Dual Core Linux Performance: Two Penguins are Better than One
by Kristopher Kubicki on July 1, 2005 5:55 AM EST- Posted in
- Linux
Gaming Benchmark 1: Heavy Downloading
It's not uncommon for us to fire up BitTorrent and start downloading the next SUSE ISOs (only 8GB per release!). Killing time for the 20 to 30 hour download requires some serious gaming, and Doom3 always wants to be played. Although this is a very similar benchmark to Anand's Doom3 gaming benchmark, we are using a GeForce 6600GT while he uses a 6800 Ultra. The two are not comparable.
Doom3 is running at 1280x1024 with 4xAA and 8xAF on the NVIDIA 1.0-7664 drivers. We first ran this test without the extra baggage from the multi tasking.
Now we re-ran the demo with the steps below:
- Open FireFox 1.0.4 and load all 5 web pages.
- Open XMMS and start playing a Nine Inch Nails CD ripped to Ogg
- Open Thunderbird for news
- Login to our news server and start downloading headers for our subscribed news groups
- Load up Doom3 and run timedemo "demo1" - record FPS
Very much like the DVD burning test on the previous page, the dual core systems had no difficulty crunching away at Doom3 while downloading our news headers in the background. The Pentium 4 660 is penalized as much as 16%! Our game play on the dual core machines was actually very solid as well when compared to the Athlon 64 3500+ and the Pentium 640. Constantly during writes to the disk the entire game would almost lock up. The Pentium D 820 did well but its low(er) clock speed assured that it could not out perform the Athlon 64s that do slightly better in this test than Pentiums to begin with.
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juhl - Friday, July 1, 2005 - link
I see that "Norton AntiVirus 2004" is listed with "No Suggestions yet" in the "Linux Application" column. I'd like to make a suggestion : ClamAV - ClamAV is a very capable free virus scanner that runs on Linux - check it out at http://www.clamav.net/Hacp - Friday, July 1, 2005 - link
He clearly stated that this test was based on the best bang for the buck. For all of you who wanted to see tests with higher end processors, you should have stopped reading the article and waited for one that met your needs. Don't complain and ask for stuff that the article was not designed to inform us about.fishbits - Friday, July 1, 2005 - link
Why bother to test the 840 D and draw no conclusions about it? And can you at least fix the price you quote in the one-sided swipe at the X2? I've given up on your explaining why the price of the 840 isn't also "paying through the nose," but at least fix the obvious error either in the text or the price list above it."we have left a lot of not-so-subtle hints as to our feelings concerning performance between the two"
Ah, you were talking about Windows and Linux there. Fits for CPUs too in this case.
semo - Friday, July 1, 2005 - link
listen upeveryone who needs the anandtech next gen console articles just email me. i printed them out to read in the bus/train and i can make some scans.
semo.pz@gmail.com
Avalon - Friday, July 1, 2005 - link
You guys need to remember that this is Linux, so for everyone out there hollering that this article contradicts all the others out there that you read, all the others out there that you did read were most likely Windows based.DrMrLordX - Friday, July 1, 2005 - link
I agree that including only the X2 4200+ is a mistake. For ages, we saw benchmarks of new AMD cpus vs every Intel proc in the field, regardless of price. Kubicki shows up and insists on culling all AMD cpus from the lineup except one priced similarly(or even priced lower than) the Intel offerings in the test. I remember his initial, and rather controversial, article in which he did Linux benchmarks with a 3.6 ghz P4 vs a A64 3500+ Newcastle. Stupid! Where's the 4400+ and 4800+? If you don't have the hardware, DON'T DO THE REVIEW. If AMD has superior processors out at a much higher price, that's because AMD has better chips right now, and they damn well ought to be included in the review as well. Throw in an 840EE if you're so inclined.FURTHERMORE, where are the single-app tests and dual-app tests? All we have are contrived multitasking tests. This is about 1/3rd of the entire content of Anandtech's initial X2 review in a Windows environment. The Pentium Ds don't look so great when you put them into a scenario in which it's running one or two apps alone. Funny how Kubicki neglected to run any such tests in this article.
This article has too little hardware, and too few tests. Thumbs down.
KristopherKubicki - Friday, July 1, 2005 - link
Where do you see that? It should be 3.3.4Kristopher
allanw - Friday, July 1, 2005 - link
gcc3.4.5? That doesn't even exist! :)xtknight - Friday, July 1, 2005 - link
#39 - I meant why?KristopherKubicki - Friday, July 1, 2005 - link
xtknight: Yes.Kristopher