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.
 |
| LAME MT |
| Audio Conversion and Encoding |
|
In this test, we created our own 223MB WAV music file 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. Shorter times equate to better performance.
The audio encoding test showed very little differentiation between the motherboards, although the Gigabyte Z68-UD4 technically brought up the rear.
 |
| Cinebench R11.5 |
| 3D Rendering |
|
Cinebench R11.5 is an OpenGL 3D rendering performance test based on Cinema 4D from Maxon. Cinema 4D is a 3D rendering and animation tool suite used by 3D animation houses and producers like Sony Animation and many others. It's very demanding of system processor resources and is an excellent gauge of pure computational throughput. This is a multi-threaded, multi-processor aware benchmark that renders and animates 3D scenes and tracks the length of the entire process. The rate at which each test system was able to render the entire scene is represented in the graph below.
Although our featured board posted the lowest number of the bunch, the scores for all the motherboards were fairly closely clustered, so it’s not something to give too much weight to. The variance between test runs is often a few tenths of a percent in this benchmark.
