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Cinebench
Cinebench measures rendering of still images (ray tracing) as well as OpenGL and C4D shading. Even though the latter two benchmarks are somewhat depending on the graphics card used, they don't appear graphics card-limited. Rather, the results reflect the CPU power as well as the memory bandwidth and latenies. All benchmarks were run with the ATI RADEON 9800 but results obtained with the FireGL were only marginally different.
Cinebench CPU Score
Higher is better: Thanks to HyperThreading, the P4 takes a huge lead in the ray tracing benchmark used to calculate the CPU score. Memory latencies go completely unnoticed, we get the identical results for the 2.5:3:3 and the 2:3:2 DIMMs. Likewise, the single vs. dual channel nForce2 results are identical. A dual Opteron gets scores of 258 (single CPU) and 479 (SMP / HT enabled).
Cinebench C4D
The C4D shading benchmark shows a totally different picture. The Athlon 64 FX pulls ahead, also, there is a small but consistent impact of the memory interface, that is, both latencies and bus width make a difference
Cinebench OpenGL Software T&L
The OpenGL benchmark (software lighting) pushes the Athlon 64 FX again to the top. In addition, faster memory results in higher scores
Cinebench OpenGL Hardware T&L
When Hardware T&L is enabled, load is taken off the CPU and getting the geometry data through the AGP interface becomes a major performance factor. This is where low latency memory really shines since those data are mostly single bursts, even with write-combining enabled to avoid single-bit updates of the frame buffer. Likewise, the single channel nForce2 shows signs of severe starvation here.
Overall, Cinebench shows both sides of the coin, ray tracing goes unanimously to the P4, everything else is hamstered by the Athlon 64 FX.
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