Strangely enough, but the results of the computer algebraic Mathematica test show the advantage of EM64T over AMD64. Intel processors appear slightly faster in the 64-bit application version, while Athlon 64 FX-62 slows down by 13% in 64-bit mode.
Cinebench test shows the systems performance in professional 3D modeling application ?Cinema 4D, which is available for both: standard Windows XP as well as Windows XP Professional x64 Edition. The final rendering results suggest that the system built on Athlon 64 FX-62 benefit most from the 64-bit work modes. In this case it gets 13% faster. EM64T technology implemented in Core 2 Extreme X6800 and Pentium Extreme Edition 965 cannot boast the same efficiency, so Intel processors speed up by only 5%.
As for OpenGL operations, they work slower in 64-bit mode than in 32-bit mode. And the processor microarchitecture has nothing to do with it. Looks like the graphics card driver is not quite optimized yet for Windows XP Professional x64 OS. And this is one of those factors that prevent 64-bit operating systems from getting popular.
POV Ray is a quite known 3D modeling system using ray tracing methods. Just like Cinema 4D, it is available for 32-bit and 64-bit platforms. Therefore, we couldn抰 miss this opportunity to test our platforms in this application. The results once again show the victory of 64-bit processors. The 64-bit rendering is faster than in case of a regular 32-bit program version. As a result, Athlon 64 FX-62 speeds up by about 14%, while Core 2 Extreme X6800 ?by 4%. As for Pentium Extreme Edition 965, the 64-bit POV-Ray works slower with it than the 32-bit one.
Most contemporary 3D games supporting x86-64 use the advantages of 64-bit work modes to ensure better image quality, so they don抰 suit that well for our today抯 test session. Luckily, we managed to find one game that doesn抰 improve the image quality in the 64-bit mode without changing the appropriate graphics settings). It is Unreal Tournament 2004, which will be our measuring tool for performance analysis with enabled 64-bit EM64T and AMD64 extensions of our testing participants.
As we see, enabled 64-bit extensions do not affect the gaming performance that much. Athlon 64 FX-62 and Core 2 Extreme X6800 get only 1-2% faster, while Pentium Extreme Edition 965 wins more: the good 9%.
