Core i7-980X: Do You Want Six Cores Or 12 Threads?

Thread-Optimized Software

Intel has distributed a list of thread-optimized software to the media. We are familiar with many if not most of the titles, but we haven’t checked just how many threads are actually supported by these programs. Keep in mind that the list comes from Intel and details any type of software that may benefit from multi-threading.

We marked the programs that are included in our benchmark suite with an asterisk (*). Bear in mind that, in the games listed below, the benefits from threading are incredibly difficult to benchmark. For the most part, any improvement enabled by threading is diminished by a tendency toward graphics bottlenecks at the resolutions at which we test.

Games, Game Engines, And Middleware

• Activision Ghostbusters
• Capcom Lost Planet Colonies
• Capcom Resident Evil 5
• CJ Internet Prius Online
• Codemasters GRID (with patch)
• Codemasters Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising
• Crytek Crysis Warhead (Windows XP only)
• EA Need for Speed: SHIFT
• Havok SDK v5.5 (Tool / Middleware)
• Illuminate Labs Beast 5 (Tool/Middleware)
• Geomerics Enlighten
• Kingsoft Mission Against Terror
• Kingsoft JX Online III
• NC Soft Aion
• NC Soft Lineage II
• Neowiz Alliance of Valiant Arms
• Sega Football Manager 2009
• Sega Football Manager 2010
• Sega Empire: Total War (with patch)
• Simul Software Ltd Simul Weather (Middleware)
• THQ Relic Company of Heroes
• Trinigy Vision Engine v7 (Middleware)
• Ubisoft Assassin’s Creed
• Ubisoft Far Cry 2 (with patch)
• Ubisoft HAWX
• Ubisoft World in Conflict: Soviet Assault
• Winking Sakura

Media And Productivity Software

• ABBYY Fine Reader
• Adobe After Effects
• Adobe Photoshop*
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
• Adobe Premiere Pro
• Arcsoft Total Media Showbiz DVD
• AutoDesk 3ds Max*
• Autodesk Maya
• Avid Pinnacle Studio
• Bibble Labs Bibble
• Blender
• Cakewalk Sonar Producer
• Cineform Prospect HD
• Corel DVD Factory in Digital Studio
• Corel Video Studio
• Cyberlink MediaShow & MediaShow Espresso
• Cyberlink Power Director
• Cyberlink Power Producer 
• HandBrake*
• Ichikawa Soft Laboratory SILKYPIX
• Kolor Autopano Pro & Giga
• Magix Video Deluxe / Movie Edit Pro
• MainConcept Reference Encoder and Decoder*
• Maxon Cinema 4D & Cinebench*
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Expressions Encoder
• Microsoft Windows Live Movie Maker
• Movavi Video Converter 
• Nero Multimedia Suite
• Newtek Lightwave
• Nik Software Silver Efex Pro
• On2 Technology True Motion VP8
• Pegasys TMPGEnc Xpress
• Persistence of Vision Raytracer
• Photodex Proshow Gold
• RARLAB WinRAR*
• Sonic Roxio Creator
• Sonic Solutions Cineplayer
• Sony ACID Music Studio
• Sony Sound Forge Audio Studio
• Sony Sound Forge Pro
• Sony Vegas Pro
• Sony Acid Pro
• Sorenson Media Squeeze
• Steinberg Cubase
• Steinberg Nuendo
• VirtualDub w/Divx
• XtraSens Retina
• 3ivx MPEG-4

The list certainly isn’t complete. For example, we noticed that Intel didn't list 7-Zip, which is an archiving tool we added to our benchmark lineup because of its great multi-threaded efficiency.