Maybe this will help.... maybe not?

When I was torture testing my system I noticed it really could take just about anything and still keep up.

Benchmarking has one flaw. Benchmarking looks at the average over time. If there are 'gaps' in the system due to processes hogging the system the overall benchmark may not show the issue..

I want to know the 'real time response' of my system.

How can we test it.

How about this.

1. Load the system down big time. How about 100% CPU usage using Mersenne Prime 95 torture test on all four cores.

2. Keep loading the system as much as possible.

3. Record HD content in 1080i in 'real time' for an hour.

Stop the testing.... Check if the show we recorded has any issues.
In my case I had zero issues on the recorded program.
I would have loved to try this in Intel based Quad Core. I know my Intel Core Duo would not handle this task.

The 'real time process' testing we are doing in the case fits well with what users are saying about the AMD experience.

Since I don't have an Intel Quad Core system to compare this technique against I guess the Intel system 'might' be able to do the same thing... Maybe someone could try it?



What's running

1. Mersenne Prime 95 torture test version 2.56 with thread support so we can load all core to 100% usage quickly!http://www.mersenneforum.org/showthread.php?t=9779
2. ATI MMC recording a HD OTA broadcast in 1080i.
3. Windows Media Player 11 playing 'Amazon_1080.wmv' a nice 1080P clip. We have media player set to play the film in loop mode.
4. Cyberlink PowerDVD 7 is playing the movie "Wild Hogs".
5. GraphEdit is playing a divx movie.

The following test ran for over an hour. I did restart the MMC recoding but we got a good 1/2 recording in after the restart. The show I was recording ended.

Note: Everything played perfect even during the torture test!
The video I recorded played back fine with no dropped frames or other issues.

You can thow a hell of a lot at this system and it just handles it!