3DMark06 is the latest version of 3DMark franchise, measuring Shader 3.0 (i.e., DirectX 9.0c) performance. We run this software on its default configuration (1280x1024 resolution with no image quality settings enabled), checking the CPU batch results for comparison.

To be honest, 3D performance nowadays depends much more on the video card used than on the system CPU. This is so true that Core 2 Duo E6700 (2.66 GHz), Athlon 64 X2 4600+ (2.4 GHz), Athlon 64 X2 5000+ (2.6 GHz) and Athlon 64 FX-60 (2.6 GHz) achieved the same performance level on this test. Athlon 64 FX-62 was, however, 4.08% faster than Core 2 Duo E6700. Core 2 Extreme X6800 was a little bit faster than competing dual-core CPUs from AMD (3.13% faster than Athlon 64 FX-62, 4.42% faster than Athlon 64 FX-60, 4.75% faster than Athlon 64 X2 5000+ and 5.72% faster than Athlon 64 X2 4600+) and 7.34% faster than Core 2 Duo E6700.

When comparing the results for the CPU tests alone, a surprise. Core 2 Duo E6700 was heavily beaten by competing dual-core CPUs from AMD: Athlon 64 FX-62 was 33.84% faster, Athlon 64 FX-60 was 23.48% faster, Athlon 64 X2 5000+ was 20.97% faster and Athlon 64 X2 4600+ was 14.63% faster. Core 2 Extreme X6800 was 61.64% faster than Core 2 Duo E6700 on this test.

On the other hand, Core 2 Extreme X6800 was far faster than dual-core CPUs from AMD: it was 20.78% faster than Athlon 64 FX-62, 30.91% faster than Athlon 64 FX-60, 33.63% faster than Athlon 64 X2 5000+ and 41.02% faster than Athlon 64 X2 4600+.

Once again, this shows how the improvement on CPU performance won’t probably reflect on a higher 3D performance (however, as we’ve seen from the overall score, dual-core will reflect on a higher 3D performance compared to single-core technology).