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| Video and Audio Encoding Performance AMD's Dual Core vs, Intel's Core2 Duo | |
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(Review by JoeF, August 28, 2006) |
Price/Performance
Here is the breakdown on current pricing for the dual core AM2 and Core 2 processors. The prices were taken from the same popular online seller, except as noted.
| Intel | AMD X2 | Street Price | Notes |
| 3800+ | $149 | ||
| 4200+ | $180 | ||
| 4000+* | $198 | *has 2 x 1MB L2 cache - some vendors are charging more | |
| E6300 | $208 | ||
| 4600+ | $242 | ||
| E6400 | $256 | ||
| 5000+** | $301 | **from AMD price list - chip is very difficult to find at retail | |
| E6600 | $399 | ||
| E6700 | $690 | ||
| FX62 | $830 | ||
| X6800 | $1,185 |
Final Thoughts
Intel's X6800 is highest in both performance and cost. At $500 more than the E6700, the X6800 beats the E6700 only by 8% in DivX encoding, and by 16% in Monkey’s Audio. DVD transcoding and MP3 encoding showed smaller gaps between the two chips. Unless you A) need the absolute highest performance regardless of price, or B) have more money than sense, the E6700 is a better choice than the flagship X6800.
The E6700 bested the FX62 in every test except encoding Monkey’s Audio, and costs $140 less. We did not have an E6600 to test, but extrapolating the performance data would put it on par with the FX62 for more than $400 cheaper, making it an excellent value.
Similarly, we did not have an E6400, but an educated guess would put it even with the X2 4600+. The X2 4600+ has an edge in price, but not a large one. The X2 5000+, if it were available for $300, would be well positioned in the gap Intel has left between the E6400 and E6600. If Intel were to sell an E6500 with 2 MB L2 cache and a clock speed of 2.4 GHz it would likely be priced head-to-head with the X2-5000+ and would be a better performer.
On the lower end, we can consider the encoding performance of the X2 4000+ (2.0 GHz, 2 x 1 MB L2) to be equivalent to the X2 3800+, since additional L2 cache on the AMD platform had no significant effect. Perhaps AMD came to this same conclusion when they decided to phase out the non-FX chips with the larger cache. At any rate, the X2 4000+ does not seem to be any kind of bargain. If we extrapolate once again to fit an X2 4200+ into the picture, it should come in just behind the E6300 in performance, which matches the price points of the two chips.
In summary, Intel currently has the best choices for the high performance market. Midrange comes down to personal preference, as Intel and AMD are on equal footing in this area. At the lower end the E6300 performs impressively at $208, but the X2 3800+ for only $150 is awfully hard to pass up.
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Athlon64 X2-3800+ (ADA3800DAA5CD) | |
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Core2 Duo E6300 (HH80557PH0362M) |
next page: => Final Thoughts =>
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