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Photoshop Batch Processing

For this test we run all the auto-adjustments available in Photoshop on a large collection of images and time how long it takes to complete. It's an old test that isn't multi-threaded but it is incredibly reliable at demonstrating differences in single-threaded performance.

Being another single threaded application, this cements what conclusions we've already drawn; Nehalem (Core i7) is faster clock-for-clock than Penryn (Core 2). That said, the difference isn't huge and the sheer clock speed of the QX9770 is enough to put it ahead of the Core i7 920.

WinRAR File Compression

Though zipping and unzipping files is a fairly quick and easy task, the frequency with which a heavy computer user has to do it means saving five seconds each time you unzip something is a real boon. We therefore feel it makes for an interesting test of system performance.

This test is split into two parts. The first times how long it takes to compress a large video file and the second records how long it takes to compress the folder of photos used in the above Photoshop test.

This test shows particularly well, the way in which Core i7's clock-for-clock advantage transitions from a small lead in single threaded applications into a significant lead in multi-threaded situations, when Hyper-Threading also comes to the fore.

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