Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 955 & 975X Express Chipset: 65nm is Here
WME Multi-Tasking & LAME MT
We continued our testing of the new Pentium Extreme Edition 955 with another Windows Media Encoder benchmark, but this test is very different from the one on the previous page. In this test, which is also part of the Worldbench 5.0 suite, a video is encoded using Windows Media Encoder, while an instance of the Mozilla browser is running and navigating through various cached pages. Because the system is multi-tasking with two different applications, this test is more taxing than the one on the previous page, hence the longer times reported below.
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Although the new Pentium Extreme Edition 955 is built using a pair of Hyper-Threading enabled execution cores, and can process four threads simultaneously, it was significantly outperformed by both of the Athlons in this test, including the single core FX-57. With its score of 546, the 955 XE is the "fastest" Intel processor here by far, but it wasn't able to come close to either Athlon, and falls behind the less expensive X2 4800+ by a full 190 seconds.
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In our custom LAME MT MP3 encoding test, we convert a large WAV file to the MP3 format, which is a very popular scenario that many end users work with on a day-to-day basis, to provide portability and storage of their digital audio content. In this test, we created our own 223MB WAV file (a never-ending 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. Once again, shorter times equate to better performance.
The Pentium Extreme Edition 955 performed well in our custom LAME MT benchmark. In single-thread mode all of the systems tested finished the encoding process within 12 seconds of each other, with the 955XE placing in the middle of the pack. But in multi-thread mode, the new Extreme Edition took the top spot by, outpacing the 4800+ by 10 seconds. If ripping / encoding CDs, the 955XE is a screamer.
