How we test
REVIEWS / HOW WE TEST
We test image quality with an X-Rite
iDisplay Pro colorimeter and
DisplayCal software to check for colour
accuracy, contrast and gamma, while assessing more subjective
details such as pixel density and viewing angles by eye. For
gaming, we test a monitor’s responsiveness subjectively and then
also use Blur Buster’s excellent ghosting UFO test to check the
sharpness of the display in high-speed motion.MONITORS
TEST MOTHERBOARDS
Intel LGA1200 Rocket Lake
MSI MEG Z490 Ace
Intel LGA1200 Comet Lake
Asus ROG Strix Z590-E Gaming WiFi
AMD AM 4 MSI MPG Gaming B550 Carbon WiFiCommon gear between our CPU test rigs includes 16GB (2 x
8GB) of Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 3466MHz DDR4 RAM, a
2TB Samsung 970 Evo SSD and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070
GPU. Cooling comes from a Corsair Hydro-X water-cooling
loop with two XR5 240mm radiators, an XD3 RGB reservoir
and an XC7 RGB waterblock.
We use the latest version of Windows 10 with security
updates, as well as the latest BIOS versions and drivers. We
record results at stock speed and overclocked, and our tests
include the CPC RealBench suite for image editing, video
encoding and multi-tasking, Cinebench’s single and multi-
threaded tests, Far Cry New Dawn and Watch Dogs: Legion.
For our game tests, we record the 99th percentile minimum
and average frame rates either using the game’s built-in
benchmark or Nvidia FrameView. Finally, we measure the idle
and load power consumption of the whole system, using
Prime95’s smallfft test with AVX disabled to stress the CPU.PROCESSORS
We use CoreTemp to measure the CPU temperature, before
subtracting the ambient air temperature from this figure to give
us a delta T result, which enables us to test in a lab that isn’t
temperature controlled. We use Prime95’s smallest FFT test
with AVX instructions disabled to load the CPU and take the
temperature reading after ten minutes.
For the Intel LGA1200 system, we take an average reading
across all eight cores in order to compensate for any hot spots
that might be misleading. AMD’s CPUs only report a single
temperature reading, rather than per-core readings, so we list
what’s reported in CoreTemp.TEST KIT
Fractal Design Meshify C case, 16GB of Corsair Vengeance RGB
Pro memory, 256GB Samsung 960 Evo SSD, Corsair CM550 PSU.INTEL LGA1200
Intel Core i9-11900K at stock speed with Adaptive Boost enabled,
MSI MEG Z590 Ace motherboard.AMD AM4
Ryzen 7 5800X overclocked to 4.6GHz with 1.25V vcore, MSI MEG
X570 Unify motherboard, or AMD Ryzen 7 1700 overclocked to
3.9GHz with 1.425V vcore for standalone reviews that require
comparisons with older results.INTEL LGA1151
Intel Core i5-9600K overclocked to 4.8GHz with 1.2V vcore.INTEL LGA2066
Intel Core i9-9980XE overclocked to 4.2GHz with 1.08V vcore.CPU COOLERS
MOTHERBOARDS
TEST PROCESSORS
Intel LGA1200 Intel Core i9-11900K
AMD AM 4 AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, and AMD Ryzen 9 3900X for
standalone reviews that require comparisons with older results.Common test hardware between our CPU test rigs includes 16GB
( 2 x 8GB) of Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 3466MHz DDR4 memory,
a 2TB Samsung 970 Evo SSD, a 1TB PCI-E 4 Corsair MP600 SSD
and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition graphics card.
All CPUs are cooled by a Corsair Hydro-X water-cooling loop,
with two XR5 240mm radiators, an XD3 RGB reservoir and an XC7
RGB waterblock. We test with our RealBench suite and Far Cry New
Dawn on Windows 10 Home 64-bit. We also test the board’ s M.2
ports, and record the noise level and dynamic range of integrated
audio using RightMark Audio Analyzer.