Specifications

Here is a slide that gives all of the relevant information directly from AMD.

Gaming Rig Specs:

CPU:  Xeon X5660 @ 4Ghz
Motherboard: ASUS Sabertooth X58
RAM: 24GB RDIMM DDR3-1600Mhz [6x4GB] - ECC Buffered
SSD NVMe: 3TB - 2.7GB\s Read - 2.1GB\s Write
SSD NVMe: 256GB - 1.4GB\s Read - 600MB\s Write
SSD(x2): 256GB - 550MB\s Read - 500MB\s Write - RAID 0
HDD(x2): 2TB - 330MB Read - 320MB\s Write - RAID 0
HDD(x2): 2TB - 330MB Read - 320MB\s Write - RAID 0
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 1300W 80+ GOLD

GPU:  AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 Liquid Cooled - Push
GPU Speed:   (Stock) – Core: 1406Mhz  (1677Mhz Boost)
GPU Drivers: Radeon "Adrenalin " 20.4.2 [May 15th, 2020]

So as you can see I am running a 12 year old platform from Intel in 2020. I've nearly tapped all of the power out of this beast, but there is still some gas left in the tank. For gaming purposes it will be interesting just to see how well my platform (x58\2008) handles a high-end GPU (Vega 64\2017) that released literally 9 years later. The Fury X ran like I champ so I was expecting great results from its successor. The performance numbers always look great from AMD on paper, but the actual performance is what sell GPUs and get people excited. This article will shed some light on both, the Intel X58 and the Vega 64 performance in 2020 so perhaps this can show that the X58 is still a capable gaming rig. If anyone has shown how well the legacy X58 tech runs it definitely has been me. Just to think many people told me that I could not future proof my gaming rig way back in late 2000's....yeah right. I started this X58 craze 5 years after the X58 released in 2013 on a large level and I will more than likely be finishing it since I'm still running it as my daily rig. The main focus will be the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 Liquid Cooled GPU.

I would also like to point out that I am using a slightly overclocked X5660 @ 4Ghz to give a fair representation of the Intel X58 performance. Most X58 users can hit 4Ghz easily. I'm also using a normal DRAM frequency as well. I feel that this is one of the easiest setups to run that most users can use as a reference.

Real Time Benchmarks™

Real Time Benchmarks™ is something I came up with to differentiate my actual in-game benchmarks from the built-in standalone benchmarks tools. Sometimes in-game - Internal benchmark tools doesn't provide enough information. I gather data and I use 4 different methods to ensure the frame rates are correct for comparison. This way of benchmarking takes a while, but it is worth it in the end. This is the least I can do for the gaming community and users who are wondering if the Radeon RX Vega 6 & the X58 can still play newly released titles in 2020 effectively. I have been performing Real-Time Benchmarks ™ for about 7 years now and I plan to continue providing additional data instead of depending solely on the Internal Benchmak Tools.

What is FPS Min Caliber™ ?

You will notice something named “FPS Min Caliber”. Basically FPS Min Caliber is something I came up to differentiate between FPS absolute minimum which could simply be a point during gameplay when data is loading, saving, uploading, DRM checking etc. The FPS Min Caliber™ is basically my way of letting you know lowest FPS average you’ll see during gameplay. The minimum fps [FPS min] can be very misleading at times since it may not always be noticeable. FPS min is what you'll encounter only 0.1% during your playtime and most times you won’t even notice it. Obviously the average FPS an average Frame Time is what you'll encounter 99% of your playtime.

What is FPS Max Caliber™ ?

FPS Max Caliber uses the same type of thinking when explaining the MAX FPS. Instead of focusing on the highest max frame you'll only see 0.1% of the time I've included the FPS max Caliber you can expect to see during actual gameplay.

With that being said I will still include both the Minimum FPS and the Max FPS. Pay attention to the charts since some will list 0.1% (usually for syntethic benchmarks), but normally I use 1% FPS Min for nearly all of my benchmarks. In the past I used the 97th percentile results, but now I just use 1% most of the time. I just thought I would let you enthusiast know what to expect while reading my benchmark numbers