Launching the #CPUOverload Project: Testing Every x86 Desktop Processor since 2010
by Dr. Ian Cutress on July 20, 2020 1:30 PM ESTGaming Tests: Chernobylite
Despite the advent of recent TV shows like Chernobyl, recreating the situation revolving around the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the concept of nuclear fallout and the town of Pripyat have been popular settings for a number of games – mostly first person shooters. Chernobylite is an indie title that plays on a science-fiction survival horror experience and uses a 3D-scanned recreation of the real Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. It involves challenging combat, a mix of free exploration with crafting and non-linear story telling. While still in early access, it is already picking up plenty of awards.
I picked up Chernobylite while still in early access, and was impressed by its ingame benchmark, showcasing complex building structure with plenty of trees and structures where aliasing becomes important. The in-game benchmark is an on-rails experience through the scenery, covering both indoor and outdoor scenes – it ends up being very CPU limited in the way it is designed. We have taken an offline version of Chernobylite to use in our tests, and we are testing the following settings combinations:
- 360p Low
- 1440p Low,
- 4K Low
- 1080p Max
For automation purposes, the game has no flags to initiate benchmark mode. We delete the movies from the install directory to speed up entering the game, and use timers and keypresses to start the benchmark mode. The game puts out a benchmark results file, however this only shows average frame rates, not frame times. In-game settings are controlled by copying pre-arranged .ini files into the relevant location. We do as many runs within 10 minutes per resolution/setting combination, and then take averages.
| AnandTech | IGP | Low | Medium | High |
| Average FPS |  |
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All of our benchmark results can also be found in our benchmark engine, Bench.
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Sootie - Tuesday, July 21, 2020 - link
Any chance of a crowd sourced version of the bench? People with unusual CPU's could run a cut down version of the bench with only software that does not require a license and heavily disclaimed that it was not an official run just to add a few more data points of rare devices. I have a whole museum of old servers I can run some tests on but it's not practical to send them elsewhere.I'm a big fan of all the work you have done and are doing on the bench though I use it constantly for work and home.
Tilmitt - Tuesday, July 21, 2020 - link
Phenom II X6 and X4 would be cool to see if the "more cores make future proof" narrative actually holds up.lmcd - Tuesday, July 21, 2020 - link
X6 outperformed early Bulldozer 8 cores by a notable bit if that's of any interest.loads2compute - Tuesday, July 21, 2020 - link
Dear Ian,Wow! What a nice idea to test all these legacy processors on modern benchmarks. I think it is a great idea!
But als wow, what an enormous effort you are taking on automating all that stuff, starting from scratch and using autohotkey as your main tool. It seems like going to an uninhabited island, starting civilization from scratch and taking a tin opener as your main tool.
In my line of work (bioinformatics) we have to automate a load of consecutive tasks. Luckily there are frameworks for this, which make the work a lot easier.
Luckily there is already a framework for automated testing and benchmarking which happens to work on Linux, Mac and Windows (and even BSD). It is called the phoronix test suite http://phoronix-test-suite.com/. It can be extended with modules, so you could integrate all your desired tests in there. There is even paid support available, but since they guy who runs this (Michael Larabel) is working on a fellow tech outlet (phoronix.com) I am sure you can work something out to your mutual benefit. No doubt he is interested in all these old processor benchmarks too!
The phoronix test suite also comes with phoromatic, which according to the website : "allows the automatic scheduling of tests, remote installation of new tests, and the management of multiple test systems all through an intuitive, easy-to-use web interface."
So please do not start from scratch and do this yourself! Use this great open-source tool that is already available and consequently you will be able to get a lot more work done on the stuff that actually interests you! (I take it AHK scripting is not your hobby).
Ian Cutress - Tuesday, July 21, 2020 - link
Scripts are already done :)The issue is that a lot of tests have a lot of different entry points; with AHK I can customizer for each. I've been using it for 5 years now, so coding isn't an issue any more.
Fwiw, I speak with Michael on occasion. We go to the same industry events etc
eek2121 - Tuesday, July 21, 2020 - link
Was procuring a new GPU really that hard? I am going to blame your owner on this one. If you were an independent website I honestly would have purchased a 2080ti and donated it to you. It honestly seems like not being independent is hurting you more than it is helping. Without going into specifics, I know of websites smaller than AT that can afford at least 3 good full time writers and a bunch of awesome hardware.I have toyed with the idea of starting an alternative site where all hardware is procured in the retail channel. I know what advertising rates are like and I know that using affiliates, sponsorships, and advertising more than cover the cost of a few models per generation. Maybe it’s time AT staff strike out on their own. Just a thought.
Outside of that, I look forward to future endeavors.
Ian Cutress - Tuesday, July 21, 2020 - link
Procuring a GPU is always difficult, as we don't have the bandwidth to test AIB cards any more.Fwiw AT only has 2/3 FT writers.
If we were to spin back out, we'd need investors and a strategy.
Igor_Kavinski - Tuesday, July 21, 2020 - link
Request: Core i7-7700K DDR3 benchmarks (There are Asus and Gigabyte mobos that allow DDR3 to be used) to compare with Core i7-7700K DDR4 benchmarks. Thanks!Xex360 - Tuesday, July 21, 2020 - link
Very fascinating.dad_at - Tuesday, July 21, 2020 - link
Pls include HEDT Sandy Bridge E: one of Core i7 3960X, 3970X, 3930K, etc. Once it was present in the CPU bench, but you removed it since 2017...