CPU Performance, Short Form

For our motherboard reviews, we use our short form testing method. These tests usually focus on if a motherboard is using MultiCore Turbo (the feature used to have maximum turbo on at all times, giving a frequency advantage), or if there are slight gains to be had from tweaking the firmware. We put the memory settings at the CPU manufacturers suggested frequency, making it very easy to see which motherboards have MCT enabled by default.

For X570 we are running using Windows 10 64-bit with the 1903 update as per our Ryzen 3000 CPU review.

Rendering - Blender 2.7b: 3D Creation Suite - link

A high profile rendering tool, Blender is open-source allowing for massive amounts of configurability, and is used by a number of high-profile animation studios worldwide. The organization recently released a Blender benchmark package, a couple of weeks after we had narrowed our Blender test for our new suite, however their test can take over an hour. For our results, we run one of the sub-tests in that suite through the command line - a standard ‘bmw27’ scene in CPU only mode, and measure the time to complete the render.

Rendering: Blender 2.79b

Streaming and Archival Video Transcoding - Handbrake 1.1.0

A popular open source tool, Handbrake is the anything-to-anything video conversion software that a number of people use as a reference point. The danger is always on version numbers and optimization, for example the latest versions of the software can take advantage of AVX-512 and OpenCL to accelerate certain types of transcoding and algorithms. The version we use here is a pure CPU play, with common transcoding variations.

We have split Handbrake up into several tests, using a Logitech C920 1080p60 native webcam recording (essentially a streamer recording), and convert them into two types of streaming formats and one for archival. The output settings used are:

  • 720p60 at 6000 kbps constant bit rate, fast setting, high profile
  • 1080p60 at 3500 kbps constant bit rate, faster setting, main profile
  • 1080p60 HEVC at 3500 kbps variable bit rate, fast setting, main profile

Handbrake 1.1.0 - 720p60 x264 6000 kbps FastHandbrake 1.1.0 - 1080p60 x264 3500 kbps FasterHandbrake 1.1.0 - 1080p60 HEVC 3500 kbps Fast

Rendering – POV-Ray 3.7.1: Ray Tracing - link

The Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer, or POV-Ray, 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 1-2 minutes on high-end platforms.

Rendering: POV-Ray 3.7.1 Benchmark

Compression – WinRAR 5.60b3: link

Our WinRAR test from 2013 is updated to the latest version of WinRAR at the start of 2014. We compress a set of 2867 files across 320 folders totaling 1.52 GB in size – 95% of these files are small typical website files, and the rest (90% of the size) are small 30-second 720p videos.

Encoding: WinRAR 5.60b3

Synthetic – 7-Zip v1805: link

Out of our compression/decompression tool tests, 7-zip is the most requested and comes with a built-in benchmark. For our test suite, we’ve pulled the latest version of the software and we run the benchmark from the command line, reporting the compression, decompression, and a combined score.

It is noted in this benchmark that the latest multi-die processors have very bi-modal performance between compression and decompression, performing well in one and badly in the other. There are also discussions around how the Windows Scheduler is implementing every thread. As we get more results, it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Encoding: 7-Zip 1805 CompressionEncoding: 7-Zip 1805 DecompressionEncoding: 7-Zip 1805 Combined

Point Calculations – 3D Movement Algorithm Test: link

3DPM is a self-penned benchmark, taking basic 3D movement algorithms used in Brownian Motion simulations and testing them for speed. High floating point performance, MHz, and IPC win in the single thread version, whereas the multithread version has to handle the threads and loves more cores. For a brief explanation of the platform agnostic coding behind this benchmark, see my forum post here.

System: 3D Particle Movement v2.1

Neuron Simulation - DigiCortex v1.20: link

The newest benchmark in our suite is DigiCortex, a simulation of biologically plausible neural network circuits, and simulates activity of neurons and synapses. DigiCortex relies heavily on a mix of DRAM speed and computational throughput, indicating that systems which apply memory profiles properly should benefit and those that play fast and loose with overclocking settings might get some extra speed up. Results are taken during the steady-state period in a 32k neuron simulation and represented as a function of the ability to simulate in real time (1.000x equals real-time).

System: DigiCortex 1.20 (32k Neuron, 1.8B Synapse)

System Performance Gaming Performance
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  • Marlin1975 - Friday, October 25, 2019 - link

    Nice board; but not $200, let alone $400, nice.
  • Destoya - Friday, October 25, 2019 - link

    This is really a hardcore overclocker board more than anything and the price reflects that. It's already set records for DRAM frequency (first board over 6000 MT/s).

    As the article says, there's numerous other options for SFF X570/X470 at more reasonable prices for people who aren't chasing WR overclocks or who don't have a blank check to build the "best" small system.
  • shabby - Friday, October 25, 2019 - link

    How much better will this overclock than a $200 board? 50mhz more? The new ryzen chips simply don't overclock well so you don't need any fancy mobos.
  • Dug - Friday, October 25, 2019 - link

    More for ram than cpu. You are right, the ryzen cpu's just don't o/c that much to spend so much money on this board. The differences in speed aren't worth the headache.
  • TheinsanegamerN - Sunday, October 27, 2019 - link

    My crosshair VII was only $249 and it is considered a fantastic OC AMD board with overbuilt VRM capable of OCing memory well as long as the CPU can handle it.

    $400 is WAY too much for a tiny mobo that wont OC ryzen 3000 any higher then your typical AM4 board, on account of ryzen 3000 having 0 OC headroom, and even if it did, you dont need a $400 mobo to do that.

    This generation motherboards have jumped $100-200 in price while prancing out touted features that mean jack in real world usage. People need to stop wasting their money on this overpriced garbage.
  • guitarmassacre - Friday, October 25, 2019 - link

    In what world would this board sell for sub-$200? The cheapest itx is currently $220.
  • evernessince - Saturday, October 26, 2019 - link

    Given that X99 SFF boards sell for more then $200 and they have less PCIe bandwidth and a lower PCIe version, older Wifi, older USB gen, ect. I don't see a reason why this board wouldn't be worth more then $200. If people can justify paying Intel's premium for 3% more gaming performance, you can certainly justify twice the PCIe speed.
  • Daveteauk - Monday, May 18, 2020 - link

    $200?!? You are a dreamer! What colour is the sky in your world!?
  • Sivar - Friday, October 25, 2019 - link

    Yet another X570 with an embedded fan. Pass.
    This is a regression, from solid state to mechanical moving parts. Fan quality has increased since the horror stories of the 90's and 2000's, but an improved bad idea is still a bad idea.
    Why can only Gigabyte cool an 11W load passively?
  • PeachNCream - Friday, October 25, 2019 - link

    It actually has two 30mm fans rather than one.

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