Gateway FX530: Mad Cows and Quad Core Overclocking
by Jarred Walton on February 9, 2007 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
Valve SMP Benchmarks
Our final two benchmarks are somewhat synthetic tests that Valve offered us to give us a preview of the impact of multi-core CPUs in future games. We've talked about both of these tests in our Valve Hardware Day 2006 article if you're interested in learning more about them and what they do.
Valve Software's Gabe Newell talked about the importance of quad core processors when he introduced us to these benchmarks. He stated that all future PCs at Valve Software would have at least four processor cores, due to the improved productivity offered. This type of performance improvement is once again the type of stuff you don't see in a lot of applications, but if you do a lot of content creation work that can leverage multi-core CPUs the performance improvements can be substantial. The 20% overclock on the Gateway system improves performance by 16% to 17% in these benchmarks, which isn't bad considering it only adds $100 to the cost of the system relative to a stock QX6700. Relative to an X6800, the overclocked QX6700 is almost twice as fast!
Our final two benchmarks are somewhat synthetic tests that Valve offered us to give us a preview of the impact of multi-core CPUs in future games. We've talked about both of these tests in our Valve Hardware Day 2006 article if you're interested in learning more about them and what they do.
Valve Software's Gabe Newell talked about the importance of quad core processors when he introduced us to these benchmarks. He stated that all future PCs at Valve Software would have at least four processor cores, due to the improved productivity offered. This type of performance improvement is once again the type of stuff you don't see in a lot of applications, but if you do a lot of content creation work that can leverage multi-core CPUs the performance improvements can be substantial. The 20% overclock on the Gateway system improves performance by 16% to 17% in these benchmarks, which isn't bad considering it only adds $100 to the cost of the system relative to a stock QX6700. Relative to an X6800, the overclocked QX6700 is almost twice as fast!
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Tuvoc - Saturday, February 17, 2007 - link
Thanks for that.Presumably there was no evidence of throttling while you were testing ? I'm surprised at 1.45v on air at 3.2 that it stayed cool enough. Maybe the BTX case design helps a lot
I have an Intel Quad Core on an ASUS P5N-E SLI 650i which you've reviewed. With vcore on auto (which os presumably the default 1.35v), CPU-Z reports as low as 1.20v under full load, from a starting value of about 1.28 (vdroop on this board is a little higher than normal as you found in your review). But the difference between the Gateway 1.45v BIOS setting and the CPU-Z figure of 1.238v is extreme...
Now if only I could get a proper coretemp program to monitor temps under Vista x64..... (I mean proper core temps, not ASUS Probe temps..)
PrinceGaz - Saturday, February 10, 2007 - link
I know it is already overclocked to 3.2GHz, but it would have been nice if you reported the core-temperatures and found out how much further it would overclock. Assuming of course the options were available in the BIOS for further overclocking and over-volting.anandtech02148 - Saturday, February 10, 2007 - link
Lianli Case would be luxury and modular. you can take out parts just so to fit a 8800gtx.$4000 to spend, there's a riches that this Gateway can only show with a quad cpu. no fancy rams or mobos.
Genx87 - Friday, February 9, 2007 - link
Yup that's a Gateway. I hate their cases btw.bamacre - Saturday, February 10, 2007 - link
Yeah, me too. I think as far as OEM's, Dell has the best cases, hands down.Vidmar - Friday, February 9, 2007 - link
One thing I didn't see mentioned in your article is that all Gateways are now being built (assembled) in the USA. Also all Gateway support is located in the USA as well. I think these two points are major pluses for that company.Vidmar - Friday, February 9, 2007 - link
Ahh now I do see a bit on the support "Finally, Gateway also makes a point that they now offer 100% North America based phone support, so that should generally keep the communication barrier down to a minimum".Thanks!
Crassus - Friday, February 9, 2007 - link
Revisiting the AMD Quad FX-74 power draw under load:When I looked at those numbers, suddenly a scene from one of the Harry Potter movies popped up in my mind. It's Harry waving his wand at something shouting "Ridiculous". In this case, it's a FX-74.
For the record: I run a X2 and am pretty happy with it, and I'm not going to swap it out anytime soon.
shortylickens - Friday, February 9, 2007 - link
This baby uses my companies memory.Operandi - Friday, February 9, 2007 - link
For $4,000 that is pretty blah looking box compared to an XPS or a Lian Li for your custom build.Also in regards to the PSU. Delta make very high quality units, much better then 90% of the "enthusiasts" class PSUs at any rate.