CPU Tests: Legacy and Web

In order to gather data to compare with older benchmarks, we are still keeping a number of tests under our ‘legacy’ section. This includes all the former major versions of CineBench (R15, R11.5, R10) as well as x264 HD 3.0 and the first very naïve version of 3DPM v2.1. We won’t be transferring the data over from the old testing into Bench, otherwise it would be populated with 200 CPUs with only one data point, so it will fill up as we test more CPUs like the others.

The other section here is our web tests.

Web Tests: Kraken, Octane, and Speedometer

Benchmarking using web tools is always a bit difficult. Browsers change almost daily, and the way the web is used changes even quicker. While there is some scope for advanced computational based benchmarks, most users care about responsiveness, which requires a strong back-end to work quickly to provide on the front-end. The benchmarks we chose for our web tests are essentially industry standards – at least once upon a time.

It should be noted that for each test, the browser is closed and re-opened a new with a fresh cache. We use a fixed Chromium version for our tests with the update capabilities removed to ensure consistency.

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.

We loop through the 10-run test four times (so that’s a total of 40 runs), and average the four end-results. The result is given as time to complete the test, and we’re reaching a slow asymptotic limit with regards the highest IPC processors.

(7-1) Kraken 1.1 Web Test

Sizeable single thread improvements.

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.

(7-2) Google Octane 2.0 Web Test

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.

We repeat over the benchmark for a dozen loops, taking the average of the last five.

(7-3) Speedometer 2.0 Web Test

Legacy Tests

(6-3a) CineBench R15 ST(6-3b) CineBench R15 MT(6-5a) x264 HD 3.0 Pass 1(6-5b) x264 HD 3.0 Pass 2(6-4a) 3DPM v1 ST(6-4b) 3DPM v1 MT

CPU Tests: Encoding CPU Tests: Synthetic and SPEC
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  • linuxgeex - Wednesday, August 4, 2021 - link

    There's a silly number of errors in the first page of this review. The 5600G does not have "8 cores". Intel didn't "cut" AMD products from the market. Cezanne processors don't use "Zen 3 graphics".

    Please proof your work, we expect better from Anandtech.
  • The_Assimilator - Thursday, August 5, 2021 - link

    "we expect better from Anandtech"

    If you've been around since Anand left, you really shouldn't. I don't know who's nominally in charge nowadays but they CBA to perform basic proofreading on most articles.
  • Machinus - Wednesday, August 4, 2021 - link

    When are we going to see 16-20 CUs? Then you could really say you're replacing a GPU.
  • nandnandnand - Wednesday, August 4, 2021 - link

    Rembrandt will have RDNA 2 and up to 12 CUs, which should provide acceptable 1080p performance. It will fall short of the Xbox Series S, but not by too much if the graphics clock is higher. It will also have DDR5, better I/O, AV1 decode, etc.

    Imagine if a Ryzen 7 6700G (OEM) came out in the next 8 months or so.
  • cigar3tte - Wednesday, August 4, 2021 - link

    Will Rembrandt run on AM4 still?
  • nandnandnand - Wednesday, August 4, 2021 - link

    DDR5 = AM5. In fact, maybe it will end up being the very first CPUs on AM5.
  • vlad42 - Thursday, August 5, 2021 - link

    As I mentioned above, Rembrandt will likely use RDNA1 instead of RDNA2. Drivers for an RDNA1 based APU were just submitted to the Linux kernel a few days ago.
  • nandnandnand - Thursday, August 5, 2021 - link

    See above. Rembrandt will use RDNA 2. It might be referred to as "Yellow Carp".

    https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-begins-to-en...
    https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&a...
  • Fulljack - Wednesday, August 4, 2021 - link

    since Van Gogh (Steam Deck) uses 8CU of RDNA2, I think the next generation of APU (Rembrandt) will also features 8CU. Although the moves to DDR5 and possible inclusion of 3D cache (similar to infinity cache) will help performance a lot.

    This is all are rumour, though.
  • nandnandnand - Wednesday, August 4, 2021 - link

    Rembrandt should have up to 12 CUs. With higher bandwidth from DDR5, perhaps integrated graphics performance will be doubled from the 5800H/5700G. 1080p60 should be achievable in many games, with some settings turned down.

    I do not expect Rembrandt to have Infinity Cache, 3D V-Cache, L4 cache/HBM, or increased cache whatsoever (Cezanne already doubled from Renoir, and quadrupled the amount each core could access). Any cache improvement would be a pleasant surprise.

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