Manufacturer: Intel Price: $ N/A US Author: Steve Date: 12/31/2009

[ Encoding Performance ]

Given the performance seen when testing with HandBrake it is hard to believe that the new Core i5 661 and Core i3 540 are dual-core processors. The Core i5 661 as able to beat the Core 2 Quad Q6600 while the Core i3 540 was just 4fps slower. Both destroyed the dual-core Phenom II X2 550 and Core 2 Duo E7400 processors, while they were considerably slower than the quad-core Phenom II X4 945 and Core i5 750 processors. The x264 HD Benchmark 3.0 results resemble those found when testing with HandBrake though this time the Core i5 661 performs even closer to the Athlon II X4 620. The Core i3 540 is also very close to the Core 2 Quad Q6600 now, while both new Intel processors easily beat the Phenom II X2 550 and Core 2 Duo E7400 processors. Using TMPGEnc we converted a 715MB avi file to the mpg format and measured the time it took for each processor to complete this task. The Core i5 661 was once again very impressive, as it roughly matched the performance of the Phenom II X4 945, making it one of the fastest processors tested. The Core i5 661 was able to complete the test 24% faster than the Core 2 Quad Q6600. The Core i3 540 was 10% slower than the Core i5 661 in this test.

<- Previous Page Table of Contents Introduction The new Clarkdale processors... Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD Introducing Intel’s new chipsets Test System Specs Memory Bandwidth Performance Synthetic Application Performance Application Performance >>> Encoding Performance <<< Synthetic 3D Performance Gaming Performance IGP Performance Overclocking Performance Power Consumption Conclusion Next Page ->