Benchmarking Performance: CPU Web Tests

One of the issues when running web-based tests is the nature of modern browsers to automatically install updates. This means any sustained period of benchmarking will invariably fall foul of the 'it's updated beyond the state of comparison' rule, especially when browsers will update if you give them half a second to think about it. Despite this, we were able to find a series of commands to create an un-updatable version of Chrome 56 for our 2017 test suite. While this means we might not be on the bleeding edge of the latest browser, it makes the scores between CPUs comparable.

SunSpider 1.0.2 [link]

The oldest web-based benchmark in this portion of our test is SunSpider. This is a very basic javascript algorithm tool, and ends up being more a measure of IPC and latency than anything else, with most high performance CPUs scoring around about the same. The basic test is looped 10 times and the average taken. We run the basic test 4 times.

Web: SunSpider on Chrome 56

Mozilla Kraken 1.1 [link]

Kraken is another Javascript based benchmark, using the same test harness as SunSpider, but focusing on more stringent real-world use cases and libraries, such as audio processing and image filters. Again, the basic test is looped ten times, and we run the basic test four times.

Web: Mozilla Kraken 1.1 on Chrome 56

Google Octane 2.0 [link]

Along with Mozilla, as Google is a major browser developer, having peak JS performance is typically a critical asset when comparing against the other OS developers. In the same way that SunSpider is a very early JS benchmark, and Kraken is a bit newer, Octane aims to be more relevant to real workloads, especially in power constrained devices such as smartphones and tablets.

Web: Google Octane 2.0 on Chrome 56

WebXPRT 2013 and 2015 [link]

While the previous three benchmarks do calculations in the background and represent a score, WebXPRT is designed to be a better interpretation of visual workloads that a professional user might have, such as browser based applications, graphing, image editing, sort/analysis, scientific analysis and financial tools. Web2013 is the older tool, superceded by Web2015, however both still are highly relevant for high-performance web applications today. 

Web: WebXPRT 13 on Chrome 56

Web: WebXPRT 15 on Chrome 56

 

Benchmarking Performance: CPU Rendering Tests Benchmarking Performance: CPU Encoding Tests
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  • bobsta22 - Saturday, March 4, 2017 - link

    Office with 20 PCs - all developers - loads of VMs and containers.

    All the PCs are due a CPU/Gfx refresh, but ITX mobos required.

    Cant wait tbh. This is a game changer.
  • prisonerX - Saturday, March 4, 2017 - link

    What if they come out with a 16 core line next year!
  • bobsta22 - Saturday, March 4, 2017 - link

    What?
  • lilmoe - Tuesday, March 7, 2017 - link

    It really is. As a freelance developer, I can't wait.
  • ericgl21 - Saturday, March 4, 2017 - link

    For me, the more important thing to see from AMD is if they can come up with a chip that can beat the mobile Core i7-7820HQ (4c/8t no ECC) & the Xeon E3-1575M v5 (4c/8t with ECC), for less money.
    And the number of PCIe gen3 lanes is very important, especially with the rise of M.2 NVMe storage sticks.
  • cmagic - Sunday, March 5, 2017 - link

    Will anandtech review Ryzen in gaming? I would really like Anandtech view, since I don't really trust other sites especially those "entertainment" sites. Want to see how Anandtech dive into its main cause.
  • Tchamber - Sunday, March 5, 2017 - link

    @cmagic
    Page 15
    2017 GPU
    The bad news for our Ryzen review is that our new 2017 GPU testing stack not yet complete. We recieved our Ryzen CPU samples on February 21st, and tested in the hotel at the event for 6hr before flying back to Europe.

    I just ordered my 1700X, I plan to keep it for at least 5 years, as my needs don't change much. My current Intel 6 core is coming up on 7 years old now. I like to buy high end and use it a long time.
  • Lazlo Panaflex - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link

    Same here...probably gonna grab a 1700 at some point and put this here i5-2500 non-k in the kids computer.
  • asH98 - Sunday, March 5, 2017 - link

    '''The BIG QUESTION is WHY are the HEDT benchmarks (professional ie Blender) fairer than gaming benchmarks??

    Bottom line is that CUTTING-EDGE CODING is happening NOW in AI, HPC, data, and AV/AR, game coders because of $$$ are the last to change or learn unless forced (great for NVidia Intel) so most of the game coding is stuck in yesteryear- Bethesda will be the test bed for game coders to move forward
    Hence the difference in game benchmarks vs 'professional' (HEDT) benchmarks. Game coders can get stuck using yesterday's code without repercussions and consequences as long as old hardware dominates and there are no incentives to change or learn new skills. The same Cant happen in the Professional area where speed is tantamount to performance and $$$
  • TheJian - Sunday, March 5, 2017 - link

    I hope you're going to test a dozen games at 1080p where most of us run for article #2 and the GAMING article should come in a week not 1/2 year later like 1080/1070 gtx reviews...LOL. As this article just seems like AMD told you "guys, please don't run any games so we can sell some chips to suckers before they figure out games suck". And you listened. No point in testing 1440p or 4k for CPU, and 95% of us run 1920x1200 and BELOW so you should be testing your games there for a CPU test.

    The fact they are talking Zen2 instead of fixing Zen1 kind of makes me think most of the gaming is NOT going to be fixable.
    http://www.legitreviews.com/amd-ryzen-7-1800x-1700...
    149fps for 7700 in theif vs. 108 for 1800x? JEEZ. GTA5 again, 163 to 138. Deus ex MD 127 to 103. These are massive losses to Intel's chip and Deus was clearly gpu bound as many of Intel's chips hit the same 127fps including my old 4790k :( OUCH AMD.

    https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/amd_ryzen_7_...
    Tombraider same 7700k vs. 1800x 132fps to 114 (never mind 6850 scoring 140fps). This will probably get worse as we move to 1080ti, vega, nvidia refresh for xmas, Volta, 10nm etc. If you were using a faster gpu the cpus will separate even more especially if people are mostly gaming at 1080p. Even if many move to 1440p, that maybe fixes some games (tombraider is one with 1080 regular that hits a wall at 90fps), but again goes back to major losses as we move to 10nm etc. We get 10nm chips for mobile now and gpus probably next year at 12nm (real? fake 12nm? Either way) and might squeak into 2017 (volta, TSMC). 10nm gpus will likely come 2018 at the latest. Those gpus will make 1440p look like 1080p today surely and cpus will again spread out (and no, we won't all be running 4k then...LOL). You could see cpus smaller than 10nm BEFORE you upgrade your cpu again if you buy this year. That could get pretty ugly if the benchmarks around the web for gaming are not going to improve. One more point you'll likely be looking at GDDR6 (16Gbps probably) for vid cards allowing them to possibly stretch their legs even more if needed. Again, all not good for a gamer here IMHO.

    “But Senior Engineer Mike Clark says he knows where the easy gains are for Zen 2, and they're already working through the list”

    So maybe no fix in sight for Zen1? Just excuses like "run higher res, and code right guys"...I hope that isn't the best they've got. I could go on about games, but most should get the point. I was going to buy ryzen purely for Handbrake, but I'll need to see motherboard improvements and at least some movement on gaming VERY soon.

    One more ouch statement from pcper.
    https://www.pcper.com/news/Processors/AMD-responds...
    "For buyers today that are gaming at 1080p, the situation is likely to remain as we have presented it going forward."
    So they don't think a fix is coming based on AMD info and as noted as gpus get much faster (along with their memory speeds) expect 1440p to look like today's 1080p benchmarks at least to some extent.

    The board part is of major interest to me, so I can wait a bit and also see Intel's response. So AMD has be hanging for a bit here, but not for too long. I do like the pro side of these though (handbrake especially, just not quite enough).

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