We now move on to graphical performance – first up we take a look at actual benchmark software in the form of both 3DMark06 and 3DMark Vantage. This is another benchmarking program from Futuremark but this time looks exclusively at the gaming performance of the PC it’s assessing.

First up is 3DMark06 running at its standard 1280x1024 setting. Lower resolution is better in CPU benchmarking as it allows us to more easily identify any performance limitations introduced by low CPU speed or limited core count. Having data from a couple of other Phenom II models allows us to see this more clearly.



As you can see the additional cores allow the stock 1055T @ 2.8GHz to beat both the overclocked 720 tri core and the stock 'quad unlocked' 555 running at 3.2GHz. Once overclocked the 1055T pulls ahead although the 555 unlocked to quad core and overclocked to 4GHz does a good job of keeping close.

Something else to note is the difference in points score between the stock 1055T in the Crosshair IV Extreme and the ECS.

For Vantage I had much more information to go on since I'd used for my Intel motherboard testing a while back.



Here we can see the strengths of the Intel chips. Even at stock speeds which 'clock for clock' are much lower than the 555 which tries to level peg. The low score of the 1055T at stock speed was not present when testing with the ECS. Indeed the stock ECS score with the 1055T actually matched the overclocked score of the 1055T in the Extreme. Judging by the similarity of scores (and past experience with the program) Vantage scores seem more GPU dependant than CPU. As in the Crosshair IV Extreme review - add another GTX and the scores are bumped almost two fold.