L2 Cache Performance

Notes

While we’re limiting our testing to AMD’s AM2-based CPUs, which predominantly ship with a 512K L2 cache, we did want to test the performance impact of having a larger 1MB L2 cache for Socket 939 and Athlon 64 X2 5200+ or Opteron 1xx users. In order to accomplish this, we lowered the multiplier on our FX-62 CPU from the factory default setting of 14.0x to 13.0x in order to simulate the performance of a 5200+. This chip was then compared to our stock AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+.

As you can see, both the GeForce 8800 GTX and 8800 GTS saw a nice gain for the most part, only our foliage testing with Oblivion seemed to be GPU-bound at 1280x1024. The GeForce 8800 GTX saw performance gains of up to 7% in F.E.A.R. and Quake 4, and 8% in Battlefield 2142. In those same titles the GeForce 8800 GTS saw a slimmer gain of just 2-3%.

Both the GeForce 8800 GTX and GTS performance improved by 9% in Company of Heroes.