As we promised late in 2009, today we shall sum up test results obtained with our Test Method v4.0. Initially, we planned on publishing the article in mid-January, but then we decided to do it according to updates in manufacturers' product series. January brought us nearly ten new processors which we added to this summary. No major changes are going to happen to the mainstream segment before this year ends (a "major change" being something else than adding faster CPUs to existing series). Besides, our review of hexacore CPUs is not ready yet. So, it's high time to stop and look back at what we have done in over six months, to give the once-over to the diverse variety of modern (and older) processors. Since we have already made all conclusions in the corresponding articles, today we shall publish lots of diagrams, sometimes briefly commented. Diagrams are easier to understand than the overwhelming amount of numbers traditionally provided in our test results spreadsheet. Since we have tested lots of processors, some with more than one set of memory modules, the diagrams are quite large. So get ready to scroll.

Testbeds

We have a lot of processors today, each with lots of specifications. Copying all of those is kind of pointless, we'll just provide a brief table with the following data:

• CPU (configuration), usually linked to a corresponding detailed review;
• Number of cores/threads;
• Normal core clock rate in GHz (this isn't crucial anymore, but since many of you have requested it, here you go);
• Motherboard used in tests;
• RAM used in tests;
• Link to some real-time prices.

A few more comments on how the processors are grouped. Firstly, CPUs are divided platformwise: Socket AM2+, Socket AM3, LGA775, LGA1156, LGA1366. Secondly, they are sorted by the number of cores and then alphabetically. Thirdly, some CPUs were tested with DDR2 memory, or with a non-standard amount of RAM (the standard being 6GB for LGA1366 and 4GB for the rest), or with a non-standard memory frequency (the standard being the fastest officially supported, except for the Core i7 EE series which was tested with DDR3-1333). All of that is specified in the parenthesis.

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