Tech Link (Industry): New AIDA64

Woohooo, another software is out! For those old benchers out there, you'll notice the "familiarity" of the name "AIDA". Well of course, the developers of AIDA64 are those who are behind AIDA32 (which became EVEREST). If you have space for another benching software, give this one a try.

Tech Link (Benchmark): Rydermark Benchmark Preview

Looks like there's an upcoming contender for FutureMark when it comes to 3D benchmarking standard. I haven't tested it personally, but from the pictures, I find the interface ugly. Madshrimps posted their review and they even posted a nice short video clip of the said application. Check it out....

The minimum requirements for the Rydermark benchmark are set at:

# 3.0GHz Single Core CPU
# 1Gb system RAM
# DirectX 9-class GPU with 128Mb RAM
# Sound card with support for DirectSound 3D
# Windows XP & DirectX 9.0c

For the time being Rydermark is a Windows XP/DX9 only benchmark, maybe DX10 in the future under Vista.

Rydermark comes with an interesting readme which gives a bit of background information on the benchmark:

# Can we relate the benchmark performance to actual games performance?

Absolutely. RyderMark is a technology demonstration of a racing game currently in development. It is NOT a synthetic benchmark. Just like the game, in addition to the GPU, the benchmark also stresses the CPU, audio and memory subsystems.

The graphics is powered by Sahara, our in-house DirectX 9 graphics engine. Audio is provided by FMOD Sound System (www.fmod.org) which has already been used in dozens of games titles. Therefore, every technology used in the benchmark is directly relevant to the game.

# Do you have different shaders for GPUs from different manufacturers?

ABSOLUTELY NOT. This is something we wish to make crystal clear. We run IDENTICAL shader code on GPUs from all hardware manufacturers.

To reiterate the point, one of the main reasons we can stake the claim for creating a truly impartial and fair benchmark is the fact that we do not favor any hardware manufacturer over another by supporting obscure or optional texture formats or features in DirectX.

# How is the final RyderMark score calculated?

The final benchmark score is calculated as follows:

RyderMark Score = 20X Maximum Frame Rate + 40X Minimum Frame
Rate

# Why do you value the minimum frame rate much more than the maximum frame rate?

From our perspective as a games developer, we place a very high value on smooth gameplay. This requires a minimum of 30 frames per second at all times. At the same time, peak frame rates over 60 frames per second make no discernible difference to the gameplay experience.

Therefore, we urge users to look closely at the minimum frame rate as well as the overall score. PCs which fail to deliver a consistent minimum 30 frames per second may not provide an enjoyable gaming experience in next generation games.

# Can you describe some of the different shaders and technologies used in RyderMark?

These are some, but not all of the techniques used in the benchmark:
- Parallax Occlusion Mapping
- Motion blur
- Depth of field
- Soft shadows
- 32-bit and 64-bit HDR Lighting
- Fully dynamic lighting
- Intensive particle effects
- Dynamic reflections
- Refraction
- Normal mapping

Source:Rydermark Benchmark Preview

Brag: dm got recognized by OCZ!

I have been meaning to post it, but for some reason, I missed it!!! Anyway, I just want to brag that I have been recognized for contributing outstanding scores for the OCZ Benchmarking Team. Being on the frontpage of a world-reknowned overclocking website is a great accomplishment for me. I emphasized my name below, yay for me! And oh, I did take a screenshot of the news post too. Update: OCZ news article has been archived at: http://ocz.com/consumer/company/newsroom/newsletters/report.php?id=361

OCZ Benchmarking Team Hits 12th Place Ranking Worldwide!
2007-05-01

Starting out with literally nothing a mere month ago, OCZ’s very own benchmarking team has reached a top world ranking. The twenty members led by “Rgone” consistently hit top ten HWBOT rankings in nearly all categories. Supplied with initial samples from the OCZ cooling, memory, and power supply lineups, the team took dedication to the next level and spent hours tweaking and benchmarking.

It all paid off with the numerous personal awards and the collective global rank each team-mate has contributed to…they have truly made OCZ proud! For all you overclockers out there who love to compete, why not join the OCZ forums and benchmark to win some top hardware in the process?

For more information on the HWBOT benchmarking competition and Team OCZ please visit www.hwbot.org.

Official Team Benchmarkers:
Rgone, Raja, Burlnutt, MarcusDelirious, Ryder, Tony, Praz, Nutcase, Logann26, NicoOCZ.

End Users:
DaveT, dm, RuloXP, Flasker, tony929292.

CONGRATULATIONS GENTELMEN!

###

Source:OCZ Benchmarking Team Hits 12th Place Ranking Worldwide!

Tech Link (Processor): Pentium E2100-series Benchmarks Revealed

The E2160, which I posted sometime ago that can overclock to 100%, is now loose and ready for public picking and benchmark is now posted on the web. AMDTech's DailyTech posted a news about a Chinese web site comparing the processor to the competition's 65nm flavor of A64 3600+ X2. Expand to read the news posting...

Chinese website PConline benchmarks the Pentium E2160 and E2140

Early benchmarks of Intel’s upcoming Pentium E2100-series reveal the value processor doesn’t fall too far behind the Core 2 Duo E4000-series, when comparing equal clock speeds. Intel is set to introduce its Pentium E2100-series processors in June with sub-$100 pricing. The new processor is based on Intel’s Conroe core but halves the L2 cache of similar Core 2 Duo E4000-series, making for a total of 1MB of L2 cache.

Productivity benchmarks such as Business Winstone 2004 and Multimedia Content Creation Winstone 2004 show an approximate 1-point difference between the Pentium E2160 and Core 2 Duo E4300, favoring the E4300 – both processors have 1.8 GHz clock speeds. Video encoding in TMPGEnc 3.0 reveals a 1 second performance difference between the two processors, and again favoring the E4300.

Productivity Benchmarks
Application Pentium E2160 Core 2 Duo E4300
Business Winstone 2004 28.6 29.3
Multimedia CC Winstone 30.8 31.6
TMPG Enc 3.0 341 340


Gaming Benchmarks
Application Pentium E2160 Core 2 Duo E4300
Half Life 2 129 132
Doom 3 147 151
Far Cry 130 131
Serious Sam 2 121 130
Quake IV 81 82

Gaming performance with a GeForce 8800GTX show small performance differences as well. Games such as Half Life 2, Doom 3 Far Cry and Quake IV show minimal framerate differences around 1-4 FPS, at 1024x768. Serious Sam shows a larger delta at 7 FPS, favoring the Core 2 Duo E4300.

Intel Pentium E
Model Core Frequency L2 Cache FSB Q3'07 Pricing
E2160 1.80 GHz 1MB 800 MHz $84
E2140 1.60 GHz 1MB 800 MHz $74

Expect Intel to unveil the Pentium E2100-series in June with two models, the E2160 and E2140 clocked at 1.8 GHz and 1.6 GHz respectively.

Source:Pentium E2100-series Benchmarks Revealed

There's also another benchmark run over at XTReview.

Brag: FanBoy gone uber nuts, benchmark galore for upcoming Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6320, E6420, E4400

Don't know which one to get? Are you staying with your current Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6300 rig? Or drooling at the Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E4300 but don't know if Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E4400 makes more sense? Will the Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6420 packs enough punch? This benchies migh help you decide. I have been meaning to post it but time has always been a luxury that I don't have much. So anyway, I finished analyzing some results, but I won't be posting any conclusion, instead, I'll post the benchmarks and I'll leave the conclusion to you guys. Check out a number of benchmark results of these processors, from 3DMark01 to SuperPi...

Disclaimer: This is an ES CPU, retail may or may not have changes from this sample.

Test Set Up
Processor(s)(Reference Stock Cooler):
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6320(1.86GHz)
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6320(2.13GHz)
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E4300(1.8GHz)
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E4400(2.00GHz)
Intel® Pentium® D 940 (3.2GHz)

Motherboard:
Intel® D975XBX2 Desktop Board Rev 305 BIOS 2618

Memory:
Samsung Value DDR2-800MHz 2x512MB(CL5-5-5-15 SPD)

Hard Drive:
Seagate* Barracuda 120GB SATA RAID 0

Video Card:
Palit* 7950GT 512MB (2x)

Power Supply:
Delta 650W EPS12V (server grade)

Chassis:
Thermaltake* LANFire Xaser III

::Stock Benchmarks::
Gaming:
Doom3: Low Quality-640x480


3DMark Benchmarks:
3DMark01: Overall


3DMark03: CPU


3DMark05: CPU


3DMark06: CPU


Aquamark03: CPU


Multimedia/Multitasking/Multithreading Benchmarks:
Cinebench: Render Score


Cinebench: Render Time


PCMark05: Overall


SANDRA: CPU


SANDRA: Multimedia


wPrime: 32M


SuperPi: 1M


Memory Benchmarks:
SANDRA: RAM Bandwidth


::Conclusion::Well, I leave you guys to your own conclusion :). That is all for today, FanBoy out...

Brag: dm hits highest HWBOT daily submission!

Woot, I hit a highest score submitted for the day! After trying out a lot of configurations, I manage to hit some home run score for the TipidPC team. Below is a screenshot of the score posted today at HWBOT, and since it's refreshed daily, I snag a screencapture of this rare event and experience. Click on the image for the full screenie!

This will be the last week that I will be able to submit score for the team actively, and I hope I submitted enough scores to maintain the current TPC standing up there at Top200 together with the big boys. Benching rigs all on air is a tough challenge, specially if you know you are going against top personalities in the overclocking world that uses special cooling and high end parts.

It's #3 World Record for wPrime32 and wPrime1024, and that's awesome! I hope I'll be able to maintain that stand for quite some time, but hey, I know that it'll be left to dust but not before I savor the success.

Well, that's all for today. I will savor my success and celebrate it by taking my dinner with a good ol' bottle of my favorite booze, coffee!!! (Ok, it's not "booze" but I consider it as that, so there...)