A Look At Intel’s Core i9-7900X X-Series 10-core Processor

Benchmarking a CPU might sound like a simple enough task, but in order to deliver accurate, repeatable results, and not to mention results that don’t favor one vendor over another, strict guidelines need to be adhered to. That in turn makes for rigorous, time-consuming testing, but we feel that the effort is worth it.

This page exists so that we can be open about how we test, and give those who care about testing procedures an opportunity to review our methodology before flaming us in the comments (at least, one would hope). Here, you can see a breakdown of all of our test machines, specifics about the tests themselves, and other general information that might prove useful.

We’ll start with a look at our test platforms, for AMD’s AM4, as well as Intel’s LGA 1151, LGA2011-v3, and LGA2066.

Techgage’s CPU Testing Platforms

As tested configuration: AMD Ryzen 7 1800X (Summit Ridge)

As tested configuration: AMD Ryzen 7 1800X (Summit Ridge)

As tested configuration: AMD Ryzen 7 1700X (Summit Ridge)

As tested configuration: AMD Ryzen 7 1700X (Summit Ridge)

As tested configuration: AMD Ryzen 7 1700 (Summit Ridge)

As tested configuration: AMD Ryzen 7 1700 (Summit Ridge)

As tested configuration: AMD Ryzen 7 1600X (Summit Ridge)

As tested configuration: AMD Ryzen 7 1600X (Summit Ridge)

As tested configuration: AMD Ryzen 7 1500X (Summit Ridge)

As tested configuration: AMD Ryzen 7 1500X (Summit Ridge)

ASUS’ CROSSHAIR VI HERO makes it easy to attain a proper “stock” setup, even when increasing the default DRAM speed to 2933MHz. That’s a bit of a relief, as some ASUS boards automatically overclock the processor after changing absolutely anything performance-related – something that would have caused an issue here.

While DDR4-2800 was used across both Intel platforms, the same frequency couldn’t be used on the AM4 platform without skewing the CPU clock. Rather than back the speed down to DDR4-2666MHz, 2933MHz seemed like the better bet. That means the AM4 platform inherently gains a bandwidth boost, but it comes at the expense of the latencies, as the 14-14-14 timings used on both Intel platforms could not be used with either of the two DRAM kits AMD sent us for our Ryzen testing.

Also, I should point out that unlike the Intel systems, this AM4 one uses an air cooler. This is because a bracket wasn’t available for any cooler we have on hand. Thus, the decision was made for us to use the air cooler that AMD provided. We’ll be retesting all Ryzen CPUs over in the near-future, once we can liquid cool it.

As tested configuration: Intel Core i7-7700K (Kaby Lake)

As tested configuration: Intel Core i7-7700K (Kaby Lake)

As tested configuration: Intel Core i3-7350K (Kaby Lake)

As tested configuration: Intel Core i3-7350K (Kaby Lake)

As tested configuration: Intel Core i7-6700K (Skylake)

As tested configuration: Intel Core i7-6700K (Skylake)

ASUS’ ROG STRIX 270E Gaming is a fantastic motherboard with a long name, but it complicates out-of-the-box testing by defaulting its Ai Overclock Tuner setting to “Sync All Cores”, which ultimately runs the CPU faster than actual stock, giving the 7700K a 30 cb boost in Cinebench (+3%).

To get around this, after the DRAM speed and timings are configured, the Ai Overclock Tuner setting is switched to Auto, negating that out-of-the-box performance boost.

As tested configuration: Intel Core i7-6950X (Broadwell-E)

As tested configuration: Intel Core i7-6950X (Broadwell-E)

As tested configuration: Intel Core i7-6900K (Broadwell-E)

As tested configuration: Intel Core i7-6900K (Broadwell-E)

GIGABYTE’s X99-Ultra Gaming initially proved problematic when we used it previously, as it was imparting an always-on overclock when certain auto default features were enabled. Since then, we’ve adjusted the board to be a little more predictable at stock. Because X99 is a quad-channel platform, 4x8GB DDR4-2800 is used in lieu of 2x8GB that the dual-channel platforms are equipped with.

As tested configuration: Intel Core i9-7900X (Skylake-X)

As tested configuration: Intel Core i9-7900X (Skylake-X)

Unlike GIGABYTE’s X99-Ultra Gaming, which will automatically overclock your CPU behind your back, the Aorus Gaming 7 does no such thing. Instead, it does one better: it tells us the Turbo ratios we can expect, right inside of its EFI (4.5GHz for 2 cores, 4.1GHz for 4, 4.0GHz for 10). All that’s touched performance-wise in the EFI is the enabling of the XMP profile, which does not affect the stock clocks of the processor.

Windows Benchmarks

For the bulk of our testing, we use Windows 10 build 14393 with full updates as the base. After installation, LAN, audio, and chipset drivers are installed even if they are not explicitly needed (because Windows can use generic driver versions). Our basic guidelines beyond that are:

• Everything is disabled in “Customize settings” during OS install.
• 3D Vision and GeForce Experience are not installed with the graphics driver.
• V-SYNC is disabled in NVIDIA’s Control Panel.
• Some services are disabled: search, User Account Control, Firewall, and Defender.
• The OneDrive app is changed to not start with Windows.
• The “Performance” power profile is used, with screen timeouts disabled.
• All notifications are disabled through the Settings screen.
• Desktop resolution is run at 2560×1440.
• Testing doesn’t begin until the PC is idle (keeps a steady minimum wattage).

Adobe Lightroom CC 2015: RAW to JPEG Export

Autodesk 3ds Max 2015: (SPECapc 3ds Max 2015)

Autodesk 3ds Max 2017: Naomi Render (Model by Nikola Bechev)

Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2017: 4K RED Encode

Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2017: Blu-ray Concert Encode

Blender: Blenderman Render

Blender: Pavillon Render

Cinebench R15.038

dBpoweramp R15.1

POV-Ray 3.7

SiSoftware Sandra 2016 SP3

• Media: Adobe Lightroom
• Media: Adobe Premiere Pro
• Rendering: Autodesk 3ds Max 2015 (SPECapc)
• Rendering: Autodesk 3ds Max 2017
• Rendering: Blender
• Rendering: Cinebench
• Media: dBpoweramp
• Media: HandBrake
• Rendering: POV-Ray
• System: SiSoftware Sandra 2016
  (Links go the benchmark result)

All of the tests shown above are used in their stock configurations, outside of CUDA encoding being disabled on the Premiere Pro projects. If you’re a Blender user and wish to compare your system’s performance to ours, you can download the project files for free here.

Gaming Benchmarks

Because the biggest bottleneck in a game is the graphics card, the workload needs to be put on the CPU as much as possible in order to better understand the raw performance scaling. As such, all of the games tested here were run at 1080p and 1440p, with moderate detail levels. A single 4K benchmark in the form of 3DMark is included as well, which will highlight the differences when the GPU is the bottleneck.

Ashes of the Singularity: Game Settings

Ashes of the Singularity: Benchmark Screenshot

Battlefield 1: Game Settings

Battlefield 1: Game Settings

Battlefield 1: Benchmark Screenshot

Futuremark 3DMark

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands: Game Settings

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands: Game Settings

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands: Benchmark Screenshot

Rise of the Tomb Raider: Game Settings

Rise of the Tomb Raider: Benchmark Screenshot

Total War ATTILA: Game Settings

Total War ATTILA: Benchmark Screenshot

Watch Dogs 2: Game Settings

Watch Dogs 2: Game Settings

Watch Dogs 2: Benchmark Screenshot

• Synthetic: Ashes of the Singularity (CPU)
• Real-world: Battlefield 1 (CPU + GPU)
• Synthetic: Futuremark 3DMark (CPU + GPU)
• Synthetic: Ghost Recon: Wildlands (CPU + GPU)
• Synthetic: Rise of the Tomb Raider (CPU + GPU)
• Synthetic: Total War: ATTILA (CPU)
• Real-world: Watch Dogs 2 (CPU + GPU)
  (Links go the benchmark result)

Because Ashes offers the explicit ability to act only as a CPU benchmark, we opted to use that over the GPU version. The rest of the games aside from ATTILA are standard gaming benchmarks. While ATTILA can be used as a graphics benchmark, too, it’s incredibly CPU-bound, as the results will attest.

Linux Benchmarks

Ubuntu 17.04 is the OS of choice for our test bed, as it’s both simple to setup, and so de facto that everyone reading the results should feel at home. The OS is left as stock as possible, with the screen timeout disabled and open source Nouveau graphics driver used over the proprietary NVIDIA one.

Blender: Pavillon Render

GeekBench 4.0

Phoronix Test Suite 7.0

• Rendering: Blender
• Media: HandBrake
• System: Phoronix Test Suite
  (Links go the benchmark result)

Both the Blender and HandBrake tests are shared with the Windows testing. Examples of the performance differences between two OS versions can be seen on the results page. Phoronix Test Suite is used for the bulk of our Linux testing, as it supplies the tests we need, and makes them easy to use.

If you think there’s some information lacking on this page, or you simply want clarification on anything in particular, don’t hesitate to leave a comment.