Benchmark Results: Audio And Video Encoding
Apple iTunes pushes maximum frequencies from Intel Turbo Boost-enabled processors by putting a high load on a single thread. The X7200 and X8100 have the same 3.33 GHz top frequency, yet the 3.20 GHz M17x stays in the running.
HandBrake pushes all cores simultaneously, dropping them to non-Turbo speeds. The higher non-Turbo clock of AVADirect’s desktop processor easily wins here, but it may surprise some readers to see the X8100’s -940XM losing to the M17x’ -920XM. The most likely reasons we can think of for those results are thermal and/or power management issues on the higher-model mobile processor.
Power or thermal management issues again appear to plague the X8100’s -940XM using both DivX and H.264 encoding, while the X7200’s desktop processor has no such handicaps. We’re hoping a BIOS update might help the X8100, and will be receiving some new samples soon to find out.