Benchmark Results: Synthetics
As you’re checking out the Sandra scores, bear in mind that synthetics are going to emphasize specific optimizations, which may or may not have trickled down into real-world benchmark results. So, for example, the Core i7 victory in the Arithmetic and Multimedia tests probably isn’t going to scale with many of our application tests. However, the Memory Bandwidth chart is interesting, which demonstrates just how much throughput the triple-channel controller on Intel’s Core i7 is able to deliver.
3DMark Vantage looks quite a bit closer, with the GPU tests most similar, followed by the Overall test, and finally the head-to-head processor metric, which heavily favors the Intel processor in a manner that we’d consider not reflective at all of real-world game performance at high resolutions. Moving on…
PCMark Vantage sees things square up a bit, but Intel’s overclocked Core i7 still commands the lead in the Overall, Memory, and Productivity tests. However, AMD pulls into a lead with the HDD benchmark. Let’s move on to the real-world tests, which should give us a better idea of how accurately these synthetic metrics translate to today’s applications.
