How we tested

Here is a list of the applications we've used for our testing – most of them are available for public consumption. In all cases, the benchmarks were run at least three times and the data presented here are averages of those results.

• Sisoft Sandra XII 2008
  
• World in Conflict 1.007
  
• Crysis 1.21
  
• PCMark Vantage x64
  
• WinRAR 3.71
  
• Paint.NET 3.20
  
• Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 8
  
• DivX 6.8
  
• AutoMKV 0.90
  
• VirtualDub 1.6.15
  
• LAME MT 3.97
  
• Blender
  
• Cinebench 10 x64

This time for our CPU testing, we have updated Paint.NET to the current latest 3.20, DivX to 6.8, World in Conflict to 1.007 and replaced Windows Media Encoder x64 with Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 8 – this is a very popular movie editing application that offers more features, including multi-threading and better video transcoding compatibility. We also introduced Crysis 1.21 as well.

Additionally, following on from our look at Windows Vista SP1 performance in both applications and games, we have rolled this out onto our CPU testing machines as most of the 64-bit users in our community have upgraded to use it as well.

AMD's Overdrive utility (2.0.17) was used and the right hand "Turbo" button was set to red (TLB enabled, CPU power management "disabled") with the B2 and B3 Phenoms. Likewise, Intel's EIST and power management facilities were disabled so as to obtain accurate and reproducible results.

Thanks to Yoyotech for providing the AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ and Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 for the review.

Test Setup

Intel Core 2 Specific Components:

• 2GB dual channel DDR2-800 4-4-4-12-2T
  
• DFI LANParty LT X48 T2R

AMD Phenom and Athlon X2 Specific Components:

• 2GB ganged, dual channel DDR2-1066 5-5-5-15-2T (Phenom),
  
• 2GB ganged, dual channel DDR2-800 4-4-4-12-2T (Athlon X2)
  
• Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe

Common Components:

• Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB
  
• Seagate 7200.10 160GB 7,200RPM SATA 3Gbps
  
• PC Power and Cooling Silencer 750W PSU
  
• Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit with SP1
  
• DirectX 10.1
  
• ATI Catalyst 8.3
  
• Nvidia Forceware 165.25
  
• Intel inf 8.3.0

CPUs Tested

• AMD Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition - 4x2.5GHz, 2MB L3 cache, 4x512KB L2 cache, 2.0GHz HTT, 2.0GHz Northbridge, 65nm Agena
  
• AMD Phenom X4 9750 - 4x2.4GHz, 2MB L3 cache, 4x512KB L2 cache, 1.8GHz HTT, 1.8GHz Northbridge, 65nm Agena
  
• AMD Phenom X4 9550 - 4x2.2GHz, 2MB L3 cache, 4x512KB L2 cache, 1.8GHz HTT, 1.8GHz Northbridge, 65nm Agena
  
  
• AMD Phenom 9600 Black Edition - 4x2.3GHz, 2MB L3 cache, 4x512KB L2 cache, 1.8GHz HTT, 1.8GHz Northbridge, 65nm Agena
  
• AMD Phenom 9500 - 4x2.2GHz, 2MB L3 cache, 4x512KB L2 cache, 1.8GHz HTT, 1.8GHz Northbridge, 65nm Agena
  
  
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ - 2x3.20GHz, 2x1MB L2 cache, 1.0GHz HTT, 90nm, Windsor
  
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ - 2x3.00GHz, 2x1MB L2 cache, 1.0GHz HTT, 90nm, Windsor
  
  
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 - 4x2.67GHz, 2x4MB L2 cache, 1,066MHz FSB, 65nm, Kentsfield
  
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 - 4x2.40GHz, 2x4MB L2 cache, 1,066MHz FSB, 65nm, Kentsfield
  
  
• Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 - 2x3.16GHz, 2x6MB L2 cache, 1,333MHz FSB, 45nm, Wolfdale
  
• Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 - 2x3.00GHz, 2x6MB L2 cache, 1,333MHz FSB, 45nm, Wolfdale
  
• Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 - 2x2.66GHz, 2x6MB L2 cache, 1,333MHz FSB, 45nm, Wolfdale
  
  
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 - 2x3.00GHz, 4MB L2 cache, 1,333MHz FSB, 65nm, Conroe
  
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 - 2x2.67GHz, 4MB L2 cache, 1,333MHz FSB, 65nm, Conroe
  
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 - 2x2.40GHz, 4MB L2 cache, 1,333MHz FSB, 65nm, Conroe
  
  
• Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 - 2x2.20GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 800MHz FSB, 65nm, Allendale