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AMD Bulldozer ES vs Intel Core i7-990X SLI results
Just a few days ago one Czech IT server published an article named "AMD 990FX chipset review – but processors not available until September". The author of the article is Zdeněk Obermaier aka OBR, also known for his rather hateful and controversial blog (this is my personal opinion). We all already know that 990FX family chipset isn't significantly different when compared to its 890FX family predecessor. But what is really interesting about that article is the chapter called "SLI on AMD platform". It holds one important image with the comparison of Intel's six-core flagship Core i7-990 Extreme versus AMD's Bulldozer processor. While we know everything about Intel's gem, the only thing that we know for sure about that particular Bulldozer processor tested is that it is an Engineering Sample running at stock speed of 3.2 GHz (3.7 GHz for all cores with Turbo enabled). Following is the translation of the author's text:
"Today's test is mainly aimed at the comparison of SLI on AMD and Intel platforms. For this purpose I used motherboard Gigabyte X58A-OC with Core i7-990X processor working at 4 GHz. In the same manner I used today's test motherboard (Gigabyte 990FXA-UD7) with a processor working at 4 GHz as well. In both cases I used Beta drivers 275.36 that significantly boost SLI performance in many games and tests when compared to the previous reviews. Also, PCI-E lines were always running in 16+16 configuration. Be advised that this is just an outline in terms of performance, the final performance can be totally different, meaning that it can also be better. What we've got here today is just a teaser, we will look into SLI performance again once the AMD FX processors are released."
Test setup
Gaming results
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