AMD Chip Rapes Intel C2Duo discussion

[ikonia]

Recently I've had to do a lot of video encoding.

to get this done as quickly as possible I've utilised as much hardware as I can get my hands on.

I'm not going to go into any of the tedious details, however I've stumbled across a surprising situation.

In the group of machines doing the video encoding, two of them are Intel Core2Duo's E4400's running at 2GHZ - totally stock. One has 2 GB of crucial Balistix DDR2 6400 the other has 8 Gig of OZC 6400. Everything is totally standard as I don't do over clocking.

One of the other machines is now an older AMD X2 chip based machine. An AMD X2 3800 939 based chip running at stock 2GHZ, with 2GB of cruaial balistix DDR ram fastest DDR speed possible (can't remember that last speed of the DDR chip).

There are other machines in the group processing but they are not really as blatant as these three machines.

The machines are encoding short chunks of 40 minute video. All using the same OS, same patch levels, same encoding options. (The same is true when I've tried tuning the memory options on the larger c2d box). The AMD X2 processor is getting through 2 - some times 2.5 40 minute chunks in the same ammount of time as its taking the C2d boxes to do 1 40 minute chunk.

I appriciate this is not an "AMD is better than Intel" test, but is it surprising to anyone else that the AMD chip just destroys the Intels in this way.

[mcmiller]

i always thought intel where better at video encoding than amd or that was the old theory. Maybe its something to do with the way the program has optimised to run on different cpu's, which program are you using btw

[staffsMike]

I've said it a few times.. the x2's feel faster than the core 2 duos in the real world.

Guess thats a little bit of proof

The intels are just an overclockers wet dream lol

[ikonia]

the old rule years ago was AMD for gaming Intel for multimedia, so yes, I agree with what your saying that even by the old rules the intel chip should have been better.

Its not a program optimised for AMD, of that I'm certain as I've actually spoke to the developer about this situation and said other people have mentioned the same thing and he assures me its nothing to do with the application, the application is generic (mencoder) its just how the machine deals with it.

[Steve B]

ikonia, my X2 4200+ 939 also runs faster than my C2D for encoding mp3's, its strange!

[ikonia]

I've said it a few times.. the x2's feel faster than the core 2 duos in the real world.

Guess thats a little bit of proof

The intels are just an overclockers wet dream lol

I'm going to bring my workstation into the mix a bit tonight which is a single core AMD chip and see how that runs up against it. I could handle a little bit of a difference without a nudge, but the hammering of %100 better performance just really shocked me

[staffsMike]

my brother has a 939 3800 X2 and im pressed to notice much difference between that and my e6600 at 3.4ghz.. lol its actually quite annoying.

[ikonia]

ikonia, my X2 4200+ 939 also runs faster than my C2D for encoding mp3's, its strange!

ughhhh makes me wonder if I've just made the right move retiring my AMD FX 55 for an Intel E6600.......

I'd be really interested of hearing of any more situations like this or the exact reversal where the Intel version eats the AMD version alive - real word experience only.

[Steve B]

once i get my C2D rig up and running again, I'll be able to get you some benchies, but i've always found my X2 with 1gib ram faster than my E6400 with 4gib.

[kalniel]

My gf's E6300 feels faster than my x2 3800 in every situation

It installs programs faster, boots faster, shuts down faster. Runs games better than mine did with the same graphics card. Rips MP3s faster too.

[staffsMike]

lol AMD fight back...with the 939's we had 3 years ago

I hate my work pc with e6300 @ stock.. its dire...only 1gb of ram though

[ikonia]

once i get my C2D rig up and running again, I'll be able to get you some benchies, but i've always found my X2 with 1gib ram faster than my E6400 with 4gib.

you're really starting to worry me now.....I may have just made a duff investment.

Damn you clunk !

[ikonia]

lol AMD fight back...with the 939's we had 3 years ago

I hate my work pc with e6300 @ stock.. its dire...only 1gb of ram though

I found it quite stunning too, if it had done it in the same time, I'd have been surprised, a little faster and I'd have been shocked, but its just eaten the Intel boxes (not just one - but two) alive with %100/%150 better performance.

[staffsMike]

in fairness to the e4400, it does have the potential to run at around 3.2GHz but funny how the amd's are actually better at stock settings

[this_is_gav]

In single-core applications my E6600 murders my old Athlon64 146 - that's usually VirtualDub with Koepi's XviD (which for no obvious reason will work with both cores for me).

[mrt9888]

What program are you using for the encoding?