Audio, video encoding

We have already noted in our reviews that dual-core architectures perform better at encoding media data. Our point is once again confirmed by this test. The Athlon 64 X2 4800+ generally handles encoding tasks somewhat faster than the Athlon 64 FX-57. And still, the 400MHz higher frequency of the FX-57 helps it to beat even the Athlon 64 X2 4800+ in some cases (see the results of encoding with the Mainconcept and XviD codecs).

Pentium 4 processors are better optimized for processing streaming media data, though. The Athlon 64 FX-57 with its 2.8GHz frequency and support of SSE3 instructions is anyway slower than the senior Pentium 4 models with such codecs as Lame, Mainconcept, and DivX.