The AMD Ryzen 5 1600X vs Core i5 Review: Twelve Threads vs Four at $250
by Ian Cutress on April 11, 2017 9:00 AM ESTGPU Tests: Civilization 6 (1080p, 4K)
First up in our CPU gaming tests is Civilization 6. Originally penned by Sid Meier and his team, the Civ series of turn-based strategy games are a cult classic, and many an excuse for an all-nighter trying to get Gandhi to declare war on you due to an integer overflow. Truth be told I never actually played the first version, but every edition from the second to the sixth, including the fifth as voiced by the late Leonard Nimoy, it a game that is easy to pick up, but hard to master.
Benchmarking Civilization has always been somewhat of an oxymoron – for a turn based strategy game, the frame rate is not necessarily the important thing here and even in the right mood, something as low as 5 frames per second can be enough. With Civilization 6 however, Firaxis went hardcore on visual fidelity, trying to pull you into the game. As a result, Civilization can taxing on graphics and CPUs as we crank up the details, especially in DirectX 12.
Perhaps a more poignant benchmark would be during the late game, when in the older versions of Civilization it could take 20 minutes to cycle around the AI players before the human regained control. The new version of Civilization has an integrated ‘AI Benchmark’, although it is not currently part of our benchmark portfolio yet, due to technical reasons which we are trying to solve. Instead, we run the graphics test, which provides an example of a mid-game setup at our settings.
At both 1920x1080 and 4K resolutions, we run the same settings. Civilization 6 has sliders for MSAA, Performance Impact and Memory Impact. The latter two refer to detail and texture size respectively, and are rated between 0 (lowest) to 5 (extreme). We run our Civ6 benchmark in position four for performance (ultra) and 0 on memory, with MSAA set to 2x.
For reviews where we include 8K and 16K benchmarks (Civ6 allows us to benchmark extreme resolutions on any monitor) on our GTX 1080, we run the 8K tests similar to the 4K tests, but the 16K tests are set to the lowest option for Performance.
MSI GTX 1080 at 1920x1080
MSI GTX 1080 at 4K
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ASUS GTX 1060 at 1920x1080
ASUS GTX 1060 at 4K
Sapphire R9 Fury at 1920x1080
Sapphire R9 Fury at 4K
Sapphire RX 480 at 1920x1080
Sapphire RX 480 at 4K
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cheshirster - Tuesday, April 11, 2017 - link
Most gaming tests age GPU bound.In rendering OC won't help K to win.
And there is R5 1600 for 220$ that can work at 1600X+ level.
none12345 - Tuesday, April 11, 2017 - link
This is by far the most comprehensive ryzen article ive sene to date since the release over a month ago.Variety of single threaded workloads, multithreaded workloads, and games with multiple graphics cards from multiple vendors at multiple resolutions.
Thank you.
Finally a real world gaming review on ryzen with multiple resolutions on multiple gpus from multiple vendors.
Ive been waiting for a review like this for the last 5 weeks.
krumme - Tuesday, April 11, 2017 - link
Yep. Good job at the game bm. Actually usable numbers. 99% and time under 30 fps. Thanx.Keep up the good work.
Meteor2 - Wednesday, April 12, 2017 - link
Yes, it's an excellent set of benchmarks and review.Notmyusualid - Tuesday, April 18, 2017 - link
Good work of missing out the 7600k results..mmegibb - Tuesday, April 11, 2017 - link
Yes, couldn't agree more. When I think back many years, I'm amazed at the number of quality reviews I've read at Anandtech.lilmoe - Tuesday, April 11, 2017 - link
So, unless you're a gamer AND you have a 120hz monitor, Ryzen 5 literally butchers the Core i5.It's also very interesting that there's barely any gap in single threaded performance in javascript. I don't believe Intel has an IPC advantage in non-encoding workloads, it's more like all in software. Software that needs optimization and things should be ironed out in the near future.
Now, all we just need is Apple and other OEMs to jump ship. It was a good ride, Intel. Good riddance.
mmegibb - Tuesday, April 11, 2017 - link
Wow! I can't wait to get my hands on a 1600x and watch it grow arms and chop an Intel processor to bits right before my eyes.th3ron - Tuesday, April 11, 2017 - link
Console emulation is another area where Intel's ipc is well known. Just check the PCSX2 and RPCS3 forums.Fanboy fantasies don't replace facts.
Haawser - Tuesday, April 11, 2017 - link
R5 1600- Best VFM processor since the i5-2500K.$219 for 6C/12T, with a Wraith Spire thrown in ? Easy OC to 3.9-4.0 ? You can't beat that with a stick. Let alone with anything Intel sell for a similar price.