We measured the overall performance of the CPUs included in this review using SYSmark2004, which is a program that simulates the use of real-world applications. Thus, we consider this the best software to measure, in practical terms, the system performance.

The benchmarks are divided into two groups:

• Internet Content Creation: Simulates the authoring of a website containing text, images, videos and animations. The following programs are used: Adobe After Effects 5.5, Adobe Photoshop 7.01, Adobe Premiere 6.5, Discreet 3ds Max 5.1, Macromedia Dreamweaver MX, Macromedia Flash MX, Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 9, McAfee VirusScan 7.0 and Winzip 8.1.
• Office Productivity: Simulates the use of an office suite, i.e., simulates sending e-mails, word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, etc. The following programs are used: Adobe Acrobat 5.05, Microsoft Office XP SP2, Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1, NaturallySpeaking 6, McAfee VirusScan 7.0 and Winzip 8.1.

This software delivers several results, all of them using a specific SYSmark2004 unit. First we have a SYSmark2004 overall score. Then we have a group result for each batch listed above. And for each batch, we have specific results: 3D Creation, 2D Creation and Web Publication for Internet Content Creation and Communication, Document Creation and Data Analysis for Office Productivity.

We were eager to know what performance gain an average user would have by using a dual-core Athlon 64 instead of a single-core one. The results you can see on the chart below.

The overall SYSmark2004 score for Athlon 64 FX-62 (2.8 GHz, socket AM2) was 5.68% higher than the one achieved by Athlon 64 FX-60 (2.6 GHz, socket 939), 7.32% higher than the one achieved by Athlon 64 X2 5000+ (2.6 GHz, socket AM2), 19.74% higher than the one achieved by Athlon 64 X2 4600+ (2.4 GHz, socket 939) and 43.08% higher than the one achieved by the single-core Athlon 64 3800+ (2.4 GHz, socket 939).

On Internet Content Creation batch Athlon 64 FX-62 was 6.32% faster than Athlon 64 FX-60, 8.50% faster than Athlon 64 X2 5000+, 18.21% faster than Athlon 64 X2 4600+ and 66.67% faster than Athlon 64 3800+.

On Office Productivity Athlon 64 FX-62 was 5.00% faster than Athlon 64 FX-60, 5.53% faster than Athlon 64 5000+, 21.39% faster than Athlon 64 X2 4600+ and 22.09% faster than Athlon 64 3800+.

The highest performance difference between Athlon 64 FX-62 and Athlon 64 FX-60 was on 3D Creation, 7.21%, and the highest performance difference between the reviewed CPU and Athlon 64 X2 5000+ was 11.55%, on Document Creation.