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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vladx - Thursday, April 13, 2017 - link
Yes as someone with both a 7700k system and a 1700X system I can safely call myself unbiased as I hold no special loyalty towards any brand.Cooe - Monday, March 1, 2021 - link
Liar liar, pants on fire lol.cryosx - Thursday, April 13, 2017 - link
they were testing against the direct competition (i5s) and the rest of the ryzen family. Makes sense, though I guess having the i7s in would be a nice touch.Nightsd01 - Wednesday, April 12, 2017 - link
"[Ryzen] has 50% more cores and 200% more threads"Wouldn't it be 300% more threads? 12 threads is 3x more than 4
Outlander_04 - Thursday, April 13, 2017 - link
200% MOREcvearl - Thursday, April 13, 2017 - link
Curious what method on GTAV was used. I get in the 70's at those settings on my RX480 all VH settings on an i7 2600k.ianmills - Thursday, April 13, 2017 - link
Dolphin benchmarks still missing!Notmyusualid - Tuesday, April 18, 2017 - link
@ianmillsI was looking for them too.
msroadkill612 - Thursday, April 13, 2017 - link
Ryzens tough for cheapskates. its a nice cheap 4 core, but gee, for so little more u get a 6 core 1600.msroadkill612 - Thursday, April 13, 2017 - link
zen is just amds first act.The second is naples - gluing multiple ryzens together using their excellent new plumbing.
The third is vega (gpu has long been amdS focus - in a10apuS e.g.).
The last and seismic act, is a ccx with a single zen core block of four cores & same 4mb l3 cache, and a vega gpu, possibly with hbm2 vram.
Its not very new ground for them. its very similar to the architecture solutions needed for the a10.
Incidentally, i heard a great debate about "dark coding?".
coders love using the gpu for compute when they can, cos it shifts heat away from stressed processors. cooler processors can then run faster. IE, they try and shift the load around the circuitry to avoid generating hot spots.
The conclusion omitted to say "if u consider pc software static.... Then buy intel"
new generation and paradigm, or the last tart up of the old generation. Your choice.
There are of course wins and losses by both, but we know that we are measuring the best of the old, with the lowest point of the rapidly improving new. (see ashes of singularitytweak)
& as above, its just act 1 now.
The authors haughty dismissal of amdS top am4 chipset features is outrageously deceptive (as said in posts here).