The Intel Core i9-7980XE and Core i9-7960X CPU Review Part 1: Workstation
by Ian Cutress on September 25, 2017 3:01 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.
All of our benchmark results can also be found in our benchmark engine, Bench.
Corona 1.3: link
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: link
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.
LuxMark v3.1: Link
As a synthetic, LuxMark might come across as somewhat arbitrary as a renderer, given that it's mainly used to test GPUs, but it does offer both an OpenCL and a standard C++ mode. In this instance, aside from seeing the comparison in each coding mode for cores and IPC, we also get to see the difference in performance moving from a C++ based code-stack to an OpenCL one with a CPU as the main host.
POV-Ray 3.7.1b4: link
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: link
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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ddriver - Monday, September 25, 2017 - link
Don't worry, they get plenty of support from the big boys for all those shamelessly biassed reviews. And don't act like your pennies will go to feed someone's starving children. So yeah, uBlock FTW.pedrostee - Monday, September 25, 2017 - link
just curious but do you have any evidence, even a small bit, to support your claim that “they get plenty of support from the big boys for all those...”i think it is possible, and you seem a man of science - evidence can support any statement no matter how outlandish — so please present such if you would.
thnks
ddriver - Monday, September 25, 2017 - link
Obvious stuff is obvious, as are you ;) Nice try thou. Are you the one who is going to pay for evidence searching investigation? I personally don't feel like obvious things need evidence, but if you do, go ahead and investigate.ddriver - Monday, September 25, 2017 - link
But the ugliest part is intel went cheap even on a 2000$ CPU, taking a literal dump on it by going for the same old lousy TIM implementation.After this reveal from intel, TR looks even better than it did before.
Notmyusualid - Monday, September 25, 2017 - link
@ pedrosteeIt seems you've finally met the 'village idi0t'. He will provide no evidence, as you likely expected, and we have to endure his bizarre views on ever major article.
Reflex - Monday, September 25, 2017 - link
He's 2017's version of LordRaiden from around 2004 in these forums. Knows just enough to sound knowledgeable to those not in the industry, but is incapable of supporting his assertions because he is running on the theory that if he believes it in his mind it must be true.Look up LordRaiden in the AT forums if you want to see when this last happened.
mkaibear - Monday, September 25, 2017 - link
Yeah, it's hilarious. Anyone who's actually in the IT industry knows he's talking out of his lower orifices and it's always funny to watch him huff about like anyone actually takes him seriously.It's like the cat tax. No article is complete without a good laugh at ddriver.
Reflex - Monday, September 25, 2017 - link
It is unfortunate however because he often derails actually interesting conversations.ddriver - Monday, September 25, 2017 - link
Oh wow, the fanclub is sure gradually moving down, and just when it seemed it already hit the bottom. But hey, if pretending that you are not a completely clueless wannabes works for you, by all means, know yourselves out :)ddriver - Monday, September 25, 2017 - link
You know, I complete agree, however you have mistyped "lame suckers" and typed "IT industry" instead.Here is a hint - you cannot take seriously that which you don't have the capacity to understand. Your "best" boils down to clapping and cheering at the mainstream mediocrity to cultivate the illusion that you are smart. And when someone comes along and tears that illusion down, you are sore to realize the reality about you. And you are only left with denial in the form of those pathetically anemic attempts at intimidation through ridicule. But suckers will be suckers, and as suck, always failing to make a valid argument in their favor :)