3D Mark Vantage and CineBench Results
3D Mark VantageThis test gives us a nice balance of graphics performance that relies on a more traditional engine which is lightly threaded, as well as theoretical CPU performance that scales with core count.
Clock speed and larger amounts of cache trump core count when it comes to the two graphics tests. The CPU tests scale nicely with core count, but even when cores and clock speeds are comparable, the L3 cache of the Phenom II series gives them a decided advantage over the lower cache SKUs.
CineBench R10
I dusted off this one to take a good look at what larger caches can do in single CPU performance. Of most interest are the Phenom II X2 560 and Athlon II X2 265 results, as they match up in clock speed and core count. But the X2 560 has that nice 6 MB of L3 cache.
In this iteration of Cinebench larger caches have an advantage over the smaller, cheaper SKUs without the large L3.
CineBench R11.5
The latest version of Cinebench does a better job in intelligently dividing the work being done by individual cores as compared to R10, so it more effectively spreads the work across a CPU.
We again see that the larger caches help a CPU’s performance, but clock speeds and core counts will give better results across the board. For example the Athlon II X3 450 is cheaper than the Phenom II X2 560, but is much faster in pure rendering performance.
