Render Tests
CineBench 10This rendering benchmark based off of the Cinema 4D engine is a terrific indicator for multi-threaded processing.



The single threaded performance proves that the Westmere design works pretty well – it matches the performance of Lynnfield and Bloomfield. However, under the multi-threaded test the Core i5-661 is only faster than the Core 2 E8500 processor; even the Q8400 and the Q9650 pass it easily.
POV-Ray 3.7 Beta
POV-Ray has long been the poster child for multi-threaded processing and rendering.


The same result is seen here in our POV-Ray benchmark – the dual-core HyperThreaded Core i5-661 beats the Core 2 E8500 but falls just behind the Core 2 Quad parts.
Blender
Blender is a free open source 3D engine that is a popular choice amongst college students and small developers.


What we are obviously seeing in all of these benchmark scores is the performance differences between two cores with HyperThreading and four “natural” cores.