3D modeling and rendering

Cinebench rendering
Graphics is a classic example of a computing problem that's easily parallelizable, so it's no wonder we can exploit a multi-core processor with a 3D rendering app. Cinebench is the first of those we'll try, a benchmark based on Maxon's Cinema 4D rendering engine. It's multithreaded and comes with a 64-bit executable. This test runs with just a single thread and then with as many threads as CPU cores (or threads, in CPUs with multiple hardware threads per core) are available. We'll be looking at the multithreaded results here.

The Core i7-920 really shines in this test, outpacing similarly priced quad-core processors quite noticeably. That said, we should once again note that a Core i7 platform costs more—that's because LGA1366 motherboards and triple-channel DDR3 memory kits are still somewhat expensive. For more modest budgets, the Phenom II X4 810 and Phenom II X4 940 both look interesting (more so than the Intel equivalents).

POV-Ray rendering
We're using the latest beta version of POV-Ray 3.7 that includes native multithreading and 64-bit support. Some of the beta 64-bit executables have been quite a bit slower than the 3.6 release, but this should give us a decent look at comparative performance, regardless.

3ds max rendering

Here are two more 3D rendering benchmarks where the Core i7-920 really distances itself from previous-generation products. If you're shopping for cheaper alternatives, the AMD options clearly perform better in POV-Ray, while 3ds max 8 awards higher marks to Core 2 Quad processors like the Q8200.