Date:
Thursday , July 13, 2006
Author:
Kyle Bennett
Google +1

Intel Core 2 Music, Images, & Movie Performance

Looking for a new system to edit your home movies and pictures on? If you are heavy into encoding video, you will want to know about Intel's new Core 2 processors and the talents that lie within.

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Please remember that these tests are in fact configured to closely represent the same type of results that you would find at home.

DivX Converter

For this test, we encode a full-length motion picture ripped from a DVD. All settings are left at default in Converter. While it claims to be multi-CPU/core friendly, its encoding process is not as robust as the others we will see below.

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DivX, from what I can tell, has enjoyed a long-time relationship with Intel, but in the past, AMD processors still commanded an advantage when using DivX Converter. Today we see a much different story. Intel’s new Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme have little mercy on AMD’s flagship. The X6800 can save you over 20 minutes when encoding a full-length movie compared to the FX-62 in our testing. Without a doubt this is a very real-world advantage.

iTunes 6

This is a simple test. We use iTunes to encode Frank Zappa's Packard Goose to an iPod native .mp4 / AAC file.

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Using iTunes, we did see an advantage to using the Core 2 processors but the difference is not as pronounced as what we saw with DivX Converter. Also, take into account that this test reflects only one song being encoded, although it is a very long running song.

Now let’s apply this data to what would happen if we were encoding an entire music CD of average length to your iPod or other MP3 player. You would likely only see a 20 to 25 second advantage by using Intel’s new Core 2.

Photoshop Bench V2

For this test, we used Adobe Photoshop v8 and Driver Heaven's testing suite. This test runs the user through 12 real world tests using different Photoshop filters and then gives you the time it took to run the filter. Our times below represent the total time it took to run all 12 Photoshop filters. A full explanation of the test can be found at the link above.

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Many home photographers use Photoshop, or Photoshop-esque applications. Through our series of 12 filters above, we see the Intel flagship Core 2 Duo and Extreme processors producing some very nice advantages.

Adobe Premiere Elements

Our testing here consists of using a 2.3GB avi file imported from my camcorder of a children’s' birthday party being processed for use on your computer. The file is encoded at the "cable modem /DSL" variable bitrate setting from the menu wizard.

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Here is another test that gives Intel’s new Core 2 processor some incredible performance wins. AMD’s FX-62 takes approximately 30% longer to do the same encoding job.

Windows Movie Maker

For this test, I have taken 800MB MiniDV video clip imported from my video camera and am using Windows Movie Maker to encode it to the 2.1Mbps bitrate appropriate for sharing on your computer.

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Again, we see that even that the most common video editing programs benefit from the Intel Core architecture. Our Intel X6800 enjoys a real time savings advantage of about 25% compared to the AMD FX-62.