Multitasking Content Creation

MCC Winstone 2004

Multimedia Content Creation Winstone 2004 tests the following applications in various usage scenarios:
  • Adobe® Photoshop® 7.0.1
  • Adobe® Premiere® 6.50
  • Macromedia® Director MX 9.0
  • Macromedia® Dreamweaver MX 6.1
  • Microsoft® Windows MediaTM Encoder 9 Version 9.00.00.2980
  • NewTek's LightWave® 3D 7.5b
  • SteinbergTM WaveLabTM 4.0f
As you can see above, Lightwave is part of the MCC Winstone 2004 benchmark suite. As an individual application, Lightwave does manage to get a healthy performance benefit with multithreaded rendering enabled, especially when paired with Hyperthreading enabled CPUs like the Pentium 4s here today. All chips were tested with Lightwave set to spawn 4 threads.

Multimedia Content Creation Winstone 2004

Despite the additional memory bandwidth, the Pentium M is still not competitive in multimedia content creation applications.

ICC SYSMark 2004

The first category that we will deal with is 3D Content Creation. The tests that make up this benchmark are described below:
"The user renders a 3D model to a bitmap using 3ds max 5.1, while preparing web pages in Dreamweaver MX. Then the user renders a 3D animation in a vector graphics format."

3D Content Creation SYSMark 2004

The Pentium M continues to perform dismally in content creation applications.

Next, we have 2D Content Creation performance:
"The user uses Premiere 6.5 to create a movie from several raw input movie cuts and sound cuts and starts exporting it. While waiting on this operation, the user imports the rendered image into Photoshop 7.01, modifies it and saves the results. Once the movie is assembled, the user edits it and creates special effects using After Effects 5.5."

2D Content Creation SYSMark 2004

Things are a little better in the 2D content creation world, with the Pentium M falling in the middle of the pack.

The Internet Content Creation suite is rounded up with a Web Publishing performance test:
"The user extracts content from an archive using WinZip 8.1. Meanwhile, he uses Flash MX to open the exported 3D vector graphics file. He modifies it by including other pictures and optimizes it for faster animation. The final movie with the special effects is then compressed using Windows Media Encoder 9 series in a format that can be broadcast over broadband Internet. The web site is given the final touches in Dreamweaver MX and the system is scanned by VirusScan 7.0."

Web Publication SYSMark 2004

Once again, we have another situation where the Pentium M can't cut it on the desktop compared to its faster counterparts, even when paired with a desktop chipset.

Mozilla + Media Encoder

Multitasking: Mozilla and Windows Media Encoder

Performance improved respectably in WorldBench's multitasking test; the fastest Pentium M is still only comparable to an Athlon 64 3800+, but the improvement is definitely appreciated.

Business/General Use Performance Video Creation/Photo Editing
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  • Spajky - Saturday, May 14, 2005 - link

  • Spajky - Saturday, May 7, 2005 - link

    Some comments:
    http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...

    >WinRAR 3.40
    Pulling the hard disk out of the equation, we can get a much better idea of which processors are truly best suited for file compression<
    >The WinRAR test is particularly memory bandwidth intensive, so the move to a platform that can feed the Pentium M adequately increases performance tremendously. However, even with the boost, the best that the Pentium M can do is match the performance of Intel desktop CPUs. It still can't touch the Athlon 64s<

    Data compression, WinRAR 3.42, KB/s - Irrelevant CPU bench/graph !!!
    It can be treated as a real life memory subsystem benchmark instead !

    WinRAR´s built_in benchmark & hardware test" is NOT a Data Compression Bench :
    some tests/benchmarks & explanation HOW IT WORKS, here:
    http://freeweb.siol.net/jerman55/HP/benchMem.htm
  • Spajky - Saturday, May 7, 2005 - link

    Some comments:
    http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...

    >WinRAR 3.40
    Pulling the hard disk out of the equation, we can get a much better idea of which processors are truly best suited for file compression<
    >The WinRAR test is particularly memory bandwidth intensive, so the move to a platform that can feed the Pentium M adequately increases performance tremendously. However, even with the boost, the best that the Pentium M can do is match the performance of Intel desktop CPUs. It still can't touch the Athlon 64s<

    Data compression, WinRAR 3.42, KB/s - Irrelevant CPU bench/graph !!!
    It can be treated as a real life memory subsystem benchmark instead !

    WinRAR´s built_in benchmark & hardware test" is NOT a Data Compression Bench :
    some tests/benchmarks & explanation HOW IT WORKS, here:
    http://freeweb.siol.net/jerman55/HP/benchMem.htm
  • Spajky - Saturday, May 7, 2005 - link

    Some comments:
    http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...

    >WinRAR 3.40
    Pulling the hard disk out of the equation, we can get a much better idea of which processors are truly best suited for file compression<
    >The WinRAR test is particularly memory bandwidth intensive, so the move to a platform that can feed the Pentium M adequately increases performance tremendously. However, even with the boost, the best that the Pentium M can do is match the performance of Intel desktop CPUs. It still can't touch the Athlon 64s<

    Data compression, WinRAR 3.42, KB/s - Irrelevant CPU bench/graph !!!
    It can be treated as a real life memory subsystem benchmark instead !

    WinRAR´s built_in benchmark & hardware test" is NOT a Data Compression Bench :
    some tests/benchmarks & explanation HOW IT WORKS, here:
    http://freeweb.siol.net/jerman55/HP/benchMem.htm
  • Anemone - Sunday, April 17, 2005 - link

    Curious how the XPS Gen2 would have faired in this battery of testing... the 915M seems to slightly better exploit the P-M from what I've been seeing, even though the XPS doesn't really focus on things other than gaming. However it would show what a performance focused chipset (and one that is meant to attempt to bring out the most in Dothan) is able to do under these same conditions. Yonah seems to be the magic juice though, but its sad that is really so far away from market. Intel would do well if they could bring Yonah faster to market, even if they had to keep speeds to the 2.2-2.4 range to do it.

    Quite an interesting article, and one I read carefully on every point.

    ty
  • Calin - Tuesday, March 29, 2005 - link

    An overclocked PM on top of the competition - even in a single benchmark? This chip is a big win for Intel, too bad that the big money come from the laptop world, where there is no competition. This is a guarantee for never decreasing prices for the Pentium M platform
  • Zebo - Monday, March 28, 2005 - link

    Why's it so expensive? As far as overclocking, I don't see as it has value compared to A64, an already better rounded processor. You get a A64 3000 (which BTW has PCIe support) for $145 slam it to 2600Mhz pretty easy, 2900Mhz when Veince comes and it will destory any clock you can get out of PM. $145 super screamer :::slobber:::

    Meh. I'm not as excited as I once was about this chip. Everyone was saying how it's bandwidth staved in the 855 reveiws, turns out, yet again this was wishful thinking for the PM crowd desperate to see any light at end of intel tunnel. I notice no change in benchmarks with added BW.:|
  • fitten - Sunday, March 27, 2005 - link

    #33, there's also the issue about how many data pins are exposed to the outside world. System memory DDR is 64-bits wide, as is the data bus external to the Pentium-M. Having dual channel (basically 128-bit wide memory) memory will help because the memory controller can read, in effect, two times the width each clock, but it still takes two transfers to get it across. The Athlon64 (S939 and S940) have 128-bit wide paths to memory and can transfer the entire width each transfer.
  • valnar - Sunday, March 27, 2005 - link

    I think many people, including Anand, are missing the point of the Pentium M. It was made to be a low powered, low heat processor. The fact it can even HANG with the big boys at their level is a remarkable achievement. (You can't say that about the VIA C3 processor.)

    Megahertz for megahertz, and watt for watt, it is easily the best processor on the market. You're comparing that against 3.8Ghz CPU's!! Of course it won't be first place. After all, it's just a 2.13Ghz. It uses 1/4 the power of the highest P4's. Compared against any other processor which comes close to those speed/power specs, it'll wipe the floor with them.

    If Shuttle made their XPC's with this processor, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

    Rob
  • Slaimus - Sunday, March 27, 2005 - link

    The real gem is the Celeron M Dothan. Need some benchmarks for that chip.

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