Test Results – Synthetic
PCMark05, like all of Futuremark’s benchmark suites, is made up of a series of tests designed to stress specific subsystems, such as hard drive, processor, or memory performance. SimHQ decided to use just the CPU suite and the total score for this article.
X2 4850E | X3 8750 | |
CPU | 5100 | 6415 |
Total | 5535 | 6729 |
The CPU suite sees a significant lead for the X3, with the suite’s total score showing a 1,200 advantage for the new processor.
3DMark06’s two CPU tests were used since both are heavily threaded. The scores shown below represent the combined score for both tests.
X2 4850E | X3 8750 | |
CPU | 1890 | 2851 |
Combining the scores from these two CPU tests shows the X3 8750 with a significant 50% lead over the older X2.
Test Results – Real World
Windows Media Encoder 9 was used for SimHQ’s content creation test. The application is a free download from Microsoft and is heavily threaded. Falcon 4: Allied Force’s intro movie, a 91MB .avi file, was converted into a .wmv file with high definition video and audio settings and the total time required by each processor to convert the file recorded. Shorter conversion times represent a better score for this particular test. AMD pointed out that in-house testing on their part shows that the application scales with even numbered cores because the VC1 encoder is currently designed to use 1, 2, or 4 threads.
X2 4850E | X3 8750 | |
Time | 14:38 | 12:54 |
With only two cores processing the task, the X3 was still able to complete the job almost two minutes sooner than the Athlon CPU. Once WME9 is updated (a possible if) by MS, a fast X3 should be able to convert the file in under 10 minutes.
Moving onto the fun stuff, Microsoft’s FSX Acceleration, the first retail expansion to FSX, was recently released and has continued to display very CPU-limited performance characteristics. An Airtrike Ultralight was flown over Rio de Janeiro on a clear afternoon at roughly 7k elevation using a recorded free flight. For low testing a resolution of 1024×768 was used since that is the lowest option and for our high testing the title’s sliders were placed at medium-high settings.
At the low setting FSX is most likely bottlenecked by system memory rather than CPU speeds here. Under the high category, however, the X3 pulls ahead by 15%.
IL-2: 1946 is a compilation release of all of Maddox Games’ “Sturmovik” simulations over the last several years. While quickly aging, the title is still very popular among flight sim enthusiasts, particularly for its online play. The title was configured to run in OpenGL mode and its Kamikaze02 track used for this article’s testing.
The X3 sees a modest 10% performance improvement over the Athlon X2 in both categories, a far cry from the performance numbers generated by any of the Core 2 Duos, old or 45nm-based.