This integer benchmark measures combined CPU and memory subsystem performance through the public ZLib compression library Version 1.2.2

CPU ZLib test uses only the basic x86 instructions, and it is HyperThreading, multi-processor (SMP) and multi-core (CMP) aware. A very good test to measure multi-core performance among platforms.

Phenom II X4 940 is doing remarkably well thanks to it's larger caches and good clock frequency. One we overclock it, it beats the Core i7 920 pretty easily actually.

Mandel FPU test

The Mandel FPU benchmark measures double precision (also known as 64-bit) floating-point performance through the computation of several frames of the popular "Mandelbrot" fractal. The code behind this benchmark method is written in Assembly, and it is extremely optimized for every popular AMD and Intel processor core variants by utilizing the appropriate x86 or SSE2 instruction set extension.

Now if you come from the Commodore 64 / Amiga era like me, you can probably remember rendering Mandelbrot graphics, a mathematical formula that much like a paradox, never ends and thus is repetitive. Back in 1998 it took me a full day to complete one Mandelbrot image. Amazing where we are right now as the same set of calculations can be done in seconds & even real-time.

The FPU Mandel test again is HyperThreaded, multi-processor (SMP) and multi-core aware. Again 100% baseline performance.

It's again a test where Core i7 920 shows it's muscle opposed to the Phenom II X4 940. It's the hyper-threading marvel folks.