Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

10. Test System

The system that we ran all the tests on is listed below. For each operating system, we used a separate partition with the same capacity (15GB). We decided to use an AMD processor because in contrast to Intel's Itanium, AMD's 64-bit architecture can handle 32-bit code very fast, which makes for a smooth transition to 64-bit computing.

System Specifications
Processor:	AMD 3500+ S939
Cooler:	Stock AMD Heatsink-Fan
Case:	CoolerMaster Stacker
VGA Card:	Sapphire X800 XL 256MB
Motherboard:	Gigabyte GA-kbnxp-9
Memory:	2x512MB Kingston CS 2,5 PC-3700 Memory
Hard Disk Drive:	WD800JD SATA 120GB 7200RPM & Hitachi SATA 120GB 7200RPM
DVD-RW:	Pioneer DVR-109
PowerSupply:	Tagan 480Watt
Extras:	DirectX v9.0c

System properties

Benchmarking Software

Below is a list with all the games and the programs we used for this review. (Note that AA: AntiAliasing and AF: Antistrophic) We ran every game and program both on Windows XP Professional and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition. Some programs were available in 64-bit versions. For those programs, we ran the 64-bit version on Windows XP Professional x64 Edition and the 32-bit version on Windows XP Professional with the same settings.

Games
Name & Version	Resolution	Settings
Farcry (v1.3)	800x600	Very high quality, 6AA, 12AF
	1024x768
	1280x1024
	1600x1200
Colin McRae Rally 2005 Demo (v.1.0)	800x600	Very high quality, 6AA, 12AF , z-depth 24
	1024x768
	1280x1024
	1600x1200
Half Life 2 - Video Stress Test	800x600	Very high quality, 6AA, 16AF
	1024x768
	1280x1024
	1600x1200
Programs
Name & Version	Resolution	Settings
3DMark05 (v.1.2.0) 3DMark03 (v.3.6.0)	Resolution	Settings
3DMark05 (v.1.2.0) 3DMark03 (v.3.6.0)	1280x1024	6 AA, Filter mode AF, Max AF 16x
Pcmark04 (v.1.3.0)	N/A	N/A
SiSoftware Sandra 2005 SR1 (v.10.50) (32-bit & 64-bit)	N/A	N/A
ScienceMark 2 (v.21/03/2005) (32-bit & 64-bit)	N/A	N/A
Pov-Ray (v.3.6.1a) (32-bit & 64-bit)	1280x1024	0.3 AA