PCMark04 Pro is a popular system benchmarking tool and along with adapting to the ever-changing hardware world, FutureMark has added some new tests. The PCMark04 design still cuts a line between purely synthetic and application-based benchmarks, and provides a more general view of computer performance. PCMark04 performs general use tasks such as image compression, grammar check, and audio conversion, while combining this with a selection of similar benchmarks for individual system components. As we're dealing with processor and subsystem performance, the main tests we'll be looking at are the System, CPU and Memory results.
PCMark04 Pro was historically a real coup for Intel, and before the dual core revolution, the Pentium 4 was the de facto champion. Now that dual core was moved in and taken over, the performance race is much closer. This was never more true than in our latest set of benchmarks, which show the Pentium Extreme Edition 955 in tight with the Athlon 64 X2 4800+, and having to settle for a very close second place finish. Although the Pentium D 840 does put up a good fight, it's been a long while since Intel had a real challenger in this type of system benchmark, but the Pentium EE 955 certainly makes up any lost ground, and sits right up there with the very best AMD processors.
The move to 1066 MHz front-side bus has paid dividends in the PCMark04 Memory performance scores, and it has the Pentium EE 955 well out in front. This is the first processor that broke the 6K barrier, and Intel did it in style, pushing well over 200 points beyond that mark, and over 750 points ahead of the nearest AMD Athlon 64 X2 processor.
The PCMark04 CPU test does not show the Pentium EE 955 in the same type of lead, and although the new processor does post the highest Intel score, it's still the Athlon 64 X2 4800+ and 4600+ processors with the top scores. This is to be expected, as the 3.46 GHz clock speed is not that much of a jump compared to 3.2 GHz, and pure processor tests like this do not take the 1066 MHz system or DDR2 memory bandwidth into account.
