AMD's Dual Core Laptops Have Arrived: Introducing the Turion 64 X2

ABBYY FineReader Pro 8.0

The result of this test was a bit surprising at first. After all, ABBYY FineReader is one of the applications optimized for dual-core CPUs, as the results of our Pentium D review also confirm. However, an examination of the core loads with the task manager revealed that FineReader only uses one core on the Core Duo, while the other remains inactive. AMD's dual-core processor Turion 64 X2 suffered a similar fate. Though it was able to stand its ground against the blue armada, it was defeated by a close relative, the single-core Turion 64.

Windows Media Encoder 9

The Windows Media Encoder has long been optimized for multi-core platforms - and evidently, for Intel hardware. In this area, the dual-core Centrino platform was unbeatable. The Core Duo CPU executed this task approximately 15 percent faster than the Turion 64 X2 TL-60.

Autodesk 3D Studio Max 8

The Turion 64 X2 TL-60 clearly won this round. The Core Duo T2500 did not score well, even in comparison to its two older brothers, the M 760 and 780. An examination of the core loads with the task manager revealed that 3D Studio Max 8 utilized both cores of the Core Duo T2500 only at approximately 70 percent. Therefore, the program code must be optimized, as is the case with FineReader 8.0.