Performance

General Performance: PCMark Vantage and 3DMark Vantage

The results on the diagrams above will hardly surprise you if you read the previous part of our review attentively enough. Yes, Core i7 processors are overall faster than their predecessors. We can even say that on average the previous generation Core 2 Extreme QX9770 processor performs comparably to the mid model from the new series: Core i7-940; and Core 2 Quad 9650 competes successfully against the junior Core i7-920. However, there are exceptions to this rule, too. In Communications test that emulates user’s networking activities older CPUs do better than the new ones. However, in Gaming test the situation is completely the opposite. Thanks to fast memory controller, Core i7 are far ahead of their predecessors.

3DMark Vantage benchmark measures processor performance by modeling gaming artificial intelligence and environmental physics. Both algorithms used in this benchmark are well optimized for multi-threading that is why Core i7 processors supporting SMT technology perform brilliantly here.