The AMD Zen and Ryzen 7 Review: A Deep Dive on 1800X, 1700X and 1700
by Ian Cutress on March 2, 2017 9:00 AM ESTBenchmarking Performance: CPU Rendering Tests
Rendering tests are a long-time favorite of reviewers and benchmarkers, as the code used by rendering packages is usually highly optimized to squeeze every little bit of performance out. Sometimes rendering programs end up being heavily memory dependent as well - when you have that many threads flying about with a ton of data, having low latency memory can be key to everything. Here we take a few of the usual rendering packages under Windows 10, as well as a few new interesting benchmarks.
Corona 1.3
Corona is a standalone package designed to assist software like 3ds Max and Maya with photorealism via ray tracing. It's simple - shoot rays, get pixels. OK, it's more complicated than that, but the benchmark renders a fixed scene six times and offers results in terms of time and rays per second. The official benchmark tables list user submitted results in terms of time, however I feel rays per second is a better metric (in general, scores where higher is better seem to be easier to explain anyway). Corona likes to pile on the threads, so the results end up being very staggered based on thread count.
Blender 2.78
For a render that has been around for what seems like ages, Blender is still a highly popular tool. We managed to wrap up a standard workload into the February 5 nightly build of Blender and measure the time it takes to render the first frame of the scene. Being one of the bigger open source tools out there, it means both AMD and Intel work actively to help improve the codebase, for better or for worse on their own/each other's microarchitecture.
LuxMark
As a synthetic, LuxMark might come across as somewhat arbitrary as a renderer, given that it's mainly used to test GPUs, but it does offer both an OpenCL and a standard C++ mode. In this instance, aside from seeing the comparison in each coding mode for cores and IPC, we also get to see the difference in performance moving from a C++ based code-stack to an OpenCL one with a CPU as the main host.
POV-Ray 3.7
Another regular benchmark in most suites, POV-Ray is another ray-tracer but has been around for many years. It just so happens that during the run up to AMD's Ryzen launch, the code base started to get active again with developers making changes to the code and pushing out updates. Our version and benchmarking started just before that was happening, but given time we will see where the POV-Ray code ends up and adjust in due course.
Cinebench R15
The latest version of CineBench has also become one of those 'used everywhere' benchmarks, particularly as an indicator of single thread performance. High IPC and high frequency gives performance in ST, whereas having good scaling and many cores is where the MT test wins out.
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mapesdhs - Sunday, March 5, 2017 - link
Yet another example of manipulation which wouldn't be tolerated in other areas of commercial product. I keep coming across examples in the tech world where products are deliberately crippled, prices get hiked, etc., but because it's tech stuff, nobody cares. Media never mentions it.Last week I asked a seller site about why a particular 32GB 3200MHz DDR4 kit they had listed (awaiting an ETA) was so much cheaper than the official kits for Ryzen (same brand of RAM please note). Overnight, the seller site changed the ETA to next week but also increased the price by a whopping 80%, making it completely irrelevant. I've seen this happen three times with different products in the last 2 weeks.
Ian.
HomeworldFound - Sunday, March 5, 2017 - link
If they were pretty cheap then use your logic, placeholder prices happen. If they had no ETA the chances is that they had no prices. I don't see a shortage of decent DDR4 so it definitely isn't a supply and demand problem. Perhaps you need to talk to the manufacturer to get their guideline prices.HomeworldFound - Sunday, March 5, 2017 - link
Not really. If developers wanted to enhance AMD platforms, or it was actually worth it they'd have done it by now. It's now just an excuse to explain either underperformance or an inability to work with the industry.Notmyusualid - Tuesday, March 7, 2017 - link
@ sedraIt certainly should not be forgotten, that is for sure.
Rene23 - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
yet people here mentioned multiple times "settled in 2009"; pretending it is not happening anymore, sick :-/GeoffreyA - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
I kind of vaguely knew that benchmarks were often unfairly optimised for Intel CPUs; but I never knew this detailed information before, and from such a reputable source: Agner Fog. I know that he's an authority on CPU microarchitectures and things like that. Intel is evil. Even now with Ryzen, it seems the whole software ecosystem is somewhat suboptimal on it, because of software being tuned over the last decade for the Core microarchitecture. Yet, despite all that, Ryzen is still smashing Intel in many of the benchmarks.Outlander_04 - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
Settled in 2009 .Not relevant to optimisation for Ryzen in any way
Rene23 - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
settled in 2009 does not mean their current compiler and libraries are not doing it anymore, e.g. it could simply not run the best SSE/AVX code path disguised as simply not matching new AMD cpus properly.cocochanel - Saturday, March 4, 2017 - link
One thing that is not being mentioned by many is the increase in savings when you buy a CPU + mobo. Intel knows how to milk the consumer. On their 6-8 core flagships, a mobo with a top chipset will set you back 300-400 $ or even more. That's a lot for a mobo. Add the overpriced CPU. I expect AMD mobos to offer better value. Historically, they always did.On top of that, a VEGA GPU will probably be a better match for Ryzen than an Nvidia card, but I say probably and not certainly.
If I were to replace my aging gaming rig for Christmas, this would be my first choice.
mapesdhs - Sunday, March 5, 2017 - link
Bang goes the saving when one asks about a RAM kit awaiting an ETA and the seller hikes the price by 80% overnight (see my comment above).