Our Results:
It is quite clear
from the number of tests and the extremely varied test scenarios that
PCMark04 is a huge leap from PCMark2002. But just how do different
components affect the performance of the system with PCMark04? For
our testing we used the following System:
Hardware:
Nvidia Geforce FX 5950 Ultra 256Mb
Sapphire Radeon 9800 XT 256mb
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ (333fsb), 2x256mb DDR 333
(Twinmos), Abit NF7-S v2.0
AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (400FSB) , 2x128mb + 1x256mb ddr 400 (crucial)
, Abit NF7-S v2.0
IBM Deskstar 120gxp 40GB 7200rpm Hard
Drive via IDE and SATA
Sony CRX300E DVD/CDRW
Sony Floppy Drive
Mercury 400W PSU
AOC 19” 9GLR CRT
Software:
Windows XP, SP1a
Direct X 9.0b
Detonator 51.16 WHQL
Catalyst 3.9 WHQL
Nforce driver v3.13 WHQL
PCMark04
The test system was built from scratch, a format of the hard drive
was performed (NTFS) and then Windows XP was installed. Following
the completion of the install the N-force drivers were installed.
The only updates applied were SP1a and Direct X 9.0b. Following a
reboot the Catalyst 3.9 or Detonator 52.16 drivers were installed.
Next PCMark04 was installed and finally the hard drive was de-fragmented.
For all tests the ATI and Nvidia drivers were set to best image quality.
In total we ran 6 tests
specifically for this review:
2500+ CPU with ddr333 a 5950U and SATA – to provide a base score
2500+ CPU with ddr400 a 5950U and SATA – to illustrate the change
in score with different RAM
3200+ CPU with ddr333 a 5950U and SATA – to illustrate the change
in score with CPU
3200+ CPU with ddr 400 a 5950U and SATA – to illustrate the
change in ram again with a higher FSB
3200+ CPU with ddr 400 a 5950U and IDE – To show the change
when using the same drive through ATA
3200+ CPU with ddr 400 a 9800XT and SATA – To show the change
in result with a different graphics card.
