Performance Testing
Test Setup
Processor: AMD FX-6350 (FX-8350 with 2-cores disabled)
Motherboard: MSI 970A-G43
Memory: Kingston HyperX 10th Anniversary Edition Memory DDR3-1866
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V+200 90GB
PSU: CoolerMaster GX750W
Cooling: Phanteks PH-TC14PE
Case: Open Bench
Monitor: LG E2350V
VGA: Sapphire HD7790 Dual-X OC
We would like to thank Kingston Technologies Inc. for providing our test equipment for this review.
A bit of back-story: our processor is a full-fledged FX-8350 Vishera which right from the get-go is as cooperative as a wooden twig. We’ve tried to source a replacement but having already spent 3 months in review limbo, we’ve decided to push through with our current processor. We initially tried to inject much higher voltages to try and stabilize the defective cores yet still no luck. Disabling cores yielded much faster results with the second core module (Core 3 & 4) proving to be the bad apple in this basket. Coinciding with the announcement of the OEM only FX-6350, we copied the specs of that processors and put in our test and treated it as such. And that boys and girls, is how we ended up with an FX-6350. We’ll be using the OC Genie results as the OC data in our testing.
SiSoft’s SANDRA is a benchmarking, testing and system information application which provides plenty of options in gaining information regarding your system. For this test, we gauge the raw computational power of the CPU with the Processor Arithmetic benchmark based on the Whetstone and Dhrystone test. Both tests run completely within the processor so it gives a good picture of how a processor performs.
[singlepic id=13224 w=550 h=600 float=center]wPrime is a multi-threaded benchmarking application designed to measure the raw computational power of a CPU. It can be configured to run on a custom number of threads to accommodate multi-core CPUs.
[singlepic id=13232 w=550 h=600 float=center]Maxon offers a nice benchmark tool called Cinebench which really stresses your entire system to render a very complex scene. The output score is completely unique to Cinebench but allows us to have a rough idea of how the CPU works with 3D rendering tasks.
[singlepic id=13227 w=550 h=600 float=center]SuperPI is another benchmarking tool that utilizes the pure computational power of a CPU. This test however is purely single-threaded and shows us the performance of a single core which gives us a good picture of how a processor performs on similar tasks.
[singlepic id=13231 w=550 h=600 float=center]At a glance:
We urge our readers to refer to the Intel data for relative comparison only. For direct comparison, we’ve placed the ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z in the mix, the top brass of the 990FX breed, for comparative purposes in this testing. As you can see in the results, the MSI 970A-G43, for its sub-Php4,000 price easily takes on the prized Crosshair V even overtaking it by a hairline in some of tests with the added boost from the OC Genie taking it a stretch further.
