Media Content Encoding

The situation with media content encoding is determined by the codecs optimization for multi-core architectures. Apple iTunes that is well optimized only for dual-core processors works much faster in Athlon 64 X2 and Core 2 Duo based systems. With DivX codec featuring average optimization for multi-threaded environments, Phenom X3 processors fall just a tiny bit behind dual-core Athlon 64 X2 6400+ with 1.5 times higher clock frequency. However, they are still too far behind the dual-core Intel processors. However, the popular x264 H.264/MPEG-4 video codec that loads the CPUs with multiple cores very nicely, allows to fully reveal the Phenom X3 potential. During our performance tests with this codec, triple-core newcomers not only outperformed Athlon 64 X2, but also caught up with the youngest Wolfdale processors.