Civilization VI AI & Graphics Test, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Civilization VI AI Test
Civilization VI spawns 45 threads during the CPU test. However, higher core counts don't seem to have a big impact on frame rates. Instead, the stock Core i5-7600K handily beats Ryzen 5 1600X in its default configuration. What's more, the six-core Ryzen 5 chip beats AMD's Ryzen 7 1700, which boasts more cores, but lower clock rates. We can assume this game responds better to high clock rates and IPC throughput than lots of cores.
Civilization VI Graphics Test
The stock Ryzen 5 doesn't gain much from turning SMT off in Civilization VI's graphics test. In fact, this surprisingly causes a significant number of frame time spikes.
See those purple spikes in the frame time chart? Those affect all of the Ryzen 7 processors we've tested under Civilization VI, but they don't plague the stock Ryzen 5 1600X. It's also notable that the 1600X provides a much higher frame rate than Ryzen 7 1700, which we attribute to its higher clock rate.
A stock Ryzen 5 1600X beats Intel's Core i5-7600K at its stock settings. Again, though, overclocking Kaby Lake to 5 GHz yields chart-topping performance that Ryzen can't match at 4 GHz.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided remains the only game that Ryzen processors dominate in convincing fashion. The entire Intel line-up falls well below AMD's 1600X, apparently bottlenecked by something the Ryzen chips overcome. Overclocking doesn't help, based on the Core i5-7600K's performance at 5 GHz.
Interestingly, we observe lower performance and more frame time spikes when we disable the 1600X's SMT functionality. Apparently, turning SMT off isn't always a good way to make Ryzen a better gaming CPU.
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