WorldBench
WorldBench's overall score is a pretty decent indication of general-use performance for desktop computers. This benchmark uses scripting to step through a series of tasks in common Windows applications and then produces an overall score for comparison. WorldBench also records individual results for its component application tests, allowing us to compare performance in each. We'll look at the overall score, and then we'll show individual application results alongside the results from some of our own application tests. Because WorldBench's tests are entirely scripted, we weren't able to capture Task Manager plots for them, as you'll notice.

Most of today's desktop applications are single-threaded, and WorldBench's overall score reflects that fact. Consequently, the Phenom X3s place near the bottom of the pack. Here's another case where the Core 2 Duo E7200 convincingly beats out any AMD processor.

Productivity and general use software

MS Office productivity

Firefox web browsing

Multitasking - Firefox and Windows Media Encoder

WinZip file compression

Nero CD authoring

WorldBench's MS Office and Firefox/Windows Media Encoder tests are both multitasking workloads where multiple applications are open and in use simultaneously. This is a place where the Phenom X3's extra core might make a difference, and perhaps it does. However, the X3 8750 still finishes behind the E8400 in both cases, just as the X3 8450 places behind the E7200. As for the tri-versus-quad question, the X3 8750 consistently edges out the Phenom 9500.