PCMark Vantage Benchmark Tests

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 well suited for benchmarking any type of Microsoft Windows Vista/7 PC: from multimedia home entertainment systems and laptops, to dedicated workstations and high-end gaming rigs. Benchmark Reviews has decided to use a few select tests from the suite to demonstrate simulate real-world processor usage in this article. Our tests were conducted on 64-bit Windows 7, with results displayed in the chart below.

• TV and Movies 1 (CPU=50%, RAM=2%, GPU=45%, SSD=3%)
  • 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 (CPU=50%, RAM=2%, GPU=45%, SSD=3%)
  • 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 (SSD=100%)
  • HDD Media Center
• TV and Movies 4 (CPU=50%, RAM=2%, GPU=45%, SSD=3%)
  • Video transcoding: media server archive to portable device
  • Video playback, HD MPEG-2: 48 Mbps Blu-ray playback

• Gaming 1 (CPU=30%, GPU=70%)
  • GPU game test
• Gaming 2 (SSD=100%)
  • HDD: game HDD
• Gaming 3 (CPU=75%, RAM=5%, SSD=20%)
  • Two simultaneous threads
  • CPU game test
  • Data decompression: level loading
• Gaming 4 (CPU=42%, RAM=1%, GPU=24%, SSD=33%)
  • Three simultaneous threads
  • GPU game test
  • CPU game test
  • HDD: game HDD

• Music 1 (CPU=50%, RAM=3%, GPU=13%, SSD=34%)
  • Three simultaneous threads
  • Web page rendering - w/ music shop content
  • Audio transcoding: WAV -> WMA lossless
  • HDD: Adding music to Windows Media Player
• Music 2 (CPU=100%)
  • Audio transcoding: WAV -> WMA lossless
• Music 3 (CPU=100%)
  • Audio transcoding: MP3 -> WMA
• Music 4 (CPU=50%, SSD=50%)
  • Two simultaneous threads
  • Audio transcoding: WMA -> WMA
  • HDD: Adding music to Windows Media Player

* EDITOR'S NOTE: Hopefully our readers will carefully consider how relative PCMark Vantage is as "real-world" benchmark, since many of the tests rely on unrelated hardware components. For example, per the FutureMark PCMark Vantage White Paper document, Gaming test #2 weighs the storage device for 100% of the test score. In fact, according to PCMark Vantage the video card only impacts 23% of the total gaming score, but the CPU represents 37% of the final score. As our tests in this article (and many others) has already proven, gaming performance has a lot more to do with the GPU than the CPU, and especially more than the hard drive or SSD (which is worth 38% of the final gaming performance score).

The PCMark Vantage test results show similar results as those of the Everest tests. In the TV and Movies suite, the difference between the Athlon-II X2-260 and the X2-255 is again about 3%. Overclocking the X2-260 didn't do a lot to help out, boosting performance by only about 6%. Even overclocked, the X2-260 didn't compete with the X3-445, whose stock score increased 21% over the stock X2-260. Once again, it seems that the utilization of more cores may have had an effect on the scores of the X2-260. However, it does stay inline with its 100MHz clock speed increase over the X2-255. Of course, across the board, only 50% of the weighted score in the TV and Movies tests depended on the CPU, and test 3 uses the SSD for 100% of the score.

The Gaming Suite shows a similar trend, with the number of CPUs seeming to increase the performance of the processor much more than the clock speed. The scores are really a lot closer here. The Athlon-II X2-260 improves performance over the X2-255 by 5%, and is only behind the X3-445 by 11%. As you can see, the differences when the X2-260 and the X3-445 are only marginal when the processors are overclocked. Considering the fact that the first test in the suite is measuring mainly the GPU and the second tests only measure the SSD, we can see that the CPU is much less important when it comes to the PCMark Gaming Test Suite.

The PCMark Music Suite tests not only audio transcoding, but also webpage rendering using popular web-based music store formats. In the Music tests, the difference between the Athlon-II X2-260 and the X2-255 is a mere 1%. The stock X3-445 only improves 8% over the X2-260. Also noteworthy here is the fact the overclocked X2-260 finally beats out the stock X3-445, even if only by a hair. The overclocked X3-445, however, shines in the Music test, beating out every other processor. It would appear that clock speed would have a lot to do with the scores here, rather than the number of CPUs.

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