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CPU Computing & Rendering Performance
CPU Workstation Performance
The 3D graphics performance we just measured isn’t all that matters to professional rendering software. Applications run many other tasks (like simulations, compute jobs, preview rendering) on the CPU simultaneously. The full picture’s only achievable by looking at both of them together.
Many modern suites include modules that are based exclusively on computing and simulations. This means we need to go beyond just 3D workstation performance to form our opinion of these high-end CPUs.
SolidWorks, for instance, doesn't scale well with increasing core count, which means that even quad-core processors with high IPC (and SMT) do well. AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper processor keeps up with respectable results.
Frequency is what matters in Creo 3.0, so long as your CPU offers at least eight threads.
Clock rate and core count matter in 3ds Max 2015. Intel’s Core i7-7700K performs surprisingly well due to its high frequency. It would fare a lot worse if we turned off Hyper-Threading.
The CPU composite score includes rendering, which has its own separate section right below. Consequently, AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper processor does really well.
CPU Performance: Photorealistic Rendering
Final rendering doesn’t require a CPU that's good at everything. Rather, this task wants efficiency and fast parallel computation.
Nobody beats AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper when it comes to rendering in 3ds Max 2015. Core count is much more important than clock rate, and performance scales beautifully with added on-die execution resources.
The console version of LuxRender confirms these results. The 1950X is in a league of its own.
Last but not least, we take a look at Blender. The usual workload (with a sample size of 200 pixels) confirms what we saw in the preceding benchmarks. The Threadripper 1950X finishes way ahead of the field.
The results obtained from SPECwpc’s Blender loop look very similar, even though this benchmark presents a somewhat different task consisting of more than just rendering.
With the rendering portion of the workload easing up, a stock Intel Core i9-7900X rejoins the party.
This trend gets stronger once multiple factors play a role in the benchmark loop, not just photorealistic rendering. It’s not exclusively up to core count anymore, but IPC’s important as well in this scenario.
Intel’s Core i9 CPUs offer acceptable performance for the semi-professional field. However, practically the same can be said for AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper processor. Depending on the task, it ranges from being able to keep up reasonably well to beating the competition hands-down. We’ve waited a long time to say that. The accolades are well deserved!
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