Choosing a Gaming CPU: Single + Multi-GPU at 1440p, April 2013
by Ian Cutress on May 8, 2013 10:00 AM ESTCPU Benchmarks
Point Calculations - 3D Movement Algorithm Test
The algorithms in 3DPM employ both uniform random number generation or normal distribution random number generation, and vary in amounts of trigonometric operations, conditional statements, generation and rejection, fused operations, etc. The benchmark runs through six algorithms for a specified number of particles and steps, and calculates the speed of each algorithm, then sums them all for a final score. This is an example of a real world situation that a computational scientist may find themselves in, rather than a pure synthetic benchmark. The benchmark is also parallel between particles simulated, and we test the single threaded performance as well as the multi-threaded performance.
As mentioned in previous reviews, this benchmark is written how most people would tackle the situation – using floating point numbers. This is also where Intel excels, compared to AMD’s decision to move more towards INT ops (such as hashing), which is typically linked to optimized code or normal OS behavior.
Compression - WinRAR x64 3.93 + WinRAR 4.2
With 64-bit WinRAR, we compress the set of files used in our motherboard USB speed tests. WinRAR x64 3.93 attempts to use multithreading when possible and provides a good test for when a system has variable threaded load. WinRAR 4.2 does this a lot better! If a system has multiple speeds to invoke at different loading, the switching between those speeds will determine how well the system will do.
Due to the late inclusion of 4.2, our results list for it is a little smaller than I would have hoped. But it is interesting to note that with the Core Parking updates, an FX-8350 overtakes an i5-2500K with MCT.
Image Manipulation - FastStone Image Viewer 4.2
FastStone Image Viewer is a free piece of software I have been using for quite a few years now. It allows quick viewing of flat images, as well as resizing, changing color depth, adding simple text or simple filters. It also has a bulk image conversion tool, which we use here. The software currently operates only in single-thread mode, which should change in later versions of the software. For this test, we convert a series of 170 files, of various resolutions, dimensions and types (of a total size of 163MB), all to the .gif format of 640x480 dimensions.
In terms of pure single thread speed, it is worth noting the X6-1100T is leading the AMD pack.
Video Conversion - Xilisoft Video Converter 7
With XVC, users can convert any type of normal video to any compatible format for smartphones, tablets and other devices. By default, it uses all available threads on the system, and in the presence of appropriate graphics cards, can utilize CUDA for NVIDIA GPUs as well as AMD WinAPP for AMD GPUs. For this test, we use a set of 33 HD videos, each lasting 30 seconds, and convert them from 1080p to an iPod H.264 video format using just the CPU. The time taken to convert these videos gives us our result.
XVC is a little odd in how it arranges its multicore processing. For our set of 33 videos, it will arrange them in batches of threads – so if we take the 8 thread FX-8350, it will arrange the videos into 4 batches of 8, and then a fifth batch of one. That final batch will only have one thread assigned to it (!), and will not get a full 8 threads worth of power. This is also why the 2x X5690 finishes in 6 seconds but the normal X5690 takes longer – you would expect a halving of time moving to two CPUs but XVC arranges the batches such that there is always one at the end that only gets a single thread.
Rendering – PovRay 3.7
The Persistence of Vision RayTracer, or PovRay, is a freeware package for as the name suggests, ray tracing. It is a pure renderer, rather than modeling software, but the latest beta version contains a handy benchmark for stressing all processing threads on a platform. We have been using this test in motherboard reviews to test memory stability at various CPU speeds to good effect – if it passes the test, the IMC in the CPU is stable for a given CPU speed. As a CPU test, it runs for approximately 2-3 minutes on high end platforms.
The SMP engine in PovRay is not perfect, though scaling up in CPUs gives almost a 2x effect. The results from this test are great – here we see an FX-8350 CPU below an i7-3770K (with MCT), until the Core Parking updates are applied, meaning the FX-8350 performs better!
Video Conversion - x264 HD Benchmark
The x264 HD Benchmark uses a common HD encoding tool to process an HD MPEG2 source at 1280x720 at 3963 Kbps. This test represents a standardized result which can be compared across other reviews, and is dependent on both CPU power and memory speed. The benchmark performs a 2-pass encode, and the results shown are the average of each pass performed four times.
Grid Solvers - Explicit Finite Difference
For any grid of regular nodes, the simplest way to calculate the next time step is to use the values of those around it. This makes for easy mathematics and parallel simulation, as each node calculated is only dependent on the previous time step, not the nodes around it on the current calculated time step. By choosing a regular grid, we reduce the levels of memory access required for irregular grids. We test both 2D and 3D explicit finite difference simulations with 2n nodes in each dimension, using OpenMP as the threading operator in single precision. The grid is isotropic and the boundary conditions are sinks. Values are floating point, with memory cache sizes and speeds playing a part in the overall score.
Grid solvers do love a fast processor and plenty of cache in order to store data. When moving up to 3D, it is harder to keep that data within the CPU and spending extra time coding in batches can help throughput. Our simulation takes a very naïve approach in code, using simple operations.
Grid Solvers - Implicit Finite Difference + Alternating Direction Implicit Method
The implicit method takes a different approach to the explicit method – instead of considering one unknown in the new time step to be calculated from known elements in the previous time step, we consider that an old point can influence several new points by way of simultaneous equations. This adds to the complexity of the simulation – the grid of nodes is solved as a series of rows and columns rather than points, reducing the parallel nature of the simulation by a dimension and drastically increasing the memory requirements of each thread. The upside, as noted above, is the less stringent stability rules related to time steps and grid spacing. For this we simulate a 2D grid of 2n nodes in each dimension, using OpenMP in single precision. Again our grid is isotropic with the boundaries acting as sinks. Values are floating point, with memory cache sizes and speeds playing a part in the overall score.
2D Implicit is harsher than an Explicit calculation – each thread needs more a lot memory, which only ever grows as the size of the simulation increases.
Point Calculations - n-Body Simulation
When a series of heavy mass elements are in space, they interact with each other through the force of gravity. Thus when a star cluster forms, the interaction of every large mass with every other large mass defines the speed at which these elements approach each other. When dealing with millions and billions of stars on such a large scale, the movement of each of these stars can be simulated through the physical theorems that describe the interactions. The benchmark detects whether the processor is SSE2 or SSE4 capable, and implements the relative code. We run a simulation of 10240 particles of equal mass - the output for this code is in terms of GFLOPs, and the result recorded was the peak GFLOPs value.
As we only look at base/SSE2/SSE4 depending on the processor (auto-detection), we don’t see full AVX numbers in terms of FLOPs.
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TheJian - Thursday, May 16, 2013 - link
Am I supposed to not respond now? You just said I have no manners, am uncivilized, have no objectivity, and previously I’m offensive and it’s ok to HATE me…ROFL. POT – MEET KETTLE. If you were to take your own advice, shouldn’t you have just said “you could word it differently but I agree with the data” and left it at that? No, you took it much further with what amounts to an ad hominem attack on ME. You posted 333 words yourself to do it. :) But thanks for recognizing the work I put in :) I can type 60+wpm though so, not that much effort really and two to three times that with Dragon Naturally Speaking premium easily (pick up a copy if you can't keep up - 1600 words in about 9 minutes...ROFL v12.5 rocks). The homework takes time, but that was already done before they wrote this article as I read everything I can find on stocks I track and parts I'm interesting in.I've watched this site (and toms) since they were born. 1997 I think here. I did leave toms when Tom Pabst himself forced out Van Smith over the sysmark crap years ago (and removed his name from ALL of his articles he wrote there, putting "tomshardware staff" or some such in Van's name's place). That was AWFUL to watch and I loved reading Tom Pabst's stuff for years. Millions of people were snowed there while they made AMD look like crap in articles with sysmark flagging Intel chips and turning off SSE on AMD. Eventually people like Van, I and others said enough that people took notice and it devalued his site before he sold it. Rightfully so if you ask me, as he was basically an Intel shill at that point as many had pointed out by then.
At some point somebody has to stand up and tell the truth like Van tried to do. It cost him his job, but the message made it through. Someone has to be willing to “take the hate” for other people's benefit. :) Or nothing will ever get fixed right? People reviewing stuff for millions need some kind of checks and balances right? There are NONE right now in our govt and look what’s happening there as they spend us into bankruptcy amid scandal after scandal kicking our financial future down the road time and again. If we had checks and balances for REAL our president would be in jail along with many dirty congress members on both sides (he just got caught wiretapping the AP – freedom of speech is being trampled, gun rights assaulted, our constitution is attacked at every turn!). People are DEAD possibly because this guy did NOTHING to save them in Benghazi for 7 hours under attack. What happened in Boston? Etc…I'm seeing the same stuff happen here that happened at Tomshardware. Someone has to correct them instead of congratulating them right? Otherwise so many people will make the wrong purchasing decisions based on bad advice from influential and supposedly trusted people (I still like this site, just want back to the neutral stance it used to have for years). In this economy I'd be thanking anyone who takes the time and effort to attempt to save me from buying a piece of junk with my hard earned money. In a nutshell this is why I take the time to show another side for people to consider. They don’t have to believe me, that’s the point of the links, quotes from those links etc. I WANT you to look at the data and make up your own minds. Either it costs this site tons of hits eventually and wakes them up or they need to be put out of business. If nobody ever complained about Win8 how long would we get crap like that? Look how fast it got an 8.1 version as a response and the product manager fired. Put their feet to the fire or they don’t stop ever.
Anand would have to be seeing his sites traffic go down.
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/anandtech.com#
If someone takes the time to prove you’re putting up bad data article after article and there is no defense put up (because there isn’t a defense) you are eventually taken down. Jared attacked me in Aug 2012. Pity you can’t go back a year but you can see this site is sliding at least at alexa for the last 6 months. Until they quit yanking our chains I’ll keep yanking theirs if my time allows! Toms went from 10mil to 2mil in just a couple years. I’m not sure what he sold for but it was far less than he’d have gotten before attacking Van, the article shenanigans etc.
Tell me, what parts of my comments were UNCIVILIZED or RUDE? Did I call anyone a name? Say they are stupid? Did I attack ANYONE personally? Did I do what you did? Actually I did quite the opposite. I said they are NOT ignorant and know exactly what they're doing here (hmm, insinuated intelligence…That’s a good comment right?). I even let Ian off multiple times (he's just doing what he's told no doubt) and noted from the get go he did a lot of work, but due to "someone" pushing bad data to hide AMD's faults it's all wasted. I attacked the crap this site is pushing (crap too harsh for you?), not any of the people themselves (who I'm sure are probably nice guys - well, I can't say that about them all, Jarred attacked ME not the data when I buried Ryan's conclusions and benchmarks). Did I swear at someone? Did I spew hate like the guy who gave a one liner to me? He's claiming its ok to HATE me? When did I ever cross a line like that? Is a debate of the facts worthy of HATE today?
If you hate the length of my post don't read it. Take your own advice, move along please. Was it necessary for you to post 1000 words back? :) I'd say even the HATERS took me seriously (the only ones that responded besides Tential – what 2 total plus a polite tential?) and saw the arguments were valid and listened. ALL of them did in their own way. Only the first below wasn’t rude as you say and just discussed what I was saying- tential - no flare up from him, just good old fashioned debate:
"I don't agree with your analysis on consoles but everything else sure. Gaming for 98% of people is 1080p."
Tential clearly got the message despite our console differences (they weren’t the point really). I’m sure tons of others did even if they’re silent about it. I used to be SILENT. You can’t argue with steampowered.com’s data, nor everyone else showing the res you SHOULD be running here. You can confirm via techreport, hardocp, tomshardware, etc I gave plenty of links and quotes for people to analyze.
"We might all hate this guy (for good reason) but the words he writes regarding CPU performance in this article have a lot of truth."
WOW...But at least he saw the truth, and his name is hilarious to me :) Did I attack back? NOPE. Even when he seriously crossed a line IMHO I did nothing but a polite rebuttal with some questions – still waiting for why he thinks it’s ok to HATE people for simple comments, but I don’t mind either way, even he got the message. Worse you agreed with the hate...LOL
Here’s you:
"Agreed. What he wrote is offending, emotional and hardly objective. However, there's a truth hidden in there somewhere. Consider the following scenario."
Comic, I said nothing bad about people, just their data. But to you, it's OK to hate me for it and then toss comments about my character...This goes back to the double standard I mentioned in my previous posts.
There is nothing wrong with a vigorous debate of the facts in any case and I was CIVIL though critical. This was an article about the proper choice of a GAMER cpu. As presented the data is lies as they presented a situation that doesn’t exist (as even you pointed out in your scenario basically). It would be just "incorrect" if they didn't know what they were doing. But they DO know. They know they’re hiding FCAT data as I pointed out. AMD only talks to them as Guru3d recently pointed out (hilbert did). Odd, yes?
I find it funny I already answered your questions before with comments like this (but why not do another 1600 word essay for you) :) :
“People will eventually JUDGE this site accordingly if you keep this stuff up. I sincerely hope this site returns to good neutral data soon.”
This doesn’t tell you why I’m doing it? I claim OTHER websites I pointed to are OBJECTIVE and VALID. I piled on with my own observations, but I was merely quoting others who all disagree with this site. That’s not subjective that’s FACT. It’s not my point of view; it is the same one as EVERY other site reporting this type of data. Hardocp, Techreport, PCper, Tomshardware. How many do I need before you call me objective? I can give more sites and another 1000 words of quotes…LOL. I can scientifically claim the resolution they chose here to make all cpu’s show the same perf because the gpu is bottlenecking everything, represents less than 1% of the population and I will be RIGHT. Introducing a variable that totally invalidates the entire premise of the experiment is not subjective, it’s misleading at best and easily proved wrong as I have done. My message travelled far enough as nobody missed it as far as I can tell. Mission accomplished, gentle or NOT ;)
If you don’t like my posts, To quote you:
“why can't you just look past them? What is your problem?”
“why don't you just... leave?”
:) Gee, it seems I've upset you ;)
"What are you doing here - are you some sort of freedom fighter for objective data on the internet?"
Already answered and YES, why not :) What are you doing here? Are you some kind of smart alec that objects to people voicing their RELEVANT opinions in a "comment" section? Silly me, I thought that's what this section is for. Can we get back to discussing the data now? You've distracted us all from the topic at hand long enough and it isn't changing the data one bit.
OwnedKThxBye - Thursday, May 16, 2013 - link
Sorry for seriously crossing the line good sir but I still reserve the right to hate you if I choose. A wise man once wrote “We are FAR to sensitive today. It's like nobody can take a criticism these days and the person who gives it is evil...LOL.” <--- this is you =). Keep in mind I was also the first one to agree with you… What you write never fails to bring a smile to my face TheJian, and I hope you don’t stop pointing out the truth any time soon. Just try to keep the next comment shorter so we can read it without so much scrolling..... we don't all own LCDs with 1440+ vertical pixels like we are told to. In the end all we can pray for is a few less gamers to run out and buy an A8-5600K for their HD7970 and for a few of your points to be taken into consideration next time round.yhselp - Sunday, May 26, 2013 - link
First of all, I’d like to apologize for this long-delayed response – I simply didn’t have the time.Truly epic. To start off, you haven't upset me, really; not before and not now - I was genuinely curious as to what it is that you think you're accomplishing by all this (not just this article, others as well). Thus, I set forth to playfully provoke you into responding. Success. Now that you’ve answered, and to be fair – more clearly than expected, I have a better understanding of what urges you to do what you do. Such a peculiar case you are, I am fascinated – are you a troll or aren’t you? Somewhere in between I guess. The arguments you provide are sound, although I still think they’re a bit… let’s not use a word as I’m sure you will twist it into a meaning of your choosing (not originally intended); and most of what you say is, well, adequate – all that makes you not-troll after all. Despite that fact that you would’ve probably responded to anything anyway, I still feel that a ‘thank you’ on my side is necessary for your taking the time to respond; and I’m not being ironic here.
Now, let’s get a few things out of the way. Note that I’m neither defending nor criticizing AnandTech, I’m simply voicing an opinion just the way you are. Very important – I never said it was okay to hate you or anybody for that matter, you deduced that yourself. I simply agreed with the gist of what OwnedKThxBye said. You cannot cling to ever word you read online, I don’t think anybody here truly feels hate, certainly not me. People just throw words around in the heat of the moment just the way you debate vigorously, I’m sure you understand that. The semantic field of the word ‘hate’ in 21st century contemporary English is huge, especially when used in this type of discourse.
Why would you blame me for distracting “us all” from the topic at hand when you are the King of Sidetracking? Gotta love your insights on US politics – it’s like watching one of those documentaries on History and the like. My favorite part is about “gun rights” – nice, so eloquently put. The only reason we still have the Second Amendment is because the US cannot just change the Bill of Rights which is part of the oldest acting constitution in the world – it’s a matter of national pride. The reason it was written is a historical occurrence no longer valid. During Colonial times the settlers had to harbor British soldiers which often mistreated them, and so the settlers needed a means of protection. That is how the Second Amendment came to be. Obviously, this is no longer the case. You could argue the right to bear arms is part of Americannness, but this doesn’t change the fact that the original, intended reason for the Second Amendment is a thing of the past.
Checks and balances for the consumer computer industry – so amusing. Manufacturers, Reviewers and Consumers each checking on the others; that is such an utopian concept. You say it doesn’t work for a country’s government, how do you expect it to work for an industry where money is king? There would always be hidden agendas, you can’t stop that.
I believe I’ve discovered a new form of entertainment, and that is reading Jian’s comments. You, sir, are crazy. I don’t mean this as an insult. Keep on fighting the good fight, I can’t wait to read more of your comments; and, please, never stop sidetracking and using internet abbreviations such as LOL.
azdood - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - link
Hi Ian, have you ever considered testing time between turns on Civ5? CPU makes a HUGE difference especially as you get deep into a game.tential - Thursday, May 16, 2013 - link
This is partially at that Jian guy and at everyone. I understand the desire for high end GPU reviews but using your OWN earlier posts, you stated that the majority of people game at 1080p. If that's the case, whats the point of pushing for a 7990, Titan, FCAT review when quite frankly NO ONE HAS THOSE CARDS. According to your own data and posts from the previous page.To me it seems like you're just trolling however, because you brought up the point of affordability, I think that that's where the majority of reviews should target. YES I want to see how the 7970 and the GTX 680 perform, yes I want to see the next gen too, but I really don't think we should waste so much time on Multi GPU setups that under 1% of the gaming community has.
How about more reviews on upgrade paths, Price to Performance, how to get the most performance at a reasonable price point. That's what I care to see. Any review in which the hardware being tested exceeds 2k (I mean additional hardware), to me is just boring because at the end of the day, I'm not buying two titans, or two 7990s, or even 3 7970s.
This is of course my PERSONAL opinion, but considering data backs it up, I'd like to see some more reviews cater to the average (when I say average I mean average in terms of the gamer who reads reviews and makes educated price to performance ratio choices) gamer.
This review kind of tries to do that but in all reality, we aren't gaming at 1440p so more reviews at how to get the best performance at 1080p for a good price, while leaving us a decent upgrade path would be nice.
FriedZombie - Friday, May 17, 2013 - link
Could you possibly go to some slightly older processors and GPUs? In particular the i7-990x would be a great start and the lower and upper end of AMDs 6000 series would be nice too (it seems a LOT of people upgraded from the 5000 series to the 7000 series this year) A benchmarking for Witcher 2 would be nice as well as max settings with Ubersampling turned on is extremely taxing on both CPU and GPU because of how inefficient CDProjekt's RED engine is.ol1bit - Friday, May 17, 2013 - link
All I can say is WOW!Nice work!
qulckgun - Sunday, May 19, 2013 - link
62yrs old play ~150hrs a month. Ready to build new PC. Know next to nothing about building new PC. Read various forums and articles and find the comment sections are great at clearing up some of what I didn't understand in the main article. That being said this is one of the most intertaining comment sections I've read in awhile and was pretty informative. It's helped me put into perspective my hardware choices. Please lets agree to disagree but in a respectable manner. Thank you all for your comments and responces, it's an education.Rob94hawk - Sunday, May 19, 2013 - link
This was a great article! I'm surprised you didn't use a QX9770 for socket 775. Any reason for that?bds71 - Wednesday, May 22, 2013 - link
Ian - since the new 4k TV's are out, i think these types of reviews are very indicative of what we can expect once we are able to hook a PC up (using multiple outputs - such as eyefinity or nVidia surround) to a single input 4k TV. for those who don't know, the new 4k standard (3840x2160) is equivelant to eyefinity or nVidia surround at 1080p, but with 4 monitors instead of 3, and in a normal 16x9 format rather than the super wide 3 screen setups. ie: --|--|-- vs ==|== note: equivelant resolution, but not actually 4 monitors :)can't wait for THAT testing to begin. assuming an owner can turn off overscan (so you can see the taskbar at the bottom) i indeed intend to purchase one (likely, soon) and would definately want to hook my PC to it. my GTX690 would likely be able to do OK at such a resolution, but i would eventually want to get another 690 - as soon as i could figure out how to utilize the second card with only a single HDMI input on the TV.
as far as blue ray content - if you wait....it will come :)