Does Intel's Dual-Core Atom Improve Efficiency?

Features
By
Published

Test Setup

Swipe to scroll horizontally
System Hardware
Atom CPU Intel Atom 230 (45 nm, single core, 1.6 GHz, 512 KB L2 Cache) Intel Atom 330 (45 nm, dual core, 1.6 GHz, 2x 512 KB L2 Cache)
Core 2 CPU Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 (45 nm, 3.16 GHz, 6 MB L2 Cache)
Intel Atom Chipset : 945GC ECS 945GCT-D, Rev. 1.0 for Atom 230 / Jetway NC92-330-LF for Atom 330Intel 945GC Chipset, ECS BIOS 080013, Jetway BIOS A02
Intel Core 2 Chipset : G31 Foxconn G31MG-S, Rev. 1.0Intel G31 Chipset, BIOS : April 29, 2008
RAM 1x 2 GB DDR2-1066 Crucial CT25664AA1067 operated at DDR2-800 (Core 2) and DDR2-533 (Atom)
HDD Seagate Barracuda 7200.11, 500 GB7,200 RPM, SATA/300, 32 MB cache
Blu-Ray Drive LG GGW-H20L
Graphics integrated 945GC and G31 graphics
Power Supplies Fortron FSP220-60LE, 220 W

Since the Atom desktop series (230/330) supports Hyper-Threading, we decided to run the dual core with and without this feature enabled. The Atom 230 was tested with Hyper-Threading switched on at all times.

Swipe to scroll horizontally
System Software&Drivers
Operating System  Microsoft Windows XP SP2
DirectX 9 Version : April 2007
Intel Chipset INF : 9.0.0.1008
Java Runtime Environment 6.0 Update 1
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Application Benchmark and Settings
Benchmarks Details
Winrar 3.80 Version 3.70 BETA 8, WinZIP Commandline Version 2.3, Compression = Best, Dictionary = 4096 KB, Benchmark : THG-Workload
Winzip 11 Version 11.2, Compression = Best, Benchmark : THG-Workload
Maxon Cinema 4D Version : 10.008, Rendering from a scene, (Water drop at a Rose), Resolution : 1280x1024 – 8-Bit (50 frames)
Sysmark 2004 SE Version 1.04, Office Productivity
PCMark05 Version : 1.20 PCMark Benchmark Memories Benchmark CPU Benchmark Graphics Benchmark Windows Media Player 10.00.00.3646