To try and provide some idea of how this system performs, I've run some readily available benchmarks on it. To provide some point of reference, I've run these same benchmarks on another system. The comparison or baseline system is using older computer hardware, which I hope will help readers see what might be gained by upgrading from their current computers to something newer. It was convenient for me to make use of an Athlon XP CPU and a Geforce4 Ti4600 video card for my baseline system. Those with Intel processors and/or an ATI video card might wonder where their systems would fit in. As a point of comparison, I would suggest that the Athlon XP 3200, used in this comparison, is roughly equivalent to a Pentium 4 2.8C or 3.0C processor. The Ti4600 is outperformed by any ATI processor from a 9700 Pro on up, but the 9700 Pro probably is closest in performance to the Ti4600. Once difference to keep in mind, however, is that the Ti4600 only supports DirectX 8 in its hardware, while the 9700 Pro has some hardware support for DirectX 9.
It is interesting to note that the Athlon XP 3200, which represents the top of the Athlon XP line of processors, actually is running at the same clock speed as the Athlon 64 3500, which is a 2.2 GHz processor.
This System's Summary
An Athlon 64 3500 (2.2 GHz) processor supported by a MSI Nforce4 ultra motherboard with 2 x 512 MB of PC3200 memory, in dual channel mode. The memory timings are 2.5, 3, 3, 8. The video card is XFX brand 6600 GT. The system has a 120 GB, 7200 rpm, 8 MB cache, EIDE hard drive from Seagate. This system is using the integrated onboard Realtek audio chip for sound. The operating system is Windows XP Home Edition. (You can look at the components list on the previous page for more details.)
Baseline System's Summary
The processor is an Athlon XP 3200 (2.2 GHz). The motherboard is an Epox model based on the Nforce2 chipset. This system is also running 2 x 512 MB of PC3200 memory in a dual channel configuration. The memory timings are a bit tighter, at 2, 3, 2, 11. The video card is a Ti4600. While the new system uses onboard sound, the baseline system uses a Creative Audigy 2 sound card. The hard drive is a 30 GB, 7200 rpm, 2 MB cache, EIDE drive from IBM, and the operating system is Windows XP Pro.
SiSoft Sandra (v2005.2.10.50)
I'm leading off with some mostly synthetic benchmarks. The first two focus on the CPUs, and we can see that the older Athlon XP is holding it's own against its younger sibling in these measures of raw processing speed. This isn't entirely unexpected, since both processors are running at 2.2 GHz. Even with their similarities in architecture and with them both running at the same clock speed, the small differences are all in favor of the Athlon 64.
Turning to the Memory Bandwidth test, we can see that something has been radically improved in going from the Athlon XP to the Athlon 64. Both systems are running their memory at DDR 400 speeds in dual channel mode, but the Athlon 64 has a tremendous advantage, here. This most likely is due to the memory controller being integrated into the Athlon 64 processor, itself (instead of being part of the motherboard's chipset, as it is for the Athlon XP).
It still remains to be seen how much this extra bandwidth will help, when the processor is presented with some actual work to do.
In the next test, we isolate another area where there is a significant difference between the two systems. We can see that today's newer, high density, hard drives are considerably faster than earlier 7200 rpm models. The extra 6 MB of cache on the drive may also be contributing to the performance advantage seen below.
PCMark04
The PCMark04 benchmark offers us our first opportunity to see how the differences noted above might translate into some advantages in typical computer tasks. PCMark04 gives the computer a number of different things to do -- such as file compression, file encryption, image processing, virus scanning, grammar checking, audio conversion, video compression, web page rendering, physics calculation, 3D rendering, and a graphics memory test -- and measures how quickly these tasks can be completed.
Although the difference is not a big one, we can see that the Athlon 64 clearly comes out on top.
Prime95
The Prime95 benchmark is strictly a number crunching test. It looks at how quickly the computer can complete a number of Fast Fourier Transformation calculations. The difference in results are comparable to those seen with the PCMark04 benchmark.
3DMark2001SE
Turning to a test of 3D game rendering, we see the additional advantage of the 6600 GT video card. When it comes to games, this really gives our Athlon 64 3500 system a big boost in performance. This is a good apples to apples comparison, since 3DMark2001SE is an older video card benchmark that uses DirectX 8 features. The Ti4600 card is fully supports these features in its hardware. A lot of the subsequent video card benchmarks, which we will look at below, emphasize DirectX 9 features, and the Ti4600 does not have hardware support for these newer features.
SPECviewperf 8
Before turning to those 3D game benchmarks that make use of the latest video graphics features, let's take a quick look at a test that is based on a number of different 3D modeling programs. These programs rely on the OpenGL application interface, and as far as I know, there is no difference in hardware support for the features used here, between the 6600 GT and the Ti4600. So, we would expect to see differences similar to those shown in the 3DMark2001SE test, and this generally seems to be the case.
3DMark03
Basically, what can be concluded from the 3DMark03 benchmark, shown below, as well as from the other 3D graphics benchmarks that use DirectX 9 features, is something that we already know -- the Ti4600 video card has no hardware support for DirectX 9 features. Having a Radeon 9700 Pro or 9800 Pro probably would have been a more interesting comparison for these benchmarks, since this is a popular card that does have hardware support for some DirectX 9 features. But, alas.
3DMark05
This test couldn't even be run on the system with the Ti4600 video card.
Aquamark3
The Aquamark 3 benchmark uses an actual game engine for a game that currently is in development; so, it should be a pretty good predictor of what can expected from other games using DirectX 9 features. The score directly reflects the average fps achieved during various game scenarios. The Athlon 64 3500/6600 GT system averaged 54.5 fps throughout these tests, while the the Athlon XP 3200/Ti4600 system struggled to stay above the minimal 15 fps that is required to avoid seeing a "slide show".
Half-Life 2
I took advantage of downloadable demos of three new games that make use of the latest shaders found in DirectX 9, Half-Life 2, Doom 3, and Far Cry. The bottom line is that without DirectX 9 support, these games are not going to look as nice or run as fast on the Ti4600 system. On the other hand, the Athlon 64 3500/6600 GT system was able to play these games with all the graphics features enabled, and do so while sustaining very playable frame rates. These games were only realistically playable on the Athon XP 3200/Ti4600 system after the graphics details were turned down to medium settings. While these game games still provide an enjoyable game experience, with good looking graphics, at this lower setting, they do not have the amazing appearance that the latest graphics technology makes possible at the highest graphics settings
For the Half-Life 2 demo, I was able to make a recorded script within the game and play it back as a timedemo. I made two of these, one for each level available in the demo, the town outside the train station that begins the game and a later level, called Ravenholm.
Doom 3
I wasn't able to record a script with the Doom 3 demo; so, I simply played through an early part of the game, where you search for the missing scientist at the Mars Station, and I used FRAPS to record my average frame rate. While Doom 3's timedemo feature removes this cap, the frame rate is locked at 60 fps or less, during regular game play.
Far Cry
Again, I couldn't record of script for Far Cry; so, I used FRAPS while I played a bit of each of the two Far Cry demos that have been released.
Summary
For applications that are primarily CPU dependent but have little in the way of 3D graphics to be rendered, the Athlon 64 3500 has plenty of processing power to get the job done. Largely due to the efficiency of its built-in, memory controller, it to outperforms the similarly clocked Athlon XP 3200. And, when we turn to the realm of computer games, the 6600 GT video card makes good use of this processing power, providing a very playable and visually stunning experience in the latest games released.