Multi-tasking is a phrase with which we're all familiar, as most of us are now used to running multiple applications at the same time. However, to run multiple applications well you need a powerful (ideally multi-core) CPU and plenty of RAM.
Our multi-tasking test performs a massive file backup (with encryption) using 7-Zip, while simultaneously playing back an HD movie file using mplayer, making it a demanding test for any PC.
Multi-tasking Test
mPlayer and 7-Zip
1,333MHz CL9
1,333MHz CL8
1,333MHz CL7
1,600MHz CL9
1,600MHz CL8
1,600MHz CL7
1,866MHz CL9
1,866MHz CL8
1,866MHz CL7
2,133MHz CL9
2,133MHz CL8
1449
1441
1503
1511
1546
1601
1596
1616
1695
1629
1655
0
250
500
750
1000
1250
1500
1750
Points, Higher is Better
Points, Higher is Better
Overall Score
The overall score is an unweighted mean average of the scores of the three individual tests. A score of 1,000 means that the test system is as fast as our reference PC, which used a 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 at stock speed, 2GB of Corsair 1,066MHz DDR2 memory, a 250GB Samsung SpinPoint P120S hard disk and an Asus P5K Deluxe WiFi-AP motherboard. The scoring system is linear, so a system scoring 1,200 points is 20 per cent faster than our reference system. Equally, a system scoring 1,200 is 4 per cent faster than a system scoring 1,150.