We tried to execute all tests using applications that actually benefit from multiple cores. The Quad FX platform has been placed side by side against Intel’s Core 2 Extreme QX6700 in all benchmarks. These are the processors used in the comparison:

• Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 (bus 1066 MHz, clock frequency 2,66 GHz - cache L2 2x4 Mbytes) - Dual DDR2-800 memory
• Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6600 (bus 1066 MHz, clock frequency 2,4 GHz - cache L2 2x4 Mbytes) - Dual DDR2-800 memory
• Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 (bus 1066 MHz, clock frequency 2,93 GHz - cache L2 4 Mbytes) - Dual DDR2-800 memory
• AMD Athlon 64 FX74 Socket 1207 pin (clock 3.000 MHz - cache L2 2x1 Mbytes) - Dual DDR2-800 memory
• AMD Athlon 64 FX72 Socket 1207 pin (clock 2.800 MHz - cache L2 2x1 Mbytes) - Dual DDR2-800 memory
• AMD Athlon 64 FX70 Socket 1207 pin (clock 2.600 MHz - cache L2 2x1 Mbytes) - Dual DDR2-800 memory

These are the components used in the systems:

• motherboard Asus L1N64-SLI WS (chipset NVIDIA nForce 680a SLI)
• motherboard: EVGA 680i SLI (chipset NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI)
• 4 Gbytes memory DDR2-800 Corsair, model: Dominator TWIN2X2048-8500C5D (4 modules each 1 Gbyte); Timings of 4-4-4-12 2T
• hard disk Western Digital Raptor 150 Gbytes, configurato con un'unica partizione da 150 Gbytes
• video card : NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX

The operating system of choice was Windows XP Professional 32bit and Windows Vista RC2 64bit. Where possible, we used applications compiled in native 64bit for benchmarking with Vista.

These are the tests we ran on the platforms:

Multimedia

Auto GK 2.27 - Divx - conversione traccia 9 "Kill Bill volume 1"; audio inglese 6ch
    Divx 6.11
    scena 6
    Qualità 75% - no audio

Itunes 7.0.1.8
    conversione traccia audio da 613 Mbytes in formato MP3 192 Kbps

Sony Vegas+DVD 7.0b
    conversione filmato H.264 1080p in Pal DV - video quality best

Sony Vegas+DVD 7.0b
    Render to Other track - PAL DV Widescreen
    traccia hdwatermellon - best quality

Sony Vegas+DVD 7.0b
    Video and Audio Benchmarking

Paint.net
frosted glass - 10 pixel

Mainconcept H.264 Encoder
    Conversione da DV a H.264 High
    Video ECS factory tour - DV 16,836 frames
    720x576

Windows Media Encoder 9 with advanced profiles
    Video ATI factory Tour; 6 min 57 sec
    320x240 - 282 Kbps

DVD Shrink 3.2
    Fahrenheit 9/11
    compresso a 2000 Mbytes

Rendering

Cinebench 9.5
    CPU Benchmark (CB-SEC)
    CPU Benchmark Multiple (CB-SEC)Cinebench 2003

3Ds Max 9
    radiosity 1920x1080
    Underwater_Environment_finished 1920x1080

Povray 3.7 beta
    benchmark