Test Setup

Procedures

In our tests we used two types of settings. See below. The reason for this, is to show what the P35 chipset is capable of. Since the P35 has native support for 1333MHz FSB and DDR3-1066/1333, we wanted to see if where was any real differences in terms of speed and performance over standard default settings.

 Setting 1. FSB: 1066MHz   RAM: DDR3-1066  CPU: 266MHz  (1066/1066) - Default settings
 Setting 2. FSB: 1333MHz   RAM: DDR3-1333  CPU: 333MHz  (1333/1333) - Manually selected

We did not have any 1333FSB processors for testing, that because they're not even released yet! ... So, we decided use our Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor. First we lowered the multiplier to x8, and then increased the FSB from 266Mhz to 333Mhz ... quad pumped that, and you'll get 1333FSB.

For memory, we used the Kingston HyperX DDR3-1375 2Gb Kit which is rated at PC3-11000, so there's no problem here. We also used the latest video, audio and chipset drivers.  Here's a list of software/games we used for benchmarking. In all the gaming benchmarks we used a resolution of 1024x768 with maximum settings turned on (x4 AA and x16 AF )

 - CPUZ 
 - Science Mark 2
 - PC Mark 05
 - 3D Mark 2005
 - 3D Mark 2006
 - Prey v1.3
 - X3: Reunion
 - F.E.A.R.
 - Far Cry
 - Serious Sam

Windows XP with service pack 2 and DirectX 9.0c was used as our operating system.

For overclocking, we manually adjusted various BIOS settings including DDR ram timings, FSB, CPU and DDR voltages. (Please see article index: Overclocking)