Testbed Configuration
To test all the CPUs listed in the table above we put together two similar platforms for Socket AM2 and LGA775 processors respectively. Below is the list of hardware and software components used for them:
- Mainboards:
- ASUS P5Q Pro (LGA775, Intel P45 Express, DDR2 SDRAM);
- Gigabyte MA790GP-DS4H (Socket AM2+, AMD 790GX + SB750, DDR2 SDRAM).
- ASUS P5Q Pro (LGA775, Intel P45 Express, DDR2 SDRAM);
- Memory: GEIL GX24GB8500C5UDC (2 x 2GB, DDR2-800 SDRAM, 5-5-5-15).
- Graphics card: ATI Radeon HD 4890.
- HDD: Western Digital WD1500AHFD.
- OS: Microsoft Windows Vista x64 SP1.
- Drivers:
- Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility 9.1.0.1007;
- ATI Catalyst 9.4 Display Driver.
- Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility 9.1.0.1007;
Performance
General Performance
Gaming Performance
Video Encoding
Other Applications
Final rendering speed in 3ds max is much higher when you have a Pentium based system. Core microarchitecture that allows processing four instructions per clock instead of three seems fitter for heavy computational work.
We can draw the same conclusion when we measure the systems performance during 3D modeling of protein folding process by a famous distributed computing client called Folding@Home.
The performance in a popular Adobe Photoshop graphics editor is also not the strongest side of AMD CPUs. Although Athlon X2 on K10 (Stars) microarchitecture have become faster than their predecessors, it is still not enough to compete successfully against Intel CPUs on Core microarchitecture. However, this is no news for our regular readers: Photoshop, 3ds max and Folding@Home have long been known as tasks that don’t favor AMD processors.
Another application like that is Excel, where Intel processors work almost twice as fast. By the way, Excel is one of those applications where new Athlon X2 7850 and 7750 CPUs also lose to their predecessors on K8 microarchitecture.
The results of WinRAR utility will also be a disappointment for AMD fans. As soon as the CPUs from this maker switched to new microarchitecture, they began to archive slower. So, although AMD Athlon X2 processors used to perform much better than Intel solutions before, now the advantage is really tiny.
All processor power-saving technologies get activated in idle mode therefore the power consumption of our test systems doesn’t differ too much. Nevertheless, the advantage of CPUs manufactured using more advanced technological process is evident even in this case.