AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition CPU Review
LAME MT Encoding and KribiBench
In our custom LAME MT MP3 encoding test, we convert a large WAV file to the MP3 format, which is a popular scenario that many end users work with on a day-to-day basis to provide portability and storage of their digital audio content. LAME is an open-source mid to high bit-rate and VBR (variable bit rate) MP3 audio encoder that is used widely around the world in a multitude of third party applications.
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In this test, we created our own 223MB WAV file (a hallucinogenically-induced Grateful Dead jam) and converted it to the MP3 format using the multi-thread capable LAME MT application in single and multi-thread modes. Processing times are recorded below, listed in seconds. Once again, shorter times equate to better performance.
LAME MT can support of maximum of only two threads, hence the X3's strong performance versus the lower-clocked quad-cores here. Once again, the new Phenom II processors perform well, albeit just a bit shy of the Intel-based competition.
Thanks to its higher frequncy, the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition outperforms all of the other AMD-built processors in our custom LAME MT encoding benchmark, but it can't quite keep pace with the Core i7 920 or even the lower clocked Core 2 Quad.
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For this next batch of tests, we ran Kribibench v1.1, a 3D rendering benchmark produced by the folks at Adept Development. Kribibench is an SSE aware software renderer in which a 3D model is rendered and animated by the host CPU and the average frame rate is reported. We used two of the included models with this benchmark: a "Sponge Explode" model consisting of over 19.2 million polygons and the test suite's "Ultra" model that is comprised of over 16 billion polys.
Like the LAME MT scores above, the Phenom II X4 965 BE easily oupaces all other AMD processors, but it can't match the performance of the lower-clocked QX9770 nor the Core i7 920.
