Application Performance

Using Excel 2007 we can measure the performance of each processor using a highly complex spreadsheet. The AMD Phenom II X4 965 fairs very well in this particular test, beating even the Intel Core i7 960, which is impressive. Although the Intel Core i5 750 was not quite as imposing, it managed to match the Core i7 920 rather well.

The above results are based on custom WinRAR compression tests. There are two tests, one that uses 874 individual files that add up to 3GB, and another using a single large 12GB audio/video file. Here we see the Intel Core i5 750 processor easily outperforming the Phenom II X4 965 and Core 2 Quad Q9650 processors.

The Core i5 750 was able to compress the 12GB file 33% faster than the Phenom II X4 965 and 37% faster than the Core 2 Quad Q9650. Meanwhile it was just 6 seconds slower than the Core i7 920, or under a one percent difference.

Using a high resolution image we measure the time it takes for each processor to apply two Photoshop filters, the smart blur and extrude filters to be precise.

Again the AMD Phenom II X4 965 manages to impress, particularly when applying the smart blur filter. The Core i5 750 also fares well, taking 6 seconds longer to apply the smart blur filter, and just as fast when applying the more time consuming extrude filter.