Intel’s Core 2™ Extreme QX6700: Quad Core Performance Preview Page 4

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Game Benchmark Scores

As a watershed title for multi-processing support, SimHQ enjoys making heavy use of Falcon 4.0: Allied Force for dual-core testing. The two mission tests that are used in this article can be found here and the simulation itself was patched with the 1.0.7 update. Because of the rather aged nature of its graphics engine, F4:AF was tested only at the resolution of 1024×768, with average frame rate and a histogram of each test as recorded by FRAPS listed below.

Test 1, titled Ground, is a short MUD moving flight that leaves Mandumi, heads over the FLOT, and attacks an enemy supply depot that has heavy AAA and SAM protection. Performance is recorded during the first six minutes of the mission with the scores shown representing the average frame rate.

The quad-core QX6700 barely outperformed the E6700 and fell well behind the X6800 in the Ground test. Lead Pursuit has stated that future patches will include additional optimizations for SMP so we’ll have to revisit this test in the future. As it stands now, however, the two additional cores didn’t give much benefit.

Test 2, Air, is also based on the Korea map. The mission starts with the threat warning siren blaring as the flight comes under immediate attack by Su-27s. The Air mission is shorter than the Ground test, with the frame rate recorded for three minutes.

The QX6700 achieved parity with the higher clocked Core 2 part, outperforming the E6700 by over 10%. While the performance difference in this particular test is hardly earth shattering, it’s encouraging to see an existing title gain at least some benefit from the additional cores.

Microsoft Flight Simulator X was tested at the option of High across its multiple display settings, and the global texture resolution setting was likewise placed at High. The test mission was a day flight over the city of Rio de Janeiro at 6,000 feet in an Ultralight (default cockpit view).

Microsoft’s latest Flight Simulator has quickly gained a well-deserved reputation within online community for being almost completely CPU bound. Unfortunately, as the performance scores above clearly indicate, Microsoft also failed to optimize their latest civilian flight simulation for multiple CPU cores since the QX6700’s numbers parallel those of the E6700. The X6800 and its higher clock speed naturally outscored the other two CPUs by slightly more than 10%.

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