Multi-threaded performance
>The WAV-encoding benchmark is multi-threaded but utilises just two cores. The QX9650 Penryn's improvements are manifested in a marked performance increase over the equivalently-clocked Kentsfield processor - remember that they're operating at the same speed.
DivX 6.6.1 includes an experimental SSE4 option that's designed to leverage the 47 new instructions present in the Penryn core. However, running it resulted in an increase in the encoding time, strangely enough. The benchmark graph, depicted above, shows a slight decrease in decoding time when compared to you-know-what.
Looking at processors with far more palatable pricing, we see the Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 has the beating of the three AMD processors in both media-encoding benchmarks.
CINEBENCH R10 scales well as the core count increases. As such, the two Intel quad-core processors' performance is in a different league to the comparison dual-core models. This time, the combination of Penryn-derived improvements yield an eight per cent increase over the previous heavyweight desktop champ of the world. The Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 posts the highest single-socket score we've seen thus far.
The same is largely true in POV-Ray, too. We've tested with the 64-bit binary and observed that Intel processors' performance is a touch down when compared to 32-bit but AMD's is a little higher. Still, four cores are patently better than two in this case, and QX9650 looks down upon them all, thanks to its myriad of performance bolt-ons.
