3DMark06
3DMark 2006
3DMark 06 is the worldwide standard in advanced 3D game performance benchmarking and the latest version in the popular 3DMark series! 3DMark06 tests include all new HDR/SM3.0 graphics tests, advanced SM2.0 graphics tests, AI and physics driven single and multiple cores or processor CPU tests and a collection of comprehensive feature tests to reliably measure next generation gaming performance today.
We almost didn't run 3DMark06 as this is a 'gaming' article, but since so many gamers run 3DMark06 tossing the results in couldn't hurt! In 3D Mark 2006 the test runs default at 1280x1024 and that is what we stuck with since most people don't change the settings. With both systems running the same Corsair memory modules and XFX 8800GTX video card it was shocking to see a 1600 point difference in the overall 3DMark06 score that was shown betwen the two $200 processors.
Taking a closer look at the benchmark results we found that the CPU score shows why the overall score is the way it ended up. The AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ processor has more horsepower to get the job done over the Intel E6300.
