WinRAR 3.7
Since its version 3.6, WinRAR was given multithread optimizations. We compress in RAR at the highest level a total of 588 MB of files comprised of 493 Word & Excel files (69 MB), 22 e-mail Eudora files (251 MB) and a single wav audio format file (268 MB).
While WinRAR benefits from multiple cores, the gain isn’t significant beyond 2 cores. For this reason, the Phenom X3 and X4 are penalized and Intel solutions widen their lead. In fact, none of the Phenoms finish at the same level as a “good ole” Athlon 64 X2 6400+!
Nuendo 3
Something new in our test suite is Nuendo in version 3. This is a solution devoted to production and audio post-production. The test consists of exporting a relatively heavy project to an audio file (thanks to DraCuLaX for the file).
Unlike WinRAR, Nuendo strongly benefits from multithread optimizations and this enables AMD tri and quad core solutions to do significantly better. The only thing is that once again AMD’s tri-core has only a slight advantage compared to the Intel dual core.
