PCMark05 Benchmark Tests

Using synthetic benchmarks to compare one product to another has some distinct advantages when testing similar hardware, yet I have never found myself completely satisfied by the process. I have come to understand that they're important for comparing "apples to apples", and that the results are usually very consistent. But as with any synthetic benchmark, the numbers can often mean very little more than just numbers. We don't take a high score on a synthetic benchmark to mean that a product will/should perform well, and neither should you. The difference between projected performance and actual performance is the difference between fire and the fire-fly.

PCMark is a series of computer benchmark tools developed by Futuremark. The tools are designed to test the performance of the user's CPU, read/write speeds of RAM and hard drives. We have used these tests to simulate a battery of applications and tasks, which will produce results we can compare to other systems using similar hardware.

Results of the PCMark05 benchmarks are somewhat ambiguous. While the Athlon II X2 250 clearly outperforms the X2 7850, when it comes to the Intel E7400, results are not as conclusive. The X2 250 pulls ahead of the E7400 in the CPU and Memory tests, but falls behind in the overall score and audio compression sub-test. Let's see if our gaming tests can clear things up.

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