Tests
- Our test method is described here.
- All data types are reduced to one relative integer score: performance of a reviewed processor compared to performance of Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, which is considered 100 points.
- Detailed results are available in this Excel spreadsheet. The article contains only summaries of each benchmark class.
- If detailed results are worthy of your attention, we mention them.
Professional tests
3D Modeling and Rendering
We'll see this classic "ladder" many times today. It's practically a perfect situation from the point of view of positioning: the slowest Wolfdale is a tad outperformed by the top Conroe, and the top Wolfdale demonstrates new performance horizons, so to speak. So if you have recently bought a relatively expensive E6850, you won't feel too foolish about it :) - but you may also consider whether it's time to upgrade to the 8xxx family.
CAD/CAM
It's the classic ladder again with nearly even steps. Detailed results are also perfectly regular, so there is no need to analyze them here.
Compiling
Compilers need large caches. Perhaps that's why the slowest Conroe got lower results, and the slowest Wolfdale got closer to the top Conroe. On the other hand, compilers are typical integer tasks with lots of string search operations. Remember it.
Professional photo processing
It's a rare situation, when owners of Conroe processors have a reason to kick themselves: E8200 practically catches up with E6850. Sometimes it even shoots forward, if we have a look at the detailed results: in Resize and Transform. Judging by the type of these operations, the reason is not only in the large cache, but also in the updated Shuffle.
Scientific applications
It's the standard ladder with nearly even steps.
Web server
Interestingly, the slowest Wolfdale fails to catch up with the top Conroe here, even though Web Server is an integer task that needs a large cache, as if written specially for Wolfdale.
Total professional score
The total professional score is the same story. But two steps in the middle are closer to each other than the others: Wolfdale E8200 is snapping at the heels of Conroe E6850.
