Intel Core i7-980X Extreme 6-Core Processor Review

Next up, we ran a number of different test systems through Futuremark’s latest system performance metric built especially for Windows Vista, PCMark Vantage. PCMark Vantage runs through a host of different usage scenarios to simulate different types of workloads including High Definition TV and movie playback and manipulation, gaming, image editing and manipulation, music compression, communications, and productivity.  Most of the tests are multi-threaded as well, so the tests can exploit the additional resources offered by a quad-core CPU.

The new Core i7-980X Extreme finished well ahead of the other systems in terms of overall PCMarks, but in most of the other individual tests it was only marginally faster than the quad-core Core i7 975, with the sole exception being the Communications test. PCMark Vantage's Communications benchmark benefits from the Core i7-980X Extreme's new AES-NI (Advanced Encryption Standard New Instructions) which accelerate encryption and decryption algos in hardware, and as such, it simply blows past the other processors in that test.