AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Dual Core Processor Review

Multitasking: Scenario 1+

Scenario 1+

After completing the Scenario 1 tests, I decided to add one more application into the suite by having Outlook import an emails file into its database.  Here is the modified test step by step:

1. Open Trillian
2. Open Excel Sheet
3. Open PDF file to page 15 (complicated data)
4. Open Firefox, with three tabs, each of heavy Flash content (stored locally)
5. Open iTunes and play 12 song playlist
6. Start NAV virus scan on HDDs
7. Open Outlook and start import on 335MB email file
8. Open Razor Lame and add files to be encoded
9. Encode MP3s and time

The window order, from bottom most viewable to top most was: Acrobat -> iTunes -> Outlook -> Norton AV -> Razor Lame.  On this test there were two applications running tasks that had a definite end, and in our results you’ll see that at the end of the MP3 encoding, the Intel system had already finished the Outlook import while the AMD system was still completing the task.

Here are our same base scores again for the standard MP3 encoding time with no other tasks were running.

The results here again show the huge benefit that the dual core processor has over its single core equivalent, the 3700+: a 41% benefit to be exact.  Though the Intel 840 XE and the X2 4400+ processor may appear to be slightly less effective by adding Outlook into the mix (their leads aren’t as big this time around) there is something to that.  In my testing, the Outlook file importing was DONE at the completion of the MP3 encoding on both the X2 4400+ and Intel 840 XE platforms, but was still running in the 3700+ and FX-55 scenarios.  So though the times here may show that the gain isn’t as large on the X2 and XE processor, they did more work (in the background apps) than did the competing AMD processors.