Dual core processor comparison: Pentium D vs. Athlon 64 X2

For comparing the Pentium D and Athlon 64 X2 processors, I decided to use both of their high-end models for statistics obtained from gamepc.com. The high-end processor for Intel was the Intel Pentium-D 950 (3.4 GHz) and for AMD I chose AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+ (2.4 GHz). I figured these two processors would serve as a good model for comparing the two products in efficiency & power consumption, synthetics speed, rendering speed, media encoding speed, content creation speed, and gaming speed.

Efficiency & Power consumptionIntel lowered power consumption levels quite dramatically in the 900 series processor, bringing the new Pentium-D processors nearly on par with the AMD Athlon64 X2 processor lineup. Running multiple levels of Stress Prime95 while watching a hardware wattage meter tested the processors. The systems were equipped with GeForce 7800 GTX 256MB cards, 1 GB of memory, a 74GB Raptor HDD and a single Plextor DVDRW drive, all connected through an Enermax Noisetaker 600W PSU.

English: AMD CPU Athlon 64 X2 Brisbane Core (K8)

AMD Athlon X2 logo as of 2008

AMD X2 3600

(gamepc.com)With the power consumption set to idle the Pentium D 950 consumed 172 watts compared to the Athlon 64 X2 7800+only consuming 128 watts. For Power consumption with a full load on the system the Pentium D consumed up to 242 watts and the Athlon 64 consuming 221 watts. These numbers are still considered to be an improvement over the Pentium-D 800 series, which typically utilized over 300W when the processors were maxed out. This is a definite improvement for Intel, but AMD is still ahead of Intel. Compared to the Intel Pentium-D 900 series AMD's Athlon64 X2 chips still run cooler and consume less power. (gamepc.com)Synthetic PerformanceIn order to test the synthetic performance, gamepc.com ran a series of tests using SiSoftware Sandra, which is a 32- and 64-bit Windows system analyzer that includes benchmarking, testing, and listing modules. The two...