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 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.
POV-Ray 3.7.1
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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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.