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In order to keep the testing as fair as possible, we will use the following test platforms:

Socket AM2:

• Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 2.8 GHz Black Edition processor
• Phenom 9600 2.3GHz processor
• Phenom 9600 Black Edition processor
• Phenom 9900 2.6GHz processor
• ASUS M2N32-SLI motherboard
• MSI K9A2 Platinum motherboard
• Corsair PC2-8500 memory @ 4-4-4-12/2T
• XFX GeForce 7800 GT
• Corsair HX620W power supply

Software used during testing consisted of the following:

• Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2
• NVIDIA ForceWare 84.21 drivers
• CineBench 2003
• LAME MP3 Encoding
• PC Magazine Business Winstone 2004
• PC Magazine Multimedia Content Creation 2004
• POV-Ray 3.7 beta 13
• RightMark Memory Analyzer
• SiSoft Sandra
• TMPGEnc MPEG2 Encoding
• WinRAR
• Call of Duty
• Comanche 4
• Doom 3
• Far Cry
• Halo
• Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
• Unreal Tournament 2004

Please note that we are showing overclocked results in all the charts - we are not holding you in suspense until the end of the article. The chart labels incorporate a lot of information about the test configuration. The first line shows the socket type and the model of the processor. Since all the processors shown are dual-core devices, we did not specify that on the charts.

The second line shows the "FSB/HT clock rate" x "CPU multiplier" followed by the effective memory speed. All DDR2 tests were run at 4-4-4-12 timings unless otherwise specified.