3Dmark06

Without doubt, 3DMark is the most popular 3D benchmark among overclockers and reviewers as it shows the difference between hardware platforms quite clear. As the 3DMark06 test will be limited by the 8600GT we're using to run the tests, we've included the 3DMark06 CPU score as well.



As you can see, the 45nm E8500 is slightly faster when comparing it to an equally clocked 65nm E6300. The biggest advantage of a 45nm has been shown a few times already: the extra headroom when it comes to overclocking gives the consumer the opportunity to increase the performance of his computer quite easily. A C2D over 4Ghz with stock air cooling is not at all a problem and, to be honest, we haven't seen any bad overclockers yet, so I'd say 99,5% of the 45nm chips can do 4,2Ghz without a problem.

Aquamark

Coming closer to the real 3D games, we give you the performance measured by the Aquamark3 benchmark. Aquamark3 runs on the same engine as the Aquanox2 game and thus we can use a real game engine to test the influence of the processing power. In addition, the Aquamark3 benchmark responds very well at higher CPU frequencies, so we ought to see the difference between 45nm and 65nm. Let's have a look.



Rather small difference between the different tested clock frequencies of the E8500, however, the E6300 stays behind pretty far. Let's find out if the same conclusions can be drawn after we tested a real game.

Prey:

Prey uses the venerable game engine from ID software, Tech4 it’s called now, also used for Doom 3 and Quake 4. Prey started development back in 1995, and it took 11 years to see this project come to completion, but when it finally was launched, gamers were pleased with such beautiful graphics.



With the help of the HardwareOC Prey benchmark utility, we tested the performance. As we know we're a bit limited when it comes to graphical power, we ran the Prey game in two different test scenarios:

- 640x480, Low detail, no AA or AF: To see the effect of the extra power of the CPU more clearly
- 1440x900, highest detail, 4x AA and 16x AF: To see whether the effect is still noticeable when running more demanding resolutions and detail settings.



Is the E8500 performing better in games than a 65nm competitor? No, not at equal clock frequencies and reasonable game resolutions. The extra MHz gives a bit higher performance, but not world-shocking.