The Intel Skylake-X Review: Core i9 7900X, i7 7820X and i7 7800X Tested
by Ian Cutress on June 19, 2017 9:01 AM ESTBenchmarking Performance: CPU Office Tests
The office programs we use for benchmarking aren't specific programs per-se, but industry standard tests that hold weight with professionals. The goal of these tests is to use an array of software and techniques that a typical office user might encounter, such as video conferencing, document editing, architectural modelling, and so on and so forth.
Chromium Compile (v56)
Our new compilation test uses Windows 10 Pro, VS Community 2015.3 with the Win10 SDK to combile a nightly build of Chromium. We've fixed the test for a build in late March 2017, and we run a fresh full compile in our test. Compilation is the typical example given of a variable threaded workload - some of the compile and linking is linear, whereas other parts are multithreaded.
PCMark8
Despite originally coming out in 2008/2009, Futuremark has maintained PCMark8 to remain relevant in 2017. On the scale of complicated tasks, PCMark focuses more on the low-to-mid range of professional workloads, making it a good indicator for what people consider 'office' work. We run the benchmark from the commandline in 'conventional' mode, meaning C++ over OpenCL, to remove the graphics card from the equation and focus purely on the CPU. PCMark8 offers Home, Work and Creative workloads, with some software tests shared and others unique to each benchmark set.
SYSmark 2014 SE
SYSmark is developed by Bapco, a consortium of industry CPU companies. The goal of SYSmark is to take stripped down versions of popular software, such as Photoshop and Onenote, and measure how long it takes to process certain tasks within that software. The end result is a score for each of the three segments (Office, Media, Data) as well as an overall score. Here a reference system (Core i3-6100, 4GB DDR3, 256GB SSD, Integrated HD 530 graphics) is used to provide a baseline score of 1000 in each test.
A note on context for these numbers. AMD left Bapco in the last two years, due to differences of opinion on how the benchmarking suites were chosen and AMD believed the tests are angled towards Intel processors and had optimizations to show bigger differences than what AMD felt was present. The following benchmarks are provided as data, but the conflict of opinion between the two companies on the validity of the benchmark is provided as context for the following numbers.
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FreckledTrout - Tuesday, June 20, 2017 - link
If the 16 core Threadripper ends up being higher perfomant, cheaper, and using less power then it this argument wont matter. Im not sure it will win all three but it could.Lolimaster - Tuesday, June 20, 2017 - link
<$1000 for 16 core Zen, spent your money there, worth the extra over the 8 core Ryzen.Flunk - Tuesday, June 20, 2017 - link
No, it isn't. In a professional setting it's better to have more, less expensive systems rendering/serving/anything that just needs more processor time. For an additional $1000, I can double my performance rather than getting 20-30% more.FMinus - Thursday, June 22, 2017 - link
Frankly I was looking at an upcoming 12 core CPU from either AMD or Intel for my render machine, with the EPYC prices announced, I could see myself going with two AMD Threadrippers 12 cores if they keep them under $800. I got most parts, just need motherboards and the chips, and if they really do keep the price under $800 for 12 core TR, I will get two systems for a bit more as just the 12 core CPU from Intel will cost. Granted since I got most other parts I spent that ahead, but still, two systems easily. And of course the power consumption will be higher, but still.someonesomewherelse - Saturday, October 14, 2017 - link
What about a single processor 24 core (or even 32 core) epyc? Slightly lower clocks but the 32 core's extra cores should make up for it and it's cheaper than 2 12 core threadrippers especially once you factor in the motherboards/ram/... and ease of use.someonesomewherelse - Saturday, October 14, 2017 - link
With TR being so cheaper you can have two computers rendering which will be almost twice as fast.barleyguy - Saturday, June 24, 2017 - link
The 1600x has a 4.1 GHz XFR frequency, which requires good cooling but seems to kick in more than other Ryzen processors, likely because of two less cores. So on lightly threaded tasks without manual overclocking, the 1600x is a great choice.Manual overclocking changes the picture a bit though. In that case the 1600 and 1700 move up in bang for the buck, as does the i7 7700k.
chrysrobyn - Monday, June 19, 2017 - link
Zen isn't winning anything here, but they're showing up to the party. It's hard to ignore their prices, which are always lower than the Intel chips in the neighborhood (summed up in the conclusion with "Play it cheaper but competitive"), and their power -- 1/3rd less power than the Intel chips nearby -- which I didn't even see addressed?Ian Cutress - Monday, June 19, 2017 - link
I made the graph, forgot to write about it. Doing so now...(I always end up writing through the launch time :D)
Ian Cutress - Monday, June 19, 2017 - link
OK sorry, done. I'm currently in another briefing for something else...