The load sharing of the four applications on the two systems makes for an interesting topic of conversation. As in the past, the AMD system still accords a low priority to the Divx encoding of the James Bond films. We should point out that the large deviation here compared to the Intel system has nothing to do with codec optimization. Rather, the distribution of processing power in the Intel system is better balanced by hyperthreading. So we will be deactivating hyperthreading on the Intel system in the coming days to get the low-down on this point.

That said, we want the two systems to take over load sharing from the operating system automatically: after all, the typical home or office user will certainly not be setting thread priorities manually. If you are intending to intervene constantly in the system you should use the THG Task Assignment tool .

Current Benchmark Rankings

Ignoring the downtime for the Intel system in the first four days, we can assess the current situation. We recorded an average frame rate in the 3D game Farcry based on the log files. In SLI mode, the AMD system is slightly in the lead, with an average 38.13 fps compared to the Intel system with 34.76. Even with SLI deactivated, the AMD system still manages 35.4 fps while the Intel system scores 31.56. This makes the AMD system without SLI just as fast as the Intel system with it. The currently displayed live values are as of the last system start; since then, the rivals have both been running without SLI.

Both systems are neck-and-neck on the other applications - MP3 audio encoding and packing with Winrar - until we get to video encoding. Although it has to be said that the Intel system's higher clock speed - 3.2 GHz compared to 2.4 GHz on the AMD - is anything but lame here, the next few days will reveal how overall performance for the four parallel applications shapes up.

As mentioned before, the priorities determined by the operating system for the individual applications in each system vary greatly, and exhibit dynamic behavior even during operation. That is clearly shown by the frame rates for Farcry, for example.