Home : Hardware : Reviews : Blackbird 002
Performance
Performance is the heart of this review, so we really pushed the system hard to test it.
As a gaming machine, just from the parts we can tell it isn’t top of the line ridiculous. Top of the line would be using DDR3 RAM, a hugely overclocked CPU, GPU and RAM, a motherboard with tri/quad SLI/Crossfire configuration and a more powerful soundcard. Then again, such a machine would cost as much as a cheap car. On the larger scale of things, the Blackbird is in the top 20th percentile of high-performance gaming desktops.
The machine we tested the Blackbird against was a budget custom-built machine, sporting a 2.4GHz Quad Core Q6600, 4GB 800MHz RAM, and an 8800GTS 320MB (full specs listed in the picture). Of course, this machine we were able to put together for about $900, thus the budget, and it is weaker in every category against the Blackbird except for the amount of RAM. Suffice to say, it's a remarkable deal compared to its new rival.
All tests are performed with full AA and at 1680x1050 unless otherwise specified.
We started off testing with a few easy tests: Doom 3 and Portal. Doom 3 because it has heavy lighting/shadow effects that have in the past brought down machines, but now is just a warm-up. Still, it remains a suitable benchmark because nearly everyone knows exactly what the numbers mean. Portal is also pretty easy on current machines, but can put a lot of stress on a machine when the specs are maxed out. 
Next we moved on to our serious tests, which were two games: Stalker and Crysis. Stalker has immense shadow detail which, when prompted, can topple cities. Should Crysis be explained? It's engine is so robust that...well, you'll see.
Both machines fluctuated quite a bit, the Blackbird going between 40-80FPS and our custom going between 20-45FPS. The extra ram didn't help our PC much since speed was what we needed, and the PC-8500 cards and the overclocked CPU kept everything running smooth. However, the Blackbird was less stable and couldn't seem to keep a steady framerate through the test, though our custom was not much better.
At this point during our tests with the Blackbird, the GPU fan for the 8800 Ultra began making a horrid noise from spinning so fast, which the heavy casing did little to quiet down. Our PC kept quiet in it's standard case.
Finally, Crysis. Two things before we head into the benchmark results: Patch 1.2 was released just before we finished testing, so all tests for Crysis are running on this patch. We won't discuss the differences because we weren't looking for them, and both machines ran off that patch. The second thing is that while our custom machine ran Crysis normally, the Blackbird didn't seem to like it much. We got in touch with some friends at other publications who said that the 8800 Ultra doesn't always play well with Crysis, so we took that into consideration for all our tests. It also prevented us from using the typical benchmark tool for Crysis, but our results did fit expectations, so we aren't too concerned about it.
Crysis, being such a demanding game on ever part of the PC at Ultra High spec (no AA), drowned our custom with 21FPS at 800x600 verses the 34FPS on the Blackbird. At1680x1050, Our PC got a measily 7FPS, and the Blackbird more than doubled that framerate, bouncing between 15-16FPS. Neither is really suitable for play at higher resolution, though just for kicks we plugged the Blackbird into our 720p HDTV and ran it at 1360x768, the maximum resolution for the TV, and it kept at a smooth 27FPS.
While the two machines are pretty similarly stacked, the major difference in CPU speed and the GPU's gave the Blackbird a big advantage. Even the 10,000 RPM HDD was a kick in the pants compared to our Raid 0 setup (which now has us crying). Of course, the current configuration for the Blackbird isn't the most that can come out of it. Add another two sticks of high-speed RAM, another 8800 Ultra or two and suddenly you've got a whole different monster.
