PCMark Vantage Test 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 hi-end gaming rigs. Benchmark Reviews has decided to use a few select tests from the suite to test the X58-Express platform in this article. Our tests were conducted on 64-bit Windows 7, with results displayed in the charts below.

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
  • 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 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

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
  • 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

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
  • Three simultaneous threads
  • Web page rendering - w/ music shop content
  • Audio transcoding: WAV -> WMA lossless
  • HDD: Adding music to Windows Media Player
• Music 2
  • Audio transcoding: WAV -> WMA lossless
• Music 3
  • Audio transcoding: MP3 -> WMA
• Music 4
  • Two simultaneous threads
  • Audio transcoding: WMA -> WMA
  • HDD: Adding music to Windows Media Player

In all three tests the MSI Wind Box was the underdog. TV and Movies showed the greatest difference between platforms with the Atom machines on the low end, the AE2220 All-In-One PC in the middle and the desktop towering above them. This is not a huge surprise given the differences in CPUs driving each machine, but it seems that the ION and Wind Box scores should have been closer.

The Gaming category showed little difference between systems excepting the Wind box which couldn't keep up. The ION nettop barely scores a win over the Dell using it's GeForce 9400M (ION) to beat out the older Radeon X850 XT. In this case the MSI AE2220 trails slightly behind in performance using a GeForce 9300. While it might have been predicted for the MSI Wind Box to trail slightly since it uses a Radeon 4330, the disparity again seems large.

The Music category is a reflection of what was seen in the TV and Movies section. In summary, most of the scores seem intuitive based on the hardware used on each platform excepting the MSI Wind Box. Though the hardware is comparable, the performance does not seem to match expectations.

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