CPU Reviews & Articles

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.

Business Winstone has long been the domain of the Athlon and Athlon XP processors, which continued to win out over the higher-clocked Pentium 4. With the debut of the Pentium 4-2.2 GHz, we see that this is no longer the case. While it is a hollow victory of sorts, the Pentium 4-2.2 GHz/i850 combo does tie the performance of the Athlon XP 2000+. After that, the business performance scores favor AMD, as the i845D platform just cannot attain the high performance levels of the i850.

Content Creation Winstone 2002

We have updated our benchmark suite to the new Content Creation Winstone 2002. This is another excellent benchmark from ZD, and is one of the first to have Windows XP as the intended platform. As such, it makes a great match for our high-end testing and a valuable tool when determining system performance levels using cutting-edge hardware and software.

When paired with the powerful i850 chipset, the new Pentium 4-2.2 GHz powers by the competition and sets a new high mark in Content Creation 2002. Where the comparisons get a bit more interesting is with the Pentium 4-2.0A, which falls behind the Athlon XP 2000+ on both platforms. Another score worth noting is the Athlon XP 2000+ compared to the Pentium 4-2.2 GHz using the i845 DDR platform. Here, the Athlon XP 2000+ squeezes out a tight victory and proves a better performer in a straight DDR comparison.