AMD Duron 1.2GHz Review
By Vince Freeman :
December 13, 2001
BAPCO SysMark 2001
BAPCO's SysMark 2001 is truly a behemoth of a system benchmark, and is about as close to a "Crusher" equivalent as we'll find in the business world. SysMark 2001 makes heavy use of business, multimedia and Internet development applications and the benchmark itself is the newest of the bunch. It also nicely separates the Internet and Business Elements into two different scores, along with a displaying an Overall total.
To call the showing of the Duron 1.2 GHz disappointing would be an understatement. We should note that no Win 98SE or Win2K patch exists for enabling SSE functionality in SysMark 2001, so we're looking at straight results here. Even so, the lead the Athlon 1.2 GHz has over the various Duron processors is incredible and could well mean that SysMark 2001 simply requires a higher-end processor with a larger L2 cache to come back with a good score.
Business Winstone 2001
The Business Winstone 2001 suite from ZD Labs is an application-based PC benchmark that uses business programs like MS Office 2000, FrontPage 2000, Lotus Notes, and Netscape to test a system's performance. New in the 2001 version are specific tests for file compression, anti-virus scanning and email. This suite of programs are run from a batch script that attempts to accurately emulate a business system load, then supplies a final performance rating.
In our Business Winstone 2001 tests, the Duron 1.2 GHz represents yet another performance record for the AMD value line, but it tends to fall back when compared to the Athlon. The results are still very close and give us a pretty good indication of how well the Duron stacks up against the older Athlon core in terms of business application performance.
Content Creation Winstone 2001
Content Creation Winstone 2001 is yet another benchmark from ZD Labs, and one that is very similar to Business Winstone. While the Business Winstone tests business application performance, Content Creation Winstone makes use of more robust multimedia applications such as Adobe Photoshop & Premiere, Macromedia Director & Dreamweaver, and Sonic Foundry's Sound Forge in its suite of applications. These programs are also run somewhat concurrently, such as applications staying active and resident while waiting for another test to finish. This makes Content Creation Winstone 2001 one of the best business and multimedia stress tests available, and is a good indicator of overall system performance.
While Business Winstone uses standard applications, Content Creation Winstone makes far more use of multimedia programs. This lets the Duron 1.2 GHz make up serious ground on the Athlon 1.2 GHz and come extremely close to matching its performance. Since the Duron 1.2 GHz performs at near-Athlon levels in the multimedia arena, it could make for great pick for value-conscious desktop buyers.
