Intel Clarkdale Core i5 Desktop Processor Debuts
LAME MT and x264 Encoding
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. Shorter times equate to better performance.
A single instance of LAME MT working a single file can utilize a maximum of only two threads, hence the Core i5 661's strong performance here. In our custom LAME MT test, the Core i5 661 leads the pack.
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The x264 benchmark measures how fast a system can encode a short, DVD quality MPEG-2 video clip into a high-quality H.264 HD video clip. The application reports the compression results in frames per second for each pass of the video encoding process, and it is threaded so it can take advantage of the additional resources afforded by multi-core processors.
Although the Core i5 661 can process four threads simultaneously, and it's the highest clocked CPU on the bunch, it couldn't quite keep pace with the true quad-cores in the x264 video encoding benchmark. The Core i5 661 certainly performed well though, especially considering it's a dual-cpu CPU.
