Benchmark Results: Content Creation
In Intel’s Second-Gen Core CPUs: The Sandy Bridge Review, Intel’s Core i7-2600K was the fastest processor in our lineup of ten different tested chips. None of the Extreme Edition models made it in that story, but several folks requested results from the flagship processors. Well, here you have it.
Using the mental ray renderer in 3ds Max, we’re able to visually see the software taking advantage of all of the Core i7-990X’s logical cores. The result is a fairly significant performance improvement in switching from the quad-core -2600K to the Gulftown-based CPUs.
There is not, however, much difference between the incoming flagship and its predecessor.
AMD’s $240 Phenom II X6 1100T is able to shove its way past the $300 Core i7-960 using two extra physical cores to best Intel’s eight logical processors.
The Core i7-2600K also ruled our Photoshop CS5 benchmark previously. Again, that changes here. Both Extreme Edition processors glide right by. Though, again, we see much less differentiation between the -990X and -980X.
This was another compelling victory for the Core i7-2600K in my Sandy Bridge launch coverage. However, the Core i7-990X and -980X both show us better results when they’re factored in.
Clearly, Adobe spent little time optimizing for AMD’s processor lineup. The six-core Phenom II X6 1100T gets decimated by even the quad-core Core i7-960.
Premiere Pro would be an excellent use case for Intel in showing off what six cores and 12 threads can do, demonstrating that there is an audience for these $1000 CPUs. However, I have an even easier way to cut all of these times down to a minute or two: buy a CUDA-enabled GeForce card. When you enable hardware-based acceleration of Adobe’s Mercury Playback Engine, encode times plunge (Adobe CS5: 64-bit, CUDA-Accelerated, And Threaded Performance).
After Effects CS5 doesn’t emphasize parallelism as intensively as Premiere Pro. The Core i7-2600K slides right past both of the hexa-core heavy-hitters. Moreover, the difference between first place and last is much smaller.
The results here are similar to After Effects, and the Core i7-2600K outmaneuvers both Extreme Edition processors.
Cinebench’s built-in CPU benchmark favors the six-core Gulftown-based chips, but the OpenGL renderer turns back much better results from Core i7-2600K.
