PCMark05 Pro Performance

PCMark05 Professional is the latest update to the popular PCMark system benchmarking series from FutureMark, and it has been revamped to highlight current hardware and features additional multithreaded and multi-tasking performance tests. There is the usual selection of individual System, CPU, Memory, Graphics, and Hard Drive benchmark suites, and these continue to bridge the gap between synthetic and application-based benchmarks. For our purposes, the System, CPU and Memory areas will be where we concentrate our benchmarking efforts.

The PCMark05 System benchmark suite includes a wide range of tests, from Windows XP hard drive startup to video and audio encoding, and features a selection of standard desktop routines like text edit, virus scanning, and image decompression. Three of the benchmark scenarios are multithreaded, with the first two including two simultaneous tests, and the final one utilizing four program tests running simultaneously. This helps make PCMark05 System benchmark a great analysis tool for our dual core processors.

The System scores for our PCMark05 benchmarking again show a very tight race between the Athlon 64 X2 Toledo and Manchester cores, and there is very little to choose from when comparing the scores. In a bit of a surprise, it's not an AMD processor taking the lead in this benchmark, and instead the Pentium Extreme Edition 840 using its quad threaded power to slip ahead of the 2.4 GHz Athlon 64 X2 processors.

The PCMark05 Memory performance scores are quite a bit different, and here it's once again the AMD processors that take charge. It's still a tight race between the Athlon 64 X2 models with 1MB and 512K of L2 cache per core, but this time it's the Athlon 64 X2 4600+ and 4200+ with a slight lead over their Toledo counterpart. Clock speed does pay serious dividends in this particular test, as evidenced by the low results posted by the 2.0 GHz Athlon 64 X2 3800+.

The CPU portion of PCMark05 also features a collection of multithreaded tasks, with these being configured similar to the System testing, running two or four programs simultaneously. The benchmark results have also shifted noticeably, and here the Pentium EE 840 and Pentium D models take charge, and outpace their AMD competition. While it's not surprising to see the HT-enabled Pentium EE 840 out in front, given the dual and quad-threaded nature of the CPU tests, it is a bit strange that even the Pentium D can take it to the Athlon 64 X2 processors.