The Cheapest Quad-Core Processors - AMD Athlon II X4 630 & 620

Results - 3ds Max 8 (SP2) and Cinebench 10

Results - 3ds Max 8 (SP2) and Cinebench 10

Like Lightwave, our initial experience with the AMD Athlon II X4 in 3ds Max 8 was a positive one, with both models taking less time than Intel's Q8200 to complete the rendering. The second, which involved radiosity saw the Pentium Dual-Core beating all the quad-cores here. AMD also performed badly in this benchmark, which was not surprising since we have seen similar results from the Phenom II family before.

The other rendering benchmark is Cinebench 10, which taxed the maximum number of cores on the processors. Obviously, even the higher clock speed of the Pentium Dual-Core counts for naught here. The Athlon II X4 remained competitive, with the 630 marginally losing to the Q8200.