Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200S and Q9550S 65W CPUs
3DMark Vantage CPU & Crysis
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The 3DMark Vantage's CPU Test 2 benchmark didn't particularly favor the Core 2 Quads. As we saw in our original review of AMD's Phenom II, this particular benchmark is a strong point for AMD. The Phenom II X4 940 takes the top spot here and the Core i7 920 is a close second. The Q9550S is relegated to third while the Q8200S comes in last. Surprisingly the dual-core E8400 was able to keep pace in this test, indicating that this particular benchmark does not take advantage of quad-cores especially well.
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For our next set of test, we moved on to some in-game benchmarking with Crysis. In testing processors with Crysis, we drop screen resolutions to 800x600, and reduced all of the in-game graphical options to their minimum values to isolate CPU and memory performance as much as possible. However, the in-game effects, which control the level of detail for the games' physics engines and particle systems, are left at their maximum values, since these actually do place some load on the CPU rather than GPU.
Our Crysis numbers tell a different story than 3DMark Vantage. The Q9550S does quite well here and comes in second place overall, beaten only by the Core i7 920. The Phenom II, E8400 and Q8200S are grouped up tightly in the rear of the pack, with the Q8200S coming in last. It seems that Q8200S just doesn't have enough juice to keep up with the E8400 and Phenom's signicantly higher clock frequencies.
