Media Encoding Tests
LAME 3.97a MT MP3 EncoderThis version of the LAME MP3 encoder is multi-threaded and takes advantage of two threads.
In this test, the single threaded performance of the i7-870 running at 3.6 GHz is showing through as it comes within just a couple seconds of the $1000+ Core i7-975 part. The i5-750 easily outperforms the Core i7-920 as well and since this application is really only taking use of a couple of threads the lack of HyperThreading didn’t adversely affect it.
Windows Media Encoder x64
WME is a great video encoding application that supports WMV9 HD codecs and more.
Here is one of the times we will see the Core i7-870 actually beat out the Core i7-975 due to Turbo Mode advantages on Lynnfield over Nehalem. The i5-750 has a decent showing though the i7-920 is able to outperform it by 13% or so.
VirtualDub
VirtualDub is a great application for just about any kind of video conversion but our testing we are using the DivX codec to shrink a collection of videos.
This benchmark seems to take advantage of the extra memory bandwidth Nehalem provides as both the i7-975 and i7-870 are further apart than I originally expected them to be. However, the i5-750 and i7-920 are very close in terms of performance so the clock speed advantage of the Lynnfield CPU (with Turbo Mode) might be the reasoning for that. The Phenom II X4 965 does make a strong showing here again though it isn’t able to break into the same levels as the Nehalem/Lynnfield crowd.
Handbrake
Known mainly for its DVD re-encoding prowess, our test uses the Handbrake command line interface.
The Core i7-870 makes another strong stab at the i7-975 coming in just 9% behind or so. The i5-750, without the benefits of HyperThreading, does fall back quite a bit from the i7-920 and even loses out to the AMD Phenom II X4 965.
7-Zip Compression
I decided to replace the WinRAR test with a more repeatable and threaded application, 7-Zip.
Obviously only the Core i7 processors could see the full benefits of moving from 4 threads to 8 threads and with that advantage they easily walk away from the rest of the CPUs tested. Looking at just 4 threads of performance though you will see both the Q9650 and the Phenom II part are very much with reach of the newer Intel CPUs.
