System Builder Marathon, Q1 2013: $800 Enthusiast PC

Results: Adobe Creative Suite

As you already know, we run two scripted Photoshop benchmarks: one that is threaded and runs on our CPUs and another that leverages OpenCL acceleration to tax our graphics cards. They're completely different workloads, which is why performance varies so much.

In the CPU-oriented test, last quarter's FX comes out ahead at stock clock rates. Then, both processors tie when we overclock. The OpenCL-based benchmark shows a huge advantage favoring AMD's Radeon HD 7870 over the GeForce GTX 670.

Meanwhile, we know that Adobe's Acrobat X is single-threaded. Naturally, then, our PDF document creation workload favors the Core i5 stock and overclocked.

Premiere Pro's media encoder is threaded, and our results from that benchmark consequently look a lot like the other content creation apps we've already tested.

After Effects has always seemed very sensitive to memory allocation, and AMD's ability to operate on eight threads in parallel might actually be hurting it in our AE benchmark. The Intel platform gets more memory per core, and consequently turns in notably better scores at stock and overclocked settings.

  • DragonClaw
    The table outlining the components of the build. It should read 800$ and not 1000$, I think?
    Reply
  • abbadon_34
    guessed they reused the previous template, sure it'll be fixed soon and people will wonder what we're talking about
    Reply
  • mayankleoboy1
    Although we're going to miss the snappy boot-up times and almost-instant application launches the solid-state drive enabled, we probably won't be penalized too much in the benchmark results.

    And therein lies the problem with benchmarks.
    An enthusiast PC, without a SSD boot drive?
    Reply
  • manitoublack
    That's a great value PC there. Would be hard pressed to think of a more compelling combination for the money. Well done.

    Reply
  • qTrueno
    The heat sink breaks easily but it is a good cheap solution, as long it doesn't break.
    Reply
  • ipwn3r456
    If this machine were at $1000 budget, might as well add a 128GB SSD, and replace the HD 7870 to a HD 7950.
    Reply
  • butremor
    "Overclocking

    Overclocking the Core i5-3550K is"
    Reply
  • ARICH5
    i think you couldve found a cheaper z77 solution and squieezed in a 64mb cache hdd
    Reply
  • dudewitbow
    ipwn3r456If this machine were at $1000 budget, might as well add a 128GB SSD, and replace the HD 7870 to a HD 7950.

    there would be marginal performance boost from switching from a 7870 LE(nerfed 7950, heck can call it a 7930 and it would be partially correct in a way) to an actual 7950. Though its likely the outcome for the 1k budget coming up next.
    Reply
  • abhijitkalyane
    I really wasn't expecting the AMD chip to be so close to the i5. I'm a bit surprised. The power consumption figures look bad for the FX though.
    Reply