Core 2 Extreme QX6700 Quad-Core Kentsfield Performance Preview
DivX, Sony Vegas and our Conclusion
DivX video compression and encoding is next and it's an excellent vehicle for testing raw CPU throughput in a very popular usage model for the average end user.
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In digital video compression and encoding with DivX, the Core 2 Extreme QX6700 shows a 40+% performance advantage over the dual-core X6800 though it has roughly a 300MHz clock speed deficit.
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Sony Vegas is a digital video editing package from Sony Media Software and our testing with it helps expand on the general coverage of digital video manipulation and playback. Vegas mixes audio and video files as well for the final output, versus DivX which is simply digital video conversion and encoding. In this test the quad-core QX6700 is about 50% faster than the dual core Core 2-based system -- another impressive performance gain to say the least.
That wraps up our Kentsfield performance coverage for now. However, we'll be back in the coming weeks with a full HotHardware analysis of Intel's new quad core processor line-up, of that you can be certain. Obviously we have only scratched the surface in terms of exploring the performance profile of the new Core 2 Extreme QX6700 processor. Though Intel only let us run a few synthetic tests, as well as a few 3D rendering and digital video processing tests, there are many more popular application and game titles that we intend on running the QX6700 through its paces with in the weeks ahead. In summation of the data we've presented you with here today, our early observations tell us that Intel's new quad-core Kentsfield chip scales anywhere from 50 - 100% faster than a dual-core Core 2 chip, clock for clock, depending on the type of applications you'll be running.
Kentsfield's performance was as expected to be honest but obviously applications that make better use of multithreading are where the major gains will likely be seen. We don't expect Kentsfield to run standard Office applications that much faster for example, unless there's a lot of multi-tasking thrown in the mix, but that almost goes without saying. Also we know many of you would like to know what the new Intel quad-core architecture can do for various gaming scenarios and we plan to expand on that significantly in our follow-up coverage. On a side note, we're aware that AMD's 4X4 product offering is expected to hit our test bench sometime in Q4. It will be very interesting to compare what four cores sharing a Hypertransport link can do versus four Core 2 cores sharing a single front side bus. We'll be here burning the midnight oil when the time comes and we're hearing that time will be soon. For now Kentsfield looks more than promising for the enthusiast, power user and workstation professional.
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