Media encoding, KribiBench, Raytracing
Encoding into MP3 isn't too elastic to memory bandwidth and latency. Processor oomph is the key factor, and 2.6GHz of Athlon 64 power is plenty oomph.
Our video encoding test revolves around the first vob of Sleepy Hollow and the XviD CODEC set to 1433kb/s in Gordian Knot. It's a tie between Intel's Pentium 4 560 and the fastest Athlon 64. As we can see from the minimal performance differences between the 2.4GHz Model 3800+ and 4000+ CPUs, extra cache doesn't do a whole lot here.
KribiBench has always been partial to the P4's architecture, although faster Athlon 64s are starting to nibble away at the gap. Greater levels of L2 cache do have a statistically significant benefit here.
Realstorm's Raytracing 2004 benchmark firmly puts the performance crown on Athlon 64 shoulders. L2 cache has a negligible effect here. Model 4000+ is only marginally ahead of Model 3800+. Performance with differing cache levels is highly dependant on the application used.
