Performance

To test the X2 4200+, I dropped it into my test bed, setup as follows:

Motherboard: ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe
Memory: 2 GB of Crucial Ballistix DDR2 PC2-8000 RAM
Power Supply: OCZ NVIDIA SLI-Ready GameXStream 600W
Video Card: Two XFX GeForce 7900GS in SLI configuration
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 750 GB
OS: Windows XP SP2
Testing Software:
3DMark 06 1.0.2
SiSoft Sandra 2007 SP1



Running at a clock multiplier of 11 and a CPU frequency of 200 (the default settings, generating the stock speed of 2,200 MHz), SiSoft Sandra generates the following benchmarks:
First, SiSoft Sandra’s Processor Arithmetic test, which generated these results:

Dhrystone ALU: 16,018 MIPS
Whetstone iSSE3: 13,457 MFLOPS

And then the Processor Multi-Media test, with these results:

Integer x4 aEMMX/aSSE: 40,431 it/s
Floating-Point x4 iSSE2: 45,156 it/s

Then I ran 3DMark 06’s CPU test and generated a score of 1,634. We’ll compare these scores to the results generated by overclocking the CPU below and see what kind of a boost you can expect from this processor with a little overclocking work.

Overclocking

ASUS included a utility with the M2N32 SLI Professional called AI Boost, which allows you to adjust clock multipliers, CPU and memory voltages and FSB frequencies from within Windows. After some trial and error, I used AI Boost to set the clock multiplier to 11, up the CPU voltage to 1.325 and push the FSB to 1220 MHz, setting the overall clock at 2,684MHz, a gain of close to 500 MHz over the stock processor speed. Then I ran benchmarks.

First, SiSoft Sandra’s Processor Arithmetic test, with these results:

Dhrystone ALU: 19,462 MIPS
Whetstone iSSE3: 16,466 MFLOPS

And then the Processor Multi-Media test, which came up with:

Integer x4 aEMMX/aSSE: 49,085 it/s
Floating-Point x4 iSSE2: 54,831 it/s

Finally, 3DMark 06’s CPU test generated a score of 1,965. Overall, overclocking the processor generated healthy gains of between 16.84 and 18.27 percent on all three tests, a nice amount of growth that pushes the X2 4200+ into the upper levels of the X2 processors at $80 to $150 less. Not bad if you’re willing to take some risks and save a little money in the process.