CPU Reviews & Articles

Video 2000 MPEG Encoding

While many of the tests included in Video 2000 may be of questionable use (especially for performance testing), it does have one gem. The MPEG encoding portion of the suite is a pure CPU subsystem test that encodes frames in an MPEG animation and then displays a final framerate.

Once again, we see the Pentium 4-2.4 GHz taking back the performance crown from AMD. The i850/RDRAM system goes out to a noticeable lead, but the nForce-powered Athlon XP 2100+ is still a bit faster than the Intel i845 DDR platform.

3DMark 2001 Pro

MadOnion's 3DMark 2001 is a very popular 3D benchmark tool, and as long as the video component is kept absolutely consistent, then it can be an adequate system/CPU test as well. 3DMark 2001 also fills the dual role of doing some idea as to which processor may be the best fit for upcoming DirectX 8.X games. Benchmark testing was performed at 1024x768 using both 16 and 32-bit color/textures, and set for Pure Hardware T&L support.

The winner of the 3DMark 2001 testing seems to be the CPU that was just released. In this case, it's the Pentium 4-2.4 GHz and it once again slips past the previous champion Athlon XP 2100+ into top spot. In a pure DDR comparison, the Athlon XP 2100+/nForce still beats out the i845D, even with a Pentium 4-2.4 GHZ in tow.