PCMark Vantage Results

PCMark Vantage is an objective hardware performance benchmark tool for PCs running 32 and 64 bit versions of Microsoft Windows Vista or Windows 7. PCMark Vantage is perfectly suited for benchmarking any type of Microsoft Windows Vista/7 PC from multimedia home entertainment systems and laptops to dedicated workstations and higher-end gaming computers. Benchmark Reviews has decided to use a few select tests from this suite to compare the processor performance in this article. Our tests were conducted on 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium (retail).

TV and Movies Suite

The tests in the TV and Movies Suite have been selected to represent the Windows Vista TV and Movies Consumer Scenario. The combination of test sets covers the common TV and Movies usage. The TV and Movies Suite gives a separate PCMark TV and Movies Score which does not affect the overall PCMark Score. TV and Movies Suite include the following tests:

TV and Movies 1

o Two simultaneous threads
o Video transcoding: HD DVD to media server archive
o Video playback: HD DVD w/ additional lower bitrate HD content from HDD, as downloaded from net

TV and Movies 2

o Two simultaneous threads
o Video transcoding: HD DVD to media server archive
o Video playback, HD MPEG-2: 19.39 Mbps terrestrial HDTV playback

TV and Movies 3

o HDD Media Center

TV and Movies 4

o Video transcoding: media server archive to portable device
o Video playback, HD MPEG-2: 48 Mbps Blu-ray playback

Gaming Suite

The tests in the Gaming Suite have been selected to represent the Windows Vista Gaming Consumer Scenario. The combination of test sets covers the common Gaming usage. The Gaming Suite gives a separate PCMark Gaming Score which does not affect the overall PCMark Score. Gaming Suite includes the following tests:

Gaming 1

o GPU game test

Gaming 2

o HDD: game HDD

Gaming 3

o Two simultaneous threads
o CPU game test
o Data decompression: level loading

Gaming 4

o Three simultaneous threads
o GPU game test
o CPU game test
o HDD: game HDD

Music Suite

The tests in the Music Suite have been selected to represent the Windows Vista Music Consumer Scenario. The combination of test sets covers the common Music usage. The Music Suite gives a separate PCMark Music Score which does not affect the overall PCMark Score. Music Suite includes the following tests:

Music 1

o Three simultaneous threads
o Web page rendering - w/ music shop content
o Audio transcoding: WAV -> WMA lossless
o HDD: Adding music to Windows Media Player

Music 2

o Audio transcoding: WAV -> WMA lossless

Music 3

o Audio transcoding: MP3 -> WMA

Music 4

o Two simultaneous threads
o Audio transcoding: WMA -> WMA
o HDD: Adding music to Windows Media Player

Although both AMD Phenom-II X4-965 processors performed extremely close throughout PCMark Vantage testing, the 125W HDZ965FBK4DGM model earned a small lead over the 140W version in every benchmark.

Judging by performance in the TV and Movies benchmark test Intel's Core i5-750 does well against both AMD X4-965 CPU's, but they still earn a near-20% lead over the LGA1156 product. The 2.66GHz Core i5 fights back and beats AMD in PCMark Vantage synthetic gaming performance, earning a 18% lead. Music transcoding tests have the AMD X4-965's behind the Intel Core i5-750 by 16%.

<< Previous Page - Next Page >>