Intel’s Tiger Lake 11th Gen Core i7-1185G7 Review and Deep Dive: Baskin’ for the Exotic
by Dr. Ian Cutress & Andrei Frumusanu on September 17, 2020 9:35 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- Intel
- 10nm
- Tiger Lake
- Xe-LP
- Willow Cove
- SuperFin
- 11th Gen
- i7-1185G7
- Tiger King
CPU Performance: Office and Web
Our previous set of ‘office’ benchmarks have often been a mix of science and synthetics, so this time we wanted to keep our office section purely on real world performance.
Agisoft Photoscan 1.3.3: link
Photoscan stays in our benchmark suite from the previous benchmark scripts, but is updated to the 1.3.3 Pro version. As this benchmark has evolved, features such as Speed Shift or XFR on the latest processors come into play as it has many segments in a variable threaded workload.
The concept of Photoscan is about translating many 2D images into a 3D model - so the more detailed the images, and the more you have, the better the final 3D model in both spatial accuracy and texturing accuracy. The algorithm has four stages, with some parts of the stages being single-threaded and others multi-threaded, along with some cache/memory dependency in there as well. For some of the more variable threaded workload, features such as Speed Shift and XFR will be able to take advantage of CPU stalls or downtime, giving sizeable speedups on newer microarchitectures.
For the update to version 1.3.3, the Agisoft software now supports command line operation. Agisoft provided us with a set of new images for this version of the test, and a python script to run it. We’ve modified the script slightly by changing some quality settings for the sake of the benchmark suite length, as well as adjusting how the final timing data is recorded. The python script dumps the results file in the format of our choosing. For our test we obtain the time for each stage of the benchmark, as well as the overall time.
The final result is a table that looks like this:
As explained in the power tests, the 4800U with double the cores wins out here, and due to the vector pressure also wins on power efficiency. There’s still a sizeable uplift from Ice Lake to Tiger Lake at 15 W, although 28 W is needed to get something sizeable.
Mozilla Kraken 1.1
Kraken is a 2010 benchmark from Mozilla and does a series of JavaScript tests. These tests are a little more involved than previous tests, looking at artificial intelligence, audio manipulation, image manipulation, json parsing, and cryptographic functions. The benchmark starts with an initial download of data for the audio and imaging, and then runs through 10 times giving a timed result.
Automation involves loading the direct webpage where the test is run and putting it through. All CPUs finish the test in under a couple of minutes, so we put that as the end point and copy the page contents into the clipboard before parsing the result. Each run of the test on most CPUs takes from half-a-second to a few seconds.
Both the Tiger Lake results are very fast, not showing much difference between the power modes. Intel pushes ahead of AMD here, and ultimately a sizable jump over Ice Lake.
Google Octane 2.0
Our second test is also JavaScript based, but uses a lot more variation of newer JS techniques, such as object-oriented programming, kernel simulation, object creation/destruction, garbage collection, array manipulations, compiler latency and code execution.
Octane was developed after the discontinuation of other tests, with the goal of being more web-like than previous tests. It has been a popular benchmark, making it an obvious target for optimizations in the JavaScript engines. Ultimately it was retired in early 2017 due to this, although it is still widely used as a tool to determine general CPU performance in a number of web tasks.
Octane’s automation is a little different than the others: there is no direct website to go to in order to run the benchmark. The benchmark page is opened, but the user has to navigate to the ‘start’ button or open the console and initiate the JavaScript required to run the test. The test also does not show an obvious end-point, but luckily does try and aim for a fixed time for each processor. This is similar to some of our other tests, that loop around a fixed time before ending. Unfortunately this doesn’t work if the first loop goes beyond that fixed time, as the loop still has to finish. For Octane, we have set it to 75 seconds per run, and we loop the whole test four times.
The Tiger Lake system reaches new records in Optane. If there’s anything this system is fast at, it is web workloads.
Speedometer 2: JavaScript Frameworks
Our newest web test is Speedometer 2, which is a test over a series of JavaScript frameworks to do three simple things: built a list, enable each item in the list, and remove the list. All the frameworks implement the same visual cues, but obviously apply them from different coding angles.
Our test goes through the list of frameworks, and produces a final score indicative of ‘rpm’, one of the benchmarks internal metrics. Rather than use the main interface, we go to the admin interface through the about page and manage the results there. It involves saving the webpage when the test is complete and parsing the final result.
We repeat over the benchmark for a dozen loops, taking the average of the last five.
Again, another good win for Tiger Lake.
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Rtx dude - Monday, September 28, 2020 - link
Thank youStingkyMakarel - Friday, September 18, 2020 - link
anyone tried running multiple single threaded app on Intel and AMD?dsplover - Friday, September 18, 2020 - link
Yes. A couple actually which each get a Core assignment. I’m an audio geek that came from using a PC for streaming from HDD’s (Seagate 10k SCSI Cheetahs) to a software based synthesizer enthusiast where single core performance is crucial.Started with AMD MPs/Tyan Tiger and Coppermine 1GHz CPU’s.
I’ve concluded that CPU Cache or 4.4GHz on an Intel is optimal.
Latency from extra cores causes me to adjust audio buffer sizes to compensate which I noticed on the Intel Quads. Conroe Dual Cores were faster for my core locked synths. A larger CPU cache overcame the inefficiencies when i7 Bloomdales hit the market.
Matisse 3800X was a great chip, but more than the 8 Cores was the same latency issues.
Looking forward to the Cezanne and maybe a Vermeer as I don’t need killer graphics, 2D is fine. Actually AST ASpeed 2500 Server chips on Supermicro and ASRock workstation/server boards is fine.
What I seek is the single core performance crown. Intel i7 4790k’s are still in my racks. To make me jump to new builds is a larger cache from Intel. Tiger Lake at 50watts looks great for my needs. 4.4GHz is as good as it gets. But even my ancient i7 5775C using a discrete GFX card, using the 128MB L4 cache for audio (running at 3.3GHz) was on par with the 4GHz 4790k.
So for me the CPU/IPC gains are appreciated, but cache and CPU running at 4+ GHz are really beneficial.
Tiger Lake or Cezanne will finally show me the results I need to upgrade.
Intel and AMD can add all of the Cores they want. Single core performance or larger cache to overcome the latency of additional Cores will mean I can run more high end Filters to shape my sounds with.
dromoxen - Saturday, September 19, 2020 - link
For me these are still too weak GFx despite 2x .. When they can match or better my gtx960 they might have a customer. Otherwise I''ll stick to a downclocked ryzen 4000+gtx960 ..I want low low heat output , and a single APU would be ideal ..ASROCK deskmini styleee .Gondalf - Friday, September 18, 2020 - link
Not only but the claimed 10/15% IPC boost of Zen 3 will be barely enough to be near with Intel clock to clock. Still Intel process clock clearly better, so the upcoming 8 cores Tiger Lake will be an easy winner over an eight core Zen 3.To be noticed, in productive benches Intel core destroy badly Zen. Likely the cache structure is done to perform great on standard laptop SW.
As usual a core have to be SW optimized, definitively not synthetic benches optimized. More or less the reason Xeon is right now a big winner on Epyc in the 32 cores/cpu market (the larger).
Spunjji - Friday, September 18, 2020 - link
You say this every time a new AMD processor is due, and every time you're wrong, and the next time you say the same damned things again. 😑close - Friday, September 18, 2020 - link
Subjective opinion time. Ian & Andrei, leaving aside individual scores (great ST performance for Intel, great MT performance for AMD), which one would you buy for day to day "regular" work?I've read opinions like "I made it painfully clear that the top-of-the-line Intel CPU at its highest cTDP was only going up against a mid-grade Ryzen" and there's still room for personal opinion here. Should you have to buy one now "money no issue" and ignoring specialized fields (like AI stuff where AVX-512 makes sense) which would you put your money on?
Spunjji - Friday, September 18, 2020 - link
I look forwards to the day when this Intel shill troll gets banned.melgross - Sunday, September 20, 2020 - link
Oh, come on. We have both AMD and Intel trolls here. They cancel out.Spunjji - Sunday, September 20, 2020 - link
There's being a fanboy, then there's creating an entire alter ego as some desperate attempt at satire that is inherently self-satirizing of the person running the account. I find this one deeply tiresome.