The best way to measure performance is using real programs. The problem, though, is creating a methodology using real software that provides accurate results. For Photoshop CS2 there is a methodology created by the folks at DriverHeaven that is very accurate. Their script applies a series of 12 filters to a sample image and we write down the time taken to each filter to run. At the end we have the results for each individual filter and we simply add them up to have the total time taken to run the 12 filters from DriverHeaven batch. The results below are given in seconds, so the lower number the better.

On Photoshop Athlon X2 4600+ achieved the lowest performance among the CPUs we tested: Pentium Dual Core E2180 was 12.11% faster, Celeron E1400 was 9.01% faster and Pentium Dual Core E2160 was 4.99% faster.

Core 2 Duo E4400 achieved the same performance level as Pentium Dual Core E2180.

Pentium Dual Core E2180 was 3.41% faster than Celeron E1400 and 7.49% faster than Pentium Dual Core E2160.