Puget Systems Deluge: Revisiting the Art of Custom With X79
by Dustin Sklavos on November 24, 2011 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
- Gaming
- Intel
- Puget Systems
- mid-tower
- Water Cooling
- NVIDIA
Gaming Performance
Things should get interesting with gaming performance, but unfortunately we hit a snag when testing the Puget Systems Deluge, and it's a snag that you'll uncover if you start checking out other forums: as of this writing, surround gaming in SLI doesn't work on X79 and Sandy Bridge-E. I'm not sure exactly where to place the blame; it's hard to argue that Sandy Bridge-E didn't feel rushed (especially with how disappointing X79 turned out to be), but shouldn't this also have been something NVIDIA was on top of? It's tough to tell. NVIDIA has confirmed that a driver which enables surround on this platform will be available soon, so at least we know they're working on it, but it really should've been working when Sandy Bridge-E launched. That leaves us with 1080p testing for now, which is something of a joke when you're packing this much hardware.
Update 11-30-2011: With the NVIDIA 290 series beta drivers, we've now added surround testing.
In most cases on our soon-to-be-retired "high" testbed, we find the systems essentially CPU-limited, producing results that are academic at best. At these settings even the GeForce GTX 460 768MB in the budget WarFactory Sentinel is able to produce a playable experience. Let's see how things work out when we start to shift more of the load to the graphics subsystem.
From the looks of things, our testbed is definitely a bit long in the tooth. Performance is excellent across the board, though, right where it should be, although the extra 100MHz (and perhaps better platform optimizations) on the i7-2600K in the DigitalStorm Enix seems to be paying off in StarCraft II. Hey Blizzard, you think maybe someday you'll release a game that scales beyond two threads? Guess we'll know when the next chapter in the StarCraft II saga comes out.
Once we get to our surround testing, we unfortunately see just how much Sandy Bridge-E and its 40 dedicated PCI Express 2.0 lanes bring to the table: not a whole lot. I don't want to say this is conclusive, but our results here mirror those of other sites; eight PCIe lanes per card seem to be enough for at least a pair of GPUs.
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Dustin Sklavos - Thursday, November 24, 2011 - link
While I don't have a 2560x1600 panel to test with, I usually test these high end systems in triple-display surround configurations whenever possible. With this one I wasn't able to as NVIDIA Surround currently doesn't work on X79.wickman - Thursday, November 24, 2011 - link
Well we'd be happy to yell at Anand for you until he sends you a bigger panel! lol. But thanks for the note, it's a shame Nvidia Surround wasn't working, I'd be very interested in seeing the results and whether or not the new on die pci express channels have any impact on performance.Great review though, we all appreciate the hard work!
ckryan - Thursday, November 24, 2011 - link
I think Mr. Sklavos has a Dell 30" laying around, but the testbed is getting kinda old and is limited to 1080p. The surround testing couldn't be tested since nVidia surround doesn't quite work with SB-E yet (or maybe it's the other way arround?).Dustin Sklavos - Thursday, November 24, 2011 - link
Why would you say you think I have a 30" Dell laying around when I just said I don't have a 30" panel?Our testbed is also getting refreshed soon, but we've been delayed by the DX11 support problems in Arkham City.
ckryan - Thursday, November 24, 2011 - link
Whoa, Tiger.I posted that first, before you said that. I recalled you saying you had a GTX580 and a Dell 30" in one of your reviews (I don't remember the context, but I'm wrong -- a lot). I'm probably just hallucinating. The point was, it wouldn't be a problem to test {this system} at a higher resolution than 1080p, but the test bed results would no longer be relevant (since there wouldn't be a way to test the previous systems again).
JarredWalton - Friday, November 25, 2011 - link
Jarred's the one with the GTX 580 and a Dell 30". Sorry! And no, Dustin, you can't have it! ;-)Dustin Sklavos - Friday, November 25, 2011 - link
Boss man, I'm fine with three 24" 1920x1200 monitors (two *VA and an IPS), thank you. ;)JarredWalton - Saturday, November 26, 2011 - link
Oh yeah? What if I have three 30" IPS panels, though? And a partridge in a pear tree!Beenthere - Saturday, November 26, 2011 - link
I wouldn't stand under the tree...kevith - Thursday, November 24, 2011 - link
I think the only real concern is the lifespan of the processor. Running it at above 1.4 V is something, that will definitely shorten its life considerably.