To tackle this memory analysis we are using one main test system. We are using AMD’s FM2+ socket and A88X chipset with Gigabyte’s fantastic G1 Sniper A88X motherboard which we reviewed here. The results of this test can also be found in our Ultimate AMD Kaveri Review where you will find lots of more benchmarks and testing about Kaveri.
RAM – AMD Performance Series Radeon Memory 2 x 4GB DDR3 @ 1866 (CL9) by default and 2133 (CL11) and 2400MHz (CL12) where clearly specified.
Graphics Card –Integrated graphics except in Hybrid CrossFire/Dual Graphics mode where a Sapphire R7 250 2GB DDR3 GPU is used (stock core clock but the memory has been raised to 1000MHz [2000MHz effective)
Main Storage Drive – Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD over SATA III interface
Chassis – Lian Li T60 Test Bench
Displays – Dell U2711 Ultra Sharp
Operating System – Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit
We would like to thank Gigabyte, MSI, Intel, AMD, Corsair, Kingston, Lian Li, Noctua and all our other partners who supplied us with test system equipment and hardware. Their generosity makes our testing possible and without them we wouldn’t be able to produce the reviews we do, so thank you!
Test Procedures
To conduct this memory scaling analysis we have an array of mainly GPU-centric tests to show you. Below we have listed each benchmark and any associated details about how we run the test, how long for (if applicable) and any settings that may be helpful to know.
CPU Tests
Cinebench R11.5 – multi threaded, single threaded and Open GL tests.
Cinebench R15 – multi threaded, single threaded and Open GL tests.
WPrime – a 32 million Pi calculation.
AIDA 64 Engineer – CPU and FPU tests: Queen, Zlib, AES, Hash, VP8, Julia, Mandel and SinJulia.
OpenCL Benchmarks
PCMark 8 – the Home preset with OpenCL acceleration enabled.
Basemark OpenCL – Basic hardware optimisation running the full suite of tests on the GPU parts only.
Luxmark – OpenCL computation running on the CPU, GPU and GPU/CPU combined hardware.
Memory Benchmarks
AIDA64 – Memory read, write, copy and latency tests.
Productivity
Handbrake – conversion of a short 90 second 1080p video file from MP4 to MKV format.
Photoshop CC – Smart Sharpen test of a sample image to test Open CL acceleration and image processing speed. Timed using digital stopwatch (old school!).
Libre Office – spreadsheet computation and calculation performance.
MuseMage – built in performance benchmark.
Gaming
3DMark11: Performance and Extreme presets.
3DMark (2013): Firestrike and Firestrike Extreme presets.
Battlefield 4 – low preset at 720p (1280 x 720) and 1080p (1920 x 1080). Measured using fraps and a 2 minute sequence of the game in the middle of the first campaign mission. Replayed with as much duplication as possible to ensure accurate results.
Tomb Raider – normal preset at 720p and 1080p, v-sync off, motion blur and screen effects on using the built in benchmark.
Sleeping Dogs – normal preset at 720p and 1080p using built in benchmark.
Bioshock Infinite – medium preset at 720p and 1080p using the built in benchmark.
Batman Arkham Origins – normal geometry, everything else off. 720p and 1080p using the built in benchmark.
Metro Last Light – Medium preset, AF4X and low motion blur at 720p and 1080p using the built in benchmark.
Power consumption
Power consumption – total system power draw measured with the system in an idle desktop state, with a CPU load state, GPU load state and CPU+GPU combined load state. Load states were all provided by the AIDA 64 Engineer system stability test.