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By,
Dave Altavilla
February 1, 2004
In our next run
of testing, we'll cover performance metrics across a number
of Desktop Business and Multimedia Content Creation
applications. These are very common day to day
software bundles that many users have experience with
firsthand.
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Business and Content Creation Winstone 2004 |
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Desktop Publishing, Spreadsheet Analysis,
Multimedia Content Creation and Audio/Video
Editing |
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The PC Magazine Business
Winstone 2004 test utilizes the following applications in
its benchmark.
- Microsoft Access 2002
- Microsoft Excel 2002
- Microsoft FrontPage 2002
- Microsoft Outlook 2002
- Microsoft PowerPoint 2002
- Microsoft Project 2002
- Microsoft Word 2002
- Norton AntiVirus
Professional Edition 2003
- WinZip 8.1
Our 3.2GHz
Prescott edges out the 3.2GHz Northwood CPU by a hair but
can't quite keep up with the P4 EEs or the higher end
Athlons. Clearly this test benefits from both larger
cache sizes as well as higher clock speeds.
Interestingly enough the Athlon 64 FX-51 and the P4 EE
3.2GHz came in with a photo finish tie score.
The PC Magazine
Content Creation Winstone 2004 test utilizes the following
applications in its benchmark.
- Adobe® Photoshop 7.0.1
- Adobe® Premiere 6.50
- Macromedia® Director MX
9.0
- Macromedia® Dreamweaver MX
6.1
- Microsoft® Windows Media?
Encoder 9 Version 9.00.00.2980
- NewTek's LightWave 3D 7.5b
- Steinberg WaveLab 4.0f
We see a similar
spread in the field here, this time however with the nod
going ever so slightly to the Athlon 64s, as we've seen in
the past with CC Winstone. Once again, Prescott shows
it's on par with the Northwood core and perhaps even
slightly stronger.
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XMPEG
5.03 |
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Digital Video Encoding |
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For our first
Video Encoding test, we took a 110MB MPEG test file and
converted to DivX format. This test is benefits
somewhat from the Hyperthreading features of the Pentium 4
architecture.
Here's where
Prescott begins to shine a bit brighter. With its
enhanced Hyperthreading technology, it proves itself even
faster than the 3.4GHz P4 Extreme Edition processor.
It is interesting to note also how the Athlon architecture
has closed the gap a bit on Intel's P4 in this test.
Historically, the Pentium 4 would crush an Athlon XP at any
speed, in this benchmark. That no longer can be said.
Windows Media Encoder, Cinebench and SPECViewperf
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