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.

Although X264 HD benchmark so far always gave the advantage to more cores rather than more clock, here Phenom II X6 1055T scores about the same as Phenom II X4 965. The reason could be that X264 doesn't use all six cores all the time, but still loads three or more which is just enough for TURBO CORE not to kick in and help with higher clocks.

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.

Handbrake on the other hand shows the true potential of six physical cores.

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.

Xilisoft converter might not be fair due to overwhelming Intel domination, but such scenarios are also likely in real world use. Again, thanks to TURBO CORE 1055T manages to stay close to higher clocked X4 955/965.

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.

Similar situation as with Xilisoft Converter, most of the cores sit idle and 1055T has to rely on its TURBO CORE feature to push it to the top. Not the best results, but it could have been worse if not for TURBO CORE.