For testing megatasking under Windows Vista we have used the same method we used previously with Windows XP Professional. The only difference is the applications we are testing with:

• Mainconcept H.264 Encode: Conversione of DV to H.264 High def video ECS factory tour - DV 16,836 frames;
• DVD Shrink 3.2: backup of film Fahrenheit 9/11 compress to 2000 Mbytes;
• Sony Vegas+DVD 7.0b: Video and Audio Benchmarking;
• Povray 3.7: CPU rendering benchmark .

The results are similar to what we saw with Windows XP Professional. The dual core solutions placed last while the Quad core solutions all scored one after the other. The quad core Intel processors performed their tasks in the least amount of time while the Athlon 64 FX-74 completed its tasks around 30 seconds later than the QX6600.

The above table shows, in percents, the increase or decrease in performance the processors had in tests going from Windows XP Professional with 32bit applications to Windows Vista RC2, using the same applications but this time in 64bit. The Athlon 64 FX-7x processors are able to obtain greater performance increases in these tests, while the Intel solutions all lose performance in the POV-Ray benchmark.