How We Test
Our CPU reviewer initially experienced some performance issues with the Core i9-7900X on MSI firmware that weren’t present in the Core i7-7800X. MSI sent a new firmware on Friday, so I included both of these processors on both motherboards. Since I’m testing in a different hardware configuration than our CPU reviewer, the Core i7-6950X sets the baseline.
Test Hardware
| Sound | Integrated HD Audio |
| Network | Integrated Gigabit Networking |
| Software | |
| OS | Windows 10 64-bit |
| Graphics | GeForce Game Ready 382.53 |
Due to the tremendous heat of modern six and ten core processors, I was forced to upgrade from my previous Big Air cooler to our award-winning Fractal Design S24 liquid system. We could call that “putting our money where our words went.”
I needed something to hold that cooler; something that would point air towards the hot voltage regulators of each motherboard, yet I wasn’t prepared to cut open the restrictive fan grills of our previous Lian-Li platform. I found what I needed in an old review sample of Cooler Master’s HAF-XB.
Comparison Products
ASUS Prime X299-Deluxe
Asus Rampage V Extreme
Benchmark Suite
| Benchmark Settings | |
| Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings | |
| PCMark 8 | Version 2.7.613Home, Creative, Work, Storage, Applications (Adobe & Microsoft) |
| 3DMark 13 | Version 4.47.597.0Skydiver, Firestrike, Firestrike Extreme Default Presets |
| SiSoftware Sandra | Version 2016.03.22.21CPU Arithmetic, Multimedia, Cryptography, Memory Bandwidth |
| DiskSPD | 4k Random Read, 4k Random Write128k Sequential Read, 128k Sequential Write |
| Cinebench R15 | Build RC83328DEMOOpenGL Benchmark |
| CompuBench | Version 1.5.8Face Detection, Optical Flow, Ocean Surface, Ray Tracing |
| Application Tests and Settings | |
| LAME MP3 | Version 3.98.3Mixed 271MB WAV to mp3: Command: -b 160 --nores (160 Kb/s) |
| HandBrake CLI | Version: 0.9.9Sintel Open Movie Project: 4.19 GB 4k mkv to x265 mp4 |
| Blender | Version 2.68aBMW 27 CPU Render Benchmark, BMW 27 GPU Render Benchmark |
| 7-Zip | Version 16.02THG-Workload (7.6 GB) to .7z, command line switches "a -t7z -r -m0=LZMA2 -mx=9" |
| Adobe After Effects CC | Release 2015.3.0, Version 13.8.0.144PCMark driven routine |
| Adobe Photoshop CC | Release 2015.5.0. 20160603.r.88 x64PCMark driven routine (light and heavy) |
| Adobe InDesign CC | Release 2015.4, Build 11.4.0.90 x64PCMark driven routine |
| Adobe Illustrator | Release 2015.3.0, Version 20.0.0 (64-bit)PCMark driven routine |
| Game Tests and Settings | |
| Ashes of Singularity | Version 1.31.21360, DirectX 12, GPU-FocusedHigh PresetCrazy Preset |
| F1 2015 | 2015 Season, Abu Dhabi Track, RainMedium PresetUltra High Preset |
| Metro Last Light Redux | Version 3.00 64-bitHigh QualityVery High Quality |
| The Talos Principle | Version 267252, 64-Bit, DirectX11High Preset, Max Render 1920x1080Ultra Preset, Max Render 1920x1080 |
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