Multitasking test

Multitasking with 7-Zip and mplayer

Websites: www.7-zip.org and www.mplayerhq.hu

Multitasking is a phrase that we're all familiar with, because most of us are now used to running multiple applications at the same time. However, to run multiple applications well you need a powerful (ideally multi-core) CPU and plenty of RAM.

Our multitasking test performs a massive file backup (with encryption) using 7-Zip, while simultaneously playing back a HD movie file using mplayer, making it a demanding test for any PC.


Our multitasking test is where the Athlon II and even the Athlon X2 take the lead from the E5200 for a change - despite its shared L2 cache, the slow FSB really takes its toll here. At its stock speeds, the L3 cache provides a small benefit to the 7850, although the far greater overclock the Athlon II is capable of allowed it to reclaim the lead. This is a really important win for AMD, as light mutlitasking is really what the Athlon II is designed for.

WPrime

Download from: www.wprime.net

WPrime is a multi-threaded maths calculation benchmark that counter-intuitively uses square roots rather than prime numbers. The standard benchmark uses 32 million numbers, calculating the square root via 'a recursive call of Newton's method for estimating functions'. We're not sure what that means either, but you can read the full blurb on WPrime's About page. What we do know is that WPrime scales well across multiple CPU cores, and can push a CPU to 100 per cent load on all its cores.

To run the benchmark, first visit the core count to check that WPrime will load all physical and logical cores, and then run the 32M test. The results are expressed as a time taken to calculate the square root of the set of numbers (32 million in the standard test). A lower score is better.



Naturally the clock speed of the overclocked E5200 trumps the overclocked Athlon II, however it sits at the bottom of the table when set to its stock speed, unlike the Athlon II which consistently performs well.