x264 HD Benchmark v3.0

x264 HD Benchmark tests the processor's performance when converting a small 720p HD movie clip into a x264 file. It runs the encoding process four times with two passes on each encoding run and returns results in frames per second (FPS). Since video encoding is done in frames, higher frame rate translates in lower time needed to finish encoding, and in the results table you'll find average results of all eight encoding runs.

X264 Benchmark is the first of many multithreaded benchmarks to come, and here the true dual core Core i3 nature is revealed. Granted, Hyper Threading helps a lot so both 530 and 540 manage to beat all Core 2 dual core processors as well as Phenom II X2 550, and they keep close tracks to triple core Phenom II X3 720.

Handbrake 0.9.4

Handbrake video encoding utility is small, free, easy to use and works great when encoding DVDs to MKV files. For this test the first three chapters of the "U2 Go Home" DVD are encoded to MKV format using the Regular - High preset. It uses x264 codec with AAC audio codec. Needed time in seconds is measured, how long it takes the CPU to encode the video. As you can see from the graphs it scales almost perfectly with multithreaded CPUs.

Just like the x264 Benchmark, Handbrake creates a lot of work for processor cores so the Core i3 processors performs similar to the previous test. Hyper-Threading helps to beat the triple core Phenom II but it can't really match the performance of other "true" quad core processors.

Xilisoft Video Converter Ultimate v5.1.26

Xilisoft Video Converter Ultimate is great when you need to do a lot of day-to-day small video encoding from one format to another. It has an extremely wide range of encoding presets and supports almost every known video format. For this test the HD H.264/MPEG4 AVC preset is used to encode a 1080p high definition movie trailer clip.

The less cores are in action, the better the Core i3 processors are. Great results in Xilisoft encoding, but remember, this benchmark puts about 90% workload on just two cores.

DivX Converter 7.2

A long time ago DivX was the format almost everyone used every day and now, finally it’s getting the x264 codec with its 7.2 version. Too little, too late and with bad multithreading support, but still used by a wide range of users.

Again Core i3 performs admirably and i3 540 almost matching Core i5 661 in this test.