Intel Skulltrail Unleashed: Core 2 Extreme QX9775 x 2

Name: Intel Skulltrail Unleashed: Core 2 Extreme QX9775 x 2 - Page 6
Brand: Intel

by Marco Chiappetta — Saturday, February 16, 2008, 12:01 PM EDT

PCMark Vantage

For our next round of benchmarks, we ran all of the modules built into Futuremark's PCMark Vantage test suite. Vantage is a new benchmarking tool that we've incorporated into our arsenal of tests here at HotHardware. Here's how Futuremark positions their new benchmarking tool:

Futuremark PCMark Vantage

Synthetic Benchmarks

"The PCMark Suite is a collection of various single- and multi-threaded CPU, Graphics and HDD test sets with the focus on Windows Vista application tests. Tests have been selected to represent a subset of the individual Windows Vista Consumer scenarios. The PCMark Suite includes CPU, Graphics, Hard Disk Drive (HDD) and a subset of Consumer Suite tests."

The overall PCMark Vantage score is a weighted average of all of the modules in the Vantage suite calculated in total "PCMarks". Here are the results:

The Skulltrail system and similarly clocked Core 2 Extreme QX9770 perform at similar levels in the overall PCMark Vantage suite. Only a few pecentage points separate Intel's highest end platforms here, which is to say they beoth perform quite well.

The PCMark Vantage "Memories" suite includes the following tests:

Memories 1 - Two simultaneous threads, CPU image manipulation and HDD picture import
Memories 2 - Two simultaneous threads, GPU image manipulation and HDD video editing
Memories 3 - Video Transcoding: DV to portable device
Memories 4 - Video Transcoding: media server archive to portable device

PCMark Vantage's Memories test mirrors the overall results, with the Skulltrail rig and Core 2 Extreme QX9770 performing within a few pecentage points of each other.

Vantage TV and Movies suite includes the following tests:

TV and Movies 1 - Two simultaneous threads, Video transcoding: HD DVD to media server archive, Video playback: HD DVD w/ additional lower bitrate HD content from HDD, as downloaded from the net
TV and Movies 2 - Two simultaneous threads, Video transcoding: HD DVD to media server archive, Video playback, HD MPEG-2: 19.39 Mbps terrestrial HDTV playback
TV and Movies 3 - HDD Media Center
TV and Movies 4 - Video transcoding: media server archive to portable device, Video playback, HD MPEG-2: 48 Mbps Blu-ray playback

Once again, we see a similar pattern, with Skulltrail just edging out the QX9770.

Courtesy, Futuremark: "Gaming is one of the most popular forms of entertainment for all ages. Today’s games demand high performance graphics cards and CPUs to avoid delays and sluggish performance while playing. Loading screens in games are yesterday’s news. Streaming data from an HDD in games – such as Alan Wake™ – allows for massive worlds and riveting non-stop action. CPUs with many cores give a performance advantage to gamers in real-time strategy and massively multiplayer games. Gaming Suite includes the following tests: "

Gaming 1 - GPU game test
Gaming 2 - HDD: game HDD
Gaming 3 - Two simultaneous threads, CPU game test, Data decompression: level loading
Gaming 4 - Three simultaneous threads, GPU game test, CPU game test, HDD: game HDD

Vantage's gaming test, which utilizes a maximum of three threads, also performs similarly on Skulltrail and the QX9770, which is to be expected considering both platforms are clocked at the same level and utilized the same supporting hardware (video card and hard drive).