Dual Core Stress Test: AMD vs. Intel

Video For Download: The Stress Test, Live From The THG Lab

Our latest video shows you a summary of the 18-day long stress test.

The video is available in WMV9 format .

Conclusion: AMD Wins In Terms Of Performance Per Watt

You can't go wrong with a stress test that runs 18 days. At the very least, it allows you to draw clear conclusions about stability, performance, system use in practice and power consumption. Because we continually measured power consumption, performance per watt , or efficiency , is a new aspect that we were able to evaluate. Here in particular, the AMD system with the Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (dual core) is the better choice compared to its energy-gobbling rival from Intel. AMD uses up to 30% less energy than its competitor, which is supported by our extensive investigations.

When looking at absolute computing power, or performance, different views are needed. When running multiple applications simultaneously on a system, the Intel system with the Pentium 840 EE surpasses the competition from AMD . This result can be assigned to hyperthreading. To prove our point, when we deactivated this function, which turns the Pentium 840 EE into a Pentium D 840, the Athlon 64 X2 4800+ was faster. The Pentium 840 EE has no chance when running a single application on Windows XP - the Athlon 64 X2 4800+ has up to 30% better performance . Here, even hyperthreading doesn't help.

So, what to buy when you need a top system for a nice sum? For business use, the Intel system should be the better choice, especially in view of its availability as well as the already existing service from Intel partners and system vendors. However, the Intel system is also an energy gobbler, as our table shows - it consumes up to 30% more power compared to the AMD system.

For enthusiasts, the decision should be easy: for individual performance-hungry applications, the Athlon 64 X2 system offers the best performance and is the model of stability as well. The latter was not true for the Intel system. Only motherboards with the Intel chipset ran smoothly without a problem - those based on the nForce4 SLI chipset caused some difficulties.

Read more about dual core CPUs here:

AMD's Dual Core Athlon 64 X2 Strikes Hard
The Pentium D: Intel's Dual Core Silver Bullet Previewed