PCMark Vantage x64

Publisher: Futuremark

PCMark Vantage x64 is a Vista-only 64-bit productivity benchmark that tests a range of standard application types providing a general performance number in respect to other systems. It tests multi-core processors and requires a processor with at least SSE2 support and a graphics card that supports Shader Model 2.0 or higher.

There are test scenarios for High Definition TV and Movies, Gaming, Memory, Music, Communications, Internet, General Productivity and Hard Drive. They cover the broad range of typical software a PC user will use and acts as a good "one stop" benchmark for general system performance.

We've included two graphs of results - one which includes just the overall score, and the other is the component scores, minus hard drive performance which was very consistent across the board.



Overall both the QX6850 and QX9650 stand out from the crowd here with the QX9650 around 100 PCMarks faster than the QX6850. Quad-core processors outperform higher clocked dual-core chips in this benchmark, even despite the extra memory bandwidth of the E6x50 processors. The QX9650 particularly pushes ahead in "Gaming" (it's really just scenes from 3DMark 06), TV and Movies and Music, with less elsewhere, however it does still remain on top in all tests.