3D Studio Max 8.0 shows the QX9770 beating the QX6850 by approximately its clock speed difference, while both four-core processors completely trample the dual-core E6750 at all tested speeds.

Audio

Lame MP3 encoding appears to respond to pure clock speed differences when all three processors are based on similar underlying technologies.

Ogg encoding performance again appears to respond simply to clock speed differences, with the slightly-better-overclocking Core 2 Extreme QX9770 scoring a slight win.

Video

DivX loves the new QX9770 core, with its 3.20 GHz base speed performance almost as good as that of the QX6850's 4.02 GHz top overclock. The low-cost Core 2 Duo E6750 finishes with better-than-expected results.

XviD doesn't appear to take advantage of all four cores of the QX9770 and QX6850, but it still favors the QX9770's higher clock speeds. Frugal buyers looking exclusively at XviD performance might want to wait for the Wolfdale dual-core versions of the QX9770's Penryn technology, before taking the plunge