AMD launched their M2 platform along with a slew of new chipsets from different manufacturers. The FX-57 we used for testing until this time is still an extremely powerful CPU, but I decided to change our video card test platform to reflect the ever-changing world of computers. To that end, the test motherboard is a Foxconn board using the nForce 590 SLI chipset, 2GB of Crucial DDR2 800 memory, and the new AMD 5000+ CPU.

I also took advantage of the platform change to modify our test software as well. Oblivion is one of the most visually stunning games around and is a great choice to add to our test suite. To test Oblivion, I did a walkthrough of Anvil twice with FRAPs enabled from the same save point. There was little variation in framerate between each run, and the average frame rate over an extended period (10 minutes) of the city is what you see in the frame rate. The other changes to our test software include removing 3DMark03, removing 1024x768 resolutions from F.E.A.R., COD2, and adding 1920x1200, 2048x1536 resolutions to all games that support that resolution.

Test Setup

AMD 5000+ Socket M2 CPU
Foxconn nForce 590 SLI motherboard
2GB Crucial DDR2 800 memory
2 74GB WD Raptor SATA 10,000 RPM HDDs
ASUS EN7900GT TOP/TDH/256M/A video card
PSU: Ultra 500W SLI/CrossFire Certified

Test Software

Oblivion FRAPs run through Anvil 5 minute run 1280x1024, 1600x1200, 1920x1200, 2048x1536, no AA no AF
COD2 1280x1024, 1600x1200, 1920x1200, 2048x1536 no AA no AF, 4x AA 16x AF
F.E.A.R. Performance timedemo 1280x960, 1600x1200, 1920x1200, 2048x1536, no AA no AF, 4x AA 16x AF
Quake4 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1600x1200 no AA no AF, 4x AA 16x AF
Doom3 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1600x1200 no AA no AF, 4x AA 16x AF
3DMark05 default run
3DMark06 1280x1024, 1600x1200, 1920x1200, 2048x1536