Multithreaded Performance

The real strength of a Dual Core processor will lie in multithreaded enviornments where an application will use multiple threads to complete its task.

ABBY

Windows Media Encoder 9

In our two multithreaded tests, despite the obvious clock speed differences, the Extreme Edition 840 really shines.

UT2004 Server and Gameplay

	Min	Max	Ave
840 EE	33	95	55.925
3.73 XE	36	117	62.056

The only gaming scenario we felt was realistic to demonstrate multiple loads was firing up a deathmatch server, load it with bots and join the game in progress. Since I'm sure some of you have been saddled as the "server" at small LAN parties, you'd probably want to know if a dual core would help. In short, we'll have to say that given the current clock speed discrepencies, the answer is no. The fast CPU you can afford is a better choice, though between the two test CPUs, we found little difference in actual gameplay.

Overclocking

We won't go too much into overclocking as we received an engineering sample and is not a true representation of the results you may get from a retail CPU. Nonetheless, using our Koolance EXOS-Al and the ASUS board for our earlier tests, we managed a 770MHz boost to ~3.970GHz. Based on what we've seen around the 'net, 700MHz to 800MHz seems to be the average using water-cooling. With air cooling, we couldn't push much past 3.4GHz, so keep that in mind when considering a cooler.

Final Words

The common thinking when it comes to PC components is two (or more) of anything is better than one. Whether it'd be two processors, two hard drives or two video cards, depending on the situation, multiple components should provide a speed boosts over one component.

In the case of Dual Core processors, one may think that this rule would apply, and in the case of the Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 840, it does, but only in some scenarios. In a multithreaded environment, the CPU demonstrated some excellent performance, besting the 3.73 Extreme Edition which has a 266FSB and over 500MHz clock speed advantage. Image and video editing are really the 840's forté as we've seen results that are truly amazing. We didn't publish the results, but DVD Shrink was remarkably quicker with the Extreme Edition 840, taking half the time the 3.73 XE did to shrink Revolutions, and this was during our multitasking tests.

What if you're not much of a Photoshop or video editing type of person? In this case, you're not going to see a lot of improvement, and more likely you'll see a decrease in performance if you move from a higher clocked Intel processor. Fancy names aside, the Extreme Edition 840 is still a 3.2GHz processor in single threaded environments and in those cases, pure clock speed is very important.

While Intel never really made any promises about it, there is a myth that a user can do something CPU intensive and still have great framerates in a given game (aka, multitasking). That my friends is pure fantasy as despite the obvious differences in clock speeds, percentage-wise, the 3.73 Extreme Edition took a far less of a hit than the Extreme Edition 840. The only exception to this rule is if one of the apps is multithreaded, even when multitasking, it was quicker on the Extreme Edition 840.

Sticking on topic of multitasking, realistically, I don't think many people will play video games while converting a DVD to Divx. While the Extreme Edition 840 is still as smooth as ever when working with it, we do think that Intel (and AMD) fans will need to wait a while longer before we truly see benefits from dual core CPUs. As we've mentioned earlier, for multithreading, when the application takes advantage of the processor, the performance is excellent, but for applications and games that are not multithreaded, not so much.

Thermals are still something of a concern, but we do have to credit Intel for keeping things manageable given the two cores on the 840. That being said, air cooling is not our recommended solution, not only for overclockers, but for anyone who does put a constant 50% (and higher) load on their systems. While the stock cooler is quiet when the PC is idle, it quickly ratches up once the CPU starts working. As with the higher clocked series of processors previous to the 840, we do recommend a liquid or heatpipe solution, not only for the noise, but for the PC's long-term health.

Pricing is another concern as the Extreme Edition 840 does not come cheap. You will have to take into account that a true multi-CPU environment is much more expensive, so in some ways, the Extreme Edition 840 can be viewed as somewhat of a bargain.

While we would hardly call the Extreme Edition 840 a slam dunk for Intel, it does mark the start of the future trend both Intel and AMD will be taking. You still have the latest tech in the Extreme Edition 840 that brought Intel on the same level as AMD back with the 6xx series introduction, with the added bonus of dual core. The compagnion 955X chipset, which we reviewed last week, brings some new features as well. While we may not see all the benefits of dual core today, that can easily change by this time next year.

Pros: Blistering fast in multithreaded apps.

Cons: Expensive, no benefit for non-multithreaded apps, runs hot under load, limited chipset support.

Bottom Line: Video editors and multimedia authors, be it professional or casual, will benefit greatly as many of these apps are multithreaded. Gamers and those who use their PCs for basic productivity are probably better off sticking with a higher clocked CPU. Once we see more of these types of applications become multithreaded, all bets are off.

If you have any comments, be sure to hit us up in our forums.

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