HEXUS.beans :: Intel commissions Futuremark development

[Steve]

Bean time! Front page news, posted by David:

HEXUS has learned that we are close to seeing the first 'multi-threaded' benchmark available for consumers. This will enable consumers to see then performance of a threaded gaming environment. This benchmark, commissioned by Intel, will be called Mechanoids. It is based on a series of droids moving around the screen which stresses the system in different ways.

This commission is a direct one and more than just Intel being a member of the BDP program.

We currently cannot confirm the launch date for this benchmark but we hear that it is real soon. Of course, as consumers ourselves, we are wary of the fact that Intel are 'paying' for this benchmark to be created, but as long as it does not unfairly slow down performance of other multi-core processors from other manufacturers, it should be interesting.

With dual-core ahoy at the moment, there needs to be a shift in the industry towards software development to exploit it, and Intel are working to provide tools to help. However many smart compilers that you have, they will not change something in to a multithreaded program instantly.

We now need to ask the question - will we see a 3DMark05 patch soon which gives us the threaded support, since the new application is based on the 3DMark05 core engine?

[suryad]

Hmm another case of Intel leveraging their immensely deep bank accounts to try and make AMD look bad for their lack of Hyperthreading maybe?

[Firebar]

They're trying I'm wondering whether AMD's dual core offering is going to smash Intel's....

[suryad]

Yeah I mean we have already seen the near linear scaling of the Athlon 64 and Opteron architectures when oclocked and so on...I bet another core would just about boost the multithreaded performance to almost twice what it already is. The only thing is Intel has Hyperthreading, and while it is IMO a rather poor implementation of multithreading, it still gets the job done. The reason why I say poor is because I read it offers 20% improvements and that only in some apps. I could be wrong though but that is what I know. If AMD had some HT on steroids version on their processors or somehow made each core capable of 2 threads simultaneously that would seriously freaking rock!!