Clock-for-Clock Performance

The clock-for-clock data is very interesting and the x264 HD Benchmark 3.0 results are quite different to those previously seen. The Core i5 750 is now much faster than the Phenom II X4, delivering 13% more performance. Interestingly the Phenom II X4 and Athlon II X4 processors deliver the same performance, so it's unlikely that this benchmark makes use of the L3 cache at all.

The Core 2 Quad Q9400 and Q8400 performance trends remain the same, as they are both clocked at the same frequency anyway. The Phenom II X3 is only slightly slower than the Core 2 Quad processors, while the Core i5 650 and Core i3 540 deliver the same performance as they are essentially the same processor with Turbo Boost disabled.

The Phenom II X2 555 and Core 2 Duo E8500 delivered roughly the same performance. The Core 2 Duo E7500 was the slowest processor tested delivering just 33.6fps.

The CINEBENCH R11.5 results now heavily favor the AMD processors when looking at the OpenGL test, with the Phenom II processors all taking the top spots. The CPU results naturally favored the processors with the most cores, though it's interesting to note that the Core i5 750 performed rather poorly here.

With the processors all operating at the same frequency the Far Cry 2 results favor the Core i5 750 even more. The rest of the processors were very competitive with one another and it was only the Core 2 Duo and Phenom II X2 555 processors that dropped off the pace.

The power consumption results are also quite different, with all processors locked at 2.4GHz and any special power saving feature disabled. Under load the Core i3 540 and Core i5 650 processors still used the least amount of power, followed by the Core 2 Duo E7500. The Core 2 Duo E8500 now also looks to be quite efficient, using 133 watts under load, while the Core i5 750 consumed 141 watts.

The Core 2 Quad Q9400 and Q8400 processors are still very power hungry, while the Phenom II X4 965 looks even worse, consuming 203 watts of power. Amazingly the Phenom II X4 965 saved just 20 watts of power when slashing 1GHz off its operating frequency.