has aged like fine wine and we still find it to be one of the best RTS games on the market. We look forward to the Tales of Valor standalone expansion in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, we crank all the options up to their highest settings, enable AA at 2x, and run the game under DX9. The DX10 patch offers some improved visuals but with a premium penalty in frame rates. We track a custom replay of Able Company’s assault at Omaha Beach with FRAPS and average three test runs for our results.
Single card scores at 1680x1050 are fairly close between each platform. In this particular game, the Phenom II X4 940 offers slight better performance than the X3 720BE in the single card and CrossFire results with a 1% advantage thanks to a higher clock speed. When overclocked the 720BE finishes ahead ever so slightly but within our margin of error on the benchmark. Installing a second card for CrossFire operation improves average frame rates by 42% and minimum frame rates by 43% for the X3 720BE. Overclocking the 720BE resulted in a 9% improvement in average frame rates and 5% in minimum frame rates, indicating we are largely GPU limited at this point.
In our previous testing with the 8.12 drivers, the Intel systems would generate minimum frame rates in the 23~24fps range on a couple of runs and then jump to their current results or higher on the others. Guess what, we still noticed that problem with the 9.3 drivers. However, the hitch and pausing we encountered previously was mitigated somewhat in our new tests. It was only in intensive ground scenes with numerous units that we really noticed the problem and it was primarily with the Q9550 platform. Both Phenom II systems had extremely stable frame rates along with very fluid game play during the heavy action sequences.
The Phenom II X4 940 leads the group at 1920x1200 with a single card. The X4 940 is 4% faster in average frame rates in single card mode and 2% faster than the 720BE in CrossFire. The X4 940 has a 8% advantage in minimum frame rates in single card results and 7% in CrossFire. When overclocked, both Phenoms are equal for all intent purposes. Adding a second card for CrossFire operation improves average frame rates by 57% and minimum frame rates by 62% for the 720BE. Overclocking the 720BE only improved frame rates 5% as we continue to be GPU bound at this resolution.
What about the game play experience? As we mentioned earlier, the Intel Q9550 platform had some problems with minimum frame rates throughout testing - not just in the benchmarks, but also during game play in various levels and online. The i7 platform would behave in the same manner at times, but the game play experience with it has certainly improved with the 9.3 driver set and BIOS upgrades. The problem is very likely driver related in some manner (as the man who helped to start DirectX once put it, "the drivers are always broken"), but nevertheless this continues to be a problem on the two Intel platforms.
We could not discern any differences between the X3 720BE and the X4 940 during game play. Actually, how could we, the frame rates were basically even in all situations. Even the slight gap in minimum frame rate differences between the two processors did not create any problems during our gaming sessions.
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Griswold - Saturday, March 28, 2009 - link
Hi Bertha!StormyParis - Saturday, March 28, 2009 - link
do we have any idea of the %age of gamers who actually have an xfire (or nvidia's equivalent) config ? I personnally know of none, and always wonder when I see such a review what use it is...MrSpadge - Saturday, March 28, 2009 - link
All people that I know who do multi-GPU do it for BOINC or folding.TA152H - Saturday, March 28, 2009 - link
Does the 9550 have the same issues on the x48? You mentioned that the differences were minor, so I'm guessing they did, but, even a few fps seems relevant there, since that's all the more fluid AMD processors had.just4U - Saturday, March 28, 2009 - link
I agree with your conclusions about the 720BE. It's a nice compromise for those looking at Dual cores and Quads. It's also at a really reasonable price that competes against the 8400 and maybe to a lesser extent the 7500 which I think is priced to high. For those that want a Quad but might not be able to afford it this is a excellent substitute that's actually cheaper then the other two.. (go figure!)If someone offered me a 8400 or the 720BE for free and said choose I'd take the 720 without even a thought. Hell It's even got a selling point over the 920 in being a black edition with unlocked multi's.
abzillah - Saturday, March 28, 2009 - link
I have my phenom II 720 overclocked to 3570 Mhz using a Xigmatek cooler. Without the video card and hard drive, I spent $398 plus tax. This is for a gigabyte micro-ATX board, Corsair PSU, Mushkin 1066 DDR2 Ram, Case, Xigmatek CPU cooler and two Xigmatek case fans. Now I am waiting for the 4890 to come out and prospecting some SSDs for a Raid setup.I love how much money I saved that I can now use towards a video card and two SSDs. So far I love the performance on my new PC.
garbageacc3 - Saturday, March 28, 2009 - link
you spent so little because you went with mATX.mATX mobos SUCK more than full ATX
albundy2 - Saturday, March 28, 2009 - link
troll much?i know your dad lost his job and your mother to an american, but would it not be more constructive to seek therapy. we didn't do it.
i know you hurt, would you like a hug? some gummy bears perhaps?
a OO buck load to the forehead?
your off to a great start kid. suicide, please consider it...
garbageacc3 - Sunday, March 29, 2009 - link
fag fuck much?i know you're a teabag loving faggot.
americunts are dumb, fat, and big'o smelly fishy PUSSIES and no one would want to fuck any of you fatties.
i don't want a hug cause your man tits would crush me.
you're already at a crappy end fat 40 yr old virgin fuck. go off yourself. remember, down the street, not across it.
castration, do it.
ap90033 - Wednesday, April 1, 2009 - link
Wow guess Mommy let you use her pc tonight eh?Get a life. No wait please post some other useless comment, I am sure that is your calling in life.