GIMP Image Editing

Website: GUN Image Manipulation Program (GIMP)

Our GIMP image editing test simulates how well a PC can manipulate a collection of large digital photos, and to achieve a low time requires a PC with a powerful CPU, plenty of quick memory and efficient hard disk drive access.


In our image editing test, the 720 Black Edition is the slowest of all. It's 19 seconds behind the Q6600, and much slower than the E7500. As such, the green dot in the graph above is above the line (where a lower time is better), indicating the AMD is, of course, worse value in this test.

Handbrake H.264 Encoding

Website: HandBrake

Our test uses Handbrake - an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows - to encode a high resolution MPEG-2 video using the H.264 codec. This primarily tests multi-threaded CPU and memory subsystem performance.


Stretching out a strong second place by 20 seconds over the dual core E7500, the 720 Black Edition is a minute behind the Core 2 Quad Q6600. If you want to encode video, the answer is to still grab a quad core. As such, the Q6600 (red dot) is considerably better value, leaving the Phenom II X3 720 behind.

Mulitasking Performance

Website: MPC-HC
Website: 7Zip

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 7Zip, while simultaneously playing back a HD movie file using Media Player Classic, making it a seriously demanding test for any PC.


In multitasking the 720 Black Edition rules the roost: the large memory bandwidth from the independent memory memory channels, and better combination of higher clock speed than the Q6600 quad core, but also an extra core compared to the E7500. As such, the green AMD blob in the graph above is lower than the others meaning it offers better value - like we'd expect.