3DMark®06 is the worldwide standard in advanced 3D game performance benchmarking. The software uses advanced real-time 3D game workloads to measure PC performance using a suite of DirectX 9 3D graphics tests, CPU tests, and 3D feature tests. 3DMark06 tests include all new HDR/SM3.0 graphics tests, SM2.0 graphics tests, AI and physics driven single and multiple cores or processor CPU tests and a collection of comprehensive feature tests to measure gaming performance.

The CPU test rely on AI, physics and game logic to generate a multi-threaded workload that can be distributed on multiple processors, cores or even on a single processor. Aegia PhysX library and D* Lite path finding AI algorithm are used to produce demanding CPU loads. It is obvious that the i7-920 CPU was pretty strong here and got the best score.

However, the overall 3D game performance was not significantly higher than the other CPUs of this test. Despite the numerous enhancements of the new i7-920 CPU, it seems that your expectations for higher FPS at games should ne limited.

We will find out more on that by running a Crysis (1024x768) CPU benchmark:

We cannot say that we have an absolute winner here. All CPUs performed almost equally, and the new i7-920 processor did not made the difference. The Intel E8600 did the same job. Considering that the E8600 is around 640MHz faster than the Intel i7-920 processor and that its cost is much lower than its new brother, we may say that the C2D processors is a better value-for-money solution. Of course, the i7-920 could be more futureproof as more games that use multiple cores are expected to appear.