CustomPC Media Benchmarks

Download from: www.custompc.co.uk/benchmarks

Custom PC, bit-tech's sister magazine, has developed its own Media Benchmarks to simulate the tasks that most of us perform on a regular basis. There are three tests, each of which measure different aspects of a PC's performance.

You can download the suite from the link above, and submit your score to the benchmark leaderboard to see how your PC compares with those of others.

GIMP Image Editing

In image editing both the Intel CPUs have a clear advantage over the X2 550 BE, with a significant 25 and 12 percent performance advantage for the E7400 and E5200 respectively. The Phenom II X2 550 BE is only a few seconds faster than the Athlon II X2 250 as well, and is only 16.5 percent faster than the E7400 at stock clocks. The X2 550 BE is a clear improvement to what has gone before from AMD, however it's still the Intel CPUs that command the advantage.

Handbrake x.264 Video Encoding

Again the Intel CPUs stretch out an 7-8 percent lead over the X2 550 BE, with it only a second faster than the much cheaper Athlon II X2 250 as well. Clearly L3 cache and memory performance makes little difference here, as both give way to core clock speed performance.