Deciding what methodology to use when reviewing hardware parts like video cards, processors and motherboards is always hard. No matter what methodology we decide to use there will always be users complaining that we should used this or that hardware part, that we should have included this or that program or game, and so on.
There are several technical reasons involved on how we pick the components and programs to do our benchmarking; this selection is not random and also isn’t based on “we used these components because these are the components we have here at our lab”. In fact every time we decide to update our testing procedures we spend a lot of money buying new parts and programs.
Since we are going to start reviewing high-end video cards again – finally! – we decided to explain all the reasons behind the components we picked.
The main goal with a VGA benchmarking is to test the maximum performance it can deliver. If we install a high-end video card on a low-end or mainstream system, the system may limit the maximum performance the video card can deliver because the CPU, the memories and/or the hard disk drive may be limiting the performance (this happens because if the video card is faster than the other components it will have to wait for data that is coming from outside, thus reducing its performance; we want a system where data is available as soon as the video card requires them).
Also since high-end video cards are expensive, we believe a user that buys a high-end card will install it on a high-end PC. Even though there are probably users that install high-end video cards on low-end PCs, it doesn’t make sense to review a high-end video card on a low-end system because the system would be limiting the video card performance, as explained.
So we tried to build the most high-end system we could, i.e. the fastest CPU, the fastest memories and the fastest hard disk drive we could buy. We know that our system isn’t a typical PC, but at least we know for sure that no part from our system is limiting the maximum performance the video card can deliver.
Below we are listing all components from the hardware setup we will use for reviewing high-end video cards, with a brief explanation on why we picked each component and how much each one costs.
CPU: Core 2 Extreme QX9770 (3.2 GHz, 1,600 MHz FSB, 12 MB L2 memory cache). As explained we wanted the fastest CPU around to make sure that the CPU wouldn’t be limiting the video card’s performance. This baby costs USD 1,470.
Memories: Crucial Ballistix PC3-16000 2 GB kit (BL2KIT12864BE2009). We wanted the fastest memories around and these DDR3 memories from Crucial run at 2,000 MHz with 9-9-9-28 timings are are compatible with nVidia’s EPP standard. The biggest problem is the price, USD 500, which prevented us from having a system with 4 GB instead of “only” 2 GB.
Motherboard: EVGA nForce 790i Ultra SLI. We picked this motherboard because it is compatible with our CPU, it is based on PCI Express 2.0 and it can make our memories to run at 2,000 MHz with no fancy configuration. It costs USD 350.
Video monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 305T (LCD, 30”, 2560x1600). We wanted a video monitor that could reach a resolution of 2560x1600 and this was our best choice. We could have bought a cheaper CRT solution, but we wanted a monitor that wouldn’t take a lot of space on your bench. It costs USD 1,230. Notice that we didn’t buy this monitor because of its screen size (30”) but because of its maximum resolution. Notice that there are bigger monitors around that are cheaper, but they have a lower resolution.
Power supply: OCZ EliteXStream 1,000 W. We know that 1,000 W is overkill, but we wanted to make sure that we wouldn’t have any kind of power shortage. It costs USD 250.
So we are talking about a USD 4,100 system. We are glad that except for the video monitor and for the hard disk drive all other parts we got from the manufacturers that are proudly sponsoring Hardware Secrets. Even with these donations we still had to invest USD 1,530 (plus shipping) for you to get the best possible high-end VGA reviews.
