AMD Phenom X3 8750 Tri-Core Processor

We ran a handful of processors and platforms, including the new Phenom X3 8750, through Futuremark’s latest system performance metric built especially for Windows Vista, PCMark Vantage. PCMark Vantage runs through a host of different usage scenarios to simulate different types of workloads including High Definition TV and movie playback and manipulation, gaming, image editing and manipulation, music compression, communications, and productivity.  Most of the tests are multi-threaded as well, so the tests can exploit the additional resources offered by a quad-core CPU.

With the exception of PCMark Vantage's "Memories" test, the Phenom X3 8750 performed exactly as expected.  In the "Memories" test, the Athlon 64 X2 6400+ finished slightly ahead of the 8750, but in all of the other tests the 8750 proved to be faster than any previous AMD dual-core chip, and right on par with the Core 2 Duos.  Of course, the quad-core chips were fastest overall, but the Phenom X3 8750 put up a strong showing and its encouraging to see that applications are properly taking advantage of the odd number of cores.