GIMP Image Editing

Website: GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP)


Image editing at stock speed is only three seconds faster, despite the faster memory speed, however on the other hand the Gigabyte board manages to stretch just a nine second lead when overclocked with both a faster memory speed and 200MHz more CPU.

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.


Video editing performance is also very close, with the Asus board coming out a few seconds faster at stock speeds again (less than one per cent), while the Gigabyte board with a slightly faster CPU and memory overclocked only manages several seconds difference (two per cent).

Multitasking Performance

Website: MPC-HC
Website: 7-Zip


Multitasking performance benefits a little more from the additional memory bandwidth on the Asus board at stock speeds, pushing out a four per cent advantage again over the Gigabyte board. That said, when overclocked the Asus fell consistently far behind - despite our retests to confirm the 14 per cent performance difference, it was a regular result.