Test System
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700
Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800
AMD Athlon FX-62 (AM2)

Intel D975XBX2
Foxconn NF590SLI

2x1Gb DDR2-1100 (5-6-6-15) (OCZ) @ DDR2-800 4-4-4-12

Geforce 7950GX2 1Gb
74Gb WD Raptor
Enermax 600w Noisetaker CPU
Sony 710A DVD writer
160gb Samsung Sata2 Drive
80Gb Samsung Sata Drive
Vapochill LS

Windows XP Pro +SP2
Intel reference drivers (WHQL)
Forceware 91.47
PCmark 2005
Sisoft Sandra 2007
Sonic/Roxio MyDVD v9
F.E.A.R. Extraction Point
Oblivion
Photoshop CS2
Power DVD 7.0

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 installation, the Nvidia drivers were installed. The only updates applied were SP2 and .NET Framework 1.1(latest service pack) and the latest Media Player version and Patches. Next, the latest builds of the benchmarking tools were installed and finally, the hard drive was de-fragmented. For each test, the Nvidia drivers were set to default quality/optimizations (unless otherwise stated).

Good Benchmarking Practice:
Where possible, each benchmark was performed 3 times and the median result for each resolution/setting is shown in the tables that will follow. All applications had their latest patches applied and all hardware features the latest BIOS/Firmware.