As you are probably aware, you can
directly compare overall performance of these two (or any two) processors
using our CPU Comparator.
You are correct, however, that most of the standard benchmark tests
used to compare processor speeds are based on single-application runs
through a prescribed script, or synthetic algorithms designed to stress or
feature integer or floating-point calculation performance. The tests are
set up this way more for reasons of convenience and standardisation than
any attempt to accurately mirror the day-to-day demands of multitasking
computing.
Between any two processors of comparable speed, multitasking
performance is more a function of the sophistication of your operating
system, the amount and type of memory in your computer, and its hard drive
speed. At the chip level, whether you are running one application or
several, it's all about pipelining,
prefetching, and instruction optimisation. For the computer user,
multitasking performance is more about pre-empting, multithreading,
and perceived response time, which are all higher-level functions than the
CPU normally cares about.
