The Intel Comet Lake Core i9-10900K, i7-10700K, i5-10600K CPU Review: Skylake We Go Again
by Dr. Ian Cutress on May 20, 2020 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- Intel
- Skylake
- 14nm
- Z490
- 10th Gen Core
- Comet Lake
CPU Performance: Simulation Tests
A number of our benchmarks fall into the category of simulations, whereby we are either trying to emulate the real world or re-create systems with systems. In this set of tests, we have a variety including molecular modelling, non-x86 video game console emulation, a simulation of the equivalent of a slug brain with neurons and synapses firing, and finally a popular video game that simulates the growth of a fictional land including historical events and important characters within that world.
NAMD ApoA1
One frequent request over the years has been for some form of molecular dynamics simulation. Molecular dynamics forms the basis of a lot of computational biology and chemistry when modeling specific molecules, enabling researchers to find low energy configurations or potential active binding sites, especially when looking at larger proteins. We’re using the NAMD software here, or Nanoscale Molecular Dynamics, often cited for its parallel efficiency. Unfortunately the version we’re using is limited to 64 threads on Windows, but we can still use it to analyze our processors. We’re simulating the ApoA1 protein for 10 minutes, and reporting back the ‘nanoseconds per day’ that our processor can simulate. Molecular dynamics is so complex that yes, you can spend a day simply calculating a nanosecond of molecular movement.
This is one of our new tests, so we will be filling in more data as we start regression testing for older CPUs.
Dolphin 5.0: Console Emulation
One of the popular requested tests in our suite is to do with console emulation. Being able to pick up a game from an older system and run it as expected depends on the overhead of the emulator: it takes a significantly more powerful x86 system to be able to accurately emulate an older non-x86 console, especially if code for that console was made to abuse certain physical bugs in the hardware.
For our test, we use the popular Dolphin emulation software, and run a compute project through it to determine how close to a standard console system our processors can emulate. In this test, a Nintendo Wii would take around 1050 seconds.
The latest version of Dolphin can be downloaded from https://dolphin-emu.org/
DigiCortex 1.20: Sea Slug Brain Simulation
This benchmark was originally designed for simulation and visualization of neuron and synapse activity, as is commonly found in the brain. The software comes with a variety of benchmark modes, and we take the small benchmark which runs a 32k neuron / 1.8B synapse simulation, equivalent to a Sea Slug.
Example of a 2.1B neuron simulation
We report the results as the ability to simulate the data as a fraction of real-time, so anything above a ‘one’ is suitable for real-time work. Out of the two modes, a ‘non-firing’ mode which is DRAM heavy and a ‘firing’ mode which has CPU work, we choose the latter. Despite this, the benchmark is still affected by DRAM speed a fair amount.
DigiCortex can be downloaded from http://www.digicortex.net/
The additional bandwidth of the HEDT platforms put them higher up the chart here - Digicortex always ends up as an odd mix of bottlenecks mostly around memory, but it can be localized internal bandwidth limited as well.
Dwarf Fortress
Another long standing request for our benchmark suite has been Dwarf Fortress, a popular management/roguelike indie video game, first launched in 2006. Emulating the ASCII interfaces of old, this title is a rather complex beast, which can generate environments subject to millennia of rule, famous faces, peasants, and key historical figures and events. The further you get into the game, depending on the size of the world, the slower it becomes.
DFMark is a benchmark built by vorsgren on the Bay12Forums that gives two different modes built on DFHack: world generation and embark. These tests can be configured, but range anywhere from 3 minutes to several hours. I’ve barely scratched the surface here, but after analyzing the test, we ended up going for three different world generation sizes.
This is another of our new tests.
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Spunjji - Tuesday, May 26, 2020 - link
Mixed disagree.In all likelihood, Intel is incentivizing OEMs to continue working with their products.
It certainly looks like there is some sort of unspecified agreement between OEMs, Intel and Nvidia - hence the seemingly universal limitation of the 2060 with an AMD CPU.
But then... this absolutely is AMD's first proper crack at a high-end notebook chip that performs up to its billing in a very, very long time. It will take time for it to filter though, so the current state of the market may not be a good indicator - especially with COVID-19 about.
Tunnah - Wednesday, May 20, 2020 - link
Regarding your gaming suite test and GTA V/Steam limitations; why not switch to the cracked, offline version ? It's not like you're pirating it as you already bought it.Also you could keep a monolithic version in which you could insert any scripts you want via the modding capabilities, and because it's offline, updates won't come in and screw up your files. I keep a pirate version separate for messing around with modding on, and I never have to worry about an update rolling things back.
arashi - Sunday, May 24, 2020 - link
I'm sure the legal liability would be very welcome.Hxx - Wednesday, May 20, 2020 - link
im excited for the 10700k for my gaming rig. almost as good as the 10900k but cheaper and less power hungry.HammerStrike - Wednesday, May 20, 2020 - link
The lack of PCIe 4.0 is a deal breaker for any gaming focused box. The one area where the new consoles have an undisputed lead is in their SSD’s and I/O infrastructure. As game engines and game design are transformed by this I think, within a few years, we are going to see game performance improvements with faster SSD’s. Much more so then the few % Intel currently has,based on CPU alone. Which is only really of practical benefit if you have a monitor with 165+ refresh rate and game at those settings. I love a high refresh but I’d much rather have the pretty bells and whistles on and get 80-120hz vs setting everything to low for 165.AMD chips are just much more compelling. Of course, unless you absolutely have to upgrade now, I’d wait a few months for Zen 3. Fair chance they take the performance crown, or get so close as not to matter. Plus they will run a lot cooler - even if you don’t care about the power draw per say, the cooler a chip runs the cheaper / quieter the cooling solution is. Take that savings and put it in a GPU, RAM or PCIe 4.0 SSD.
Boshum - Wednesday, May 20, 2020 - link
I don't think lack of PCIe 4.0 is that bad, but is it certain that the LGA1200 won't support PCIe 4.0 when a Rocket Lake chip is plugged in?WaWaThreeFIVbroS - Thursday, May 21, 2020 - link
The board may support PCIe 4.0 signals but the Z490 chipset doesn't, so when a rocket lake is plugged in the PCIe 4 will probably only came from the CPUImNotARobot - Wednesday, May 20, 2020 - link
I feel like there is a lack of testing between PCIe 4 and 3. The way I look at it, nvidia is right around the corner from launch their PCIe 4 lineup so these processors are going to be powering that. I haven't seen anyone review an AMD 5700xt on an intel and AMD machine just to see what other real life gaming impact that can have. Agreed if you're a hardcore gamer you might not want a 5700xt...but it gives insight on what next gen PCIe 4 channel can get you.haukionkannel - Thursday, May 21, 2020 - link
No impact at all. Todays and near future GPUs Are too weak to saturate pci 3.0... maybe in few years we will get GPUs that Are faster in Pci4.0... but that time has not yet arrived. (Unles you have 4Gb amd 5500 that has narrow 8wide bus.)Pci 4.0 is for m2ssd at this moments!
prophet001 - Thursday, May 21, 2020 - link
Can't really argue but the clock performance does matter a lot in WoW which is what I mainly play. No gen 4.0 is wack but so is 16 lanes into the CPU.