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 portion of our PCMark05 suite gets Intel back on track, and again we see the Pentium Extreme Edition 955 nicely out in front. We also have the Pentium EE 955 posting a score in excess of 6K, which is over 350 points higher than the nearest AMD competitor. The new Pentium EE 955 also shows a significant advantage compared to other Intel dual core processors, and this latest Extreme Edition model is obviously the class of this particular benchmark.
As in the PCMark04 memory testing, the Pentium EE 955 again takes a stranglehold on PCMark05 Memory performance, using its 1066 MHz front-side bus and higher overall bandwidth to great effect. Higher bus speeds is an area that Intel can really exploit with future processor releases, especially as faster DDR2 revisions are continuing to stream in.
The CPU section of the PCMark05 suite shows a very different result than we found in PCMark04. This time it's the Pentium EE 955 with a substantial lead over every other processor on the list, and with a performance gap of over 1K between it and the Athlon 64 X2 4800+. Prior to the release of the Pentium EE 955, Intel held the lead in this particular test, and the Pentium Extreme Edition 955 just extended it.
