Benchmark Results: Content Creation
Gaming was destined to be the most exciting segment of our benchmark results. From here on out, we’re forced to face the limitations of recycling the Stars architecture, and the compromise AMD had to make in cutting L3 cache to make room for graphics.
Our threaded Photoshop test favors AMD’s quad-core Deneb architecture at the heart of Phenom II X4. Intel’s dual-core i3-2105 takes second place, with the quad-core A8-3850 one second behind.
Premiere Pro CS5 sees a massive speedup when you install a CUDA-capable discrete graphics card and accelerate the Mercury Playback Engine. None of these platforms include that functionality, though, so we’re left with a software-based encode. Interestingly, the dual-core Core i3-2105 does best here, followed by the Phenom II X4 and the A8-3850.
Suspicious that Premiere Pro was being starved for memory with the quad-core CPUs installed, we replaced our 4 GB DDR3-2133 kit with an 8 GB DDR3-1333 kit and tried the test again. A result of 3556 seconds on the Phenom II X4 proves that additional memory doesn’t help AMD’s architecture perform better; this title simply seems better-optimized for Intel’s processors.
After Effects seems to either miss Deneb's L3 cache or its clock rate advantage, as AMD’s A8-3850 suffers in comparison to the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition. Intel’s Core i3-2105 doesn’t need as much speed or as much L3 to keep up with the Phenom, though.
The quad-core processors are vindicated in Blender, where the Phenom II X4 at 3.4 GHz finishes in first place and is followed by the A8-3850 in second. Intel’s Core i3-2105 falls into last place, its two cores unable to keep pace.
Expectedly, the strongest performer in the graphics discipline is AMD’s A8-3850 and the fastest processor is the quad-core Phenom II X4. Incidentally, the Llano-based APU beats Intel’s Core i3-2105 in both metrics.
