The Intel Skylake-X Review: Core i9 7900X, i7 7820X and i7 7800X Tested

Benchmarking Suite 2017

2017 CPU

For our review, we are implementing our fresh CPU testing benchmark suite, using new scripts developed specifically for this testing. This means that with a fresh OS install, we can configure the OS to be more consistent, install the new benchmarks, maintain version consistency without random updates and start running the tests in under 5 minutes. After that it's a one button press to start an 8-10hr test (with a high-performance core) with nearly 100 relevant data points in the benchmarks given below. The tests cover a wide range of segments, some of which will be familiar but some of the tests are new to benchmarking in general, but still highly relevant for the markets they come from.

Our new CPU tests go through six main areas. We cover the Web (we've got an un-updateable version of Chrome 56), general system tests (opening tricky PDFs, emulation, brain simulation, AI, 2D image to 3D model conversion), rendering (ray tracing, modeling), encoding (compression, AES, h264 and HEVC), office based tests (PCMark and others), and our legacy tests, throwbacks from another generation of bad code but interesting to compare.

A side note on OS preparation. As we're using Windows 10, there's a large opportunity for something to come in and disrupt our testing. So our default strategy is multiple: disable the ability to update as much as possible, disable Windows Defender, uninstall OneDrive, disable Cortana as much as possible, implement the high performance mode in the power options, and disable the internal platform clock which can drift away from being accurate if the base frequency drifts (and thus the timing ends up inaccurate).

Web Tests on Chrome 56

Sunspider
Kraken
Octane
Web13
Web15

System Tests

PDF Opening
FCAT
3DPM v21
Dolphin v5.0
DigiCortex v1.20
Agisoft PS v1.0

Rendering Tests

Corona 1.3
Blender 2.78
LuxMark CPU C++
LuxMark CPU OpenCL
POV-Ray
CB15 ST
CB15 MT

Encoding Tests

7-Zip
WinRAR 5.4
TrueCrypt
HandBrake 264-LQ
HandBrake 264-HQ
HandBrake 265-4K

Office / Professional

PCMark8
Chromium Compile
SYSmark 2014 SE

Legacy Tests

3DPM v1 ST / MT
x264 HD 3 Pass 1, Pass 2
CB 11.5 ST / MT
CB 10 ST / MT

A side note - a couple of benchmarks (LuxMark) weren't fully 100% giving good data during testing. Need to go back and re-work this part of our testing.

2017 GPU

For our 2017 set of GPU tests, we wanted to think big. There are a lot of users in the ecosystem that prioritize gaming above all else, especially when it comes to choosing the correct CPU. If there's a chance to save $50 and get a better graphics card for no loss in performance, then this is the route that gamers would prefer to tread. The angle here though is tough - lots of games have different requirements and cause different stresses on a system, with various graphics cards having different reactions to the code flow of a game. Then users also have different resolutions and different perceptions of what feels 'normal'. This all amounts to more degrees of freedom than we could hope to test in a lifetime, only for the data to become irrelevant in a few months when a new game or new GPU comes into the mix. Just for good measure, let us add in DirectX 12 titles that make it easier to use more CPU cores in a game to enhance fidelity.

Our original list of nine games planned in February quickly became six, due to the lack of professional-grade controls on Ubisoft titles. If you want to see For Honor, Steep or Ghost Recon: Wildlands benchmarked on AnandTech, point Ubisoft Annecy or Ubisoft Montreal in my direction. While these games have in-game benchmarks worth using, unfortunately they do not provide enough frame-by-frame detail to the end user, despite using it internally to produce the data the user eventually sees (and it typically ends up obfuscated by another layer as well). I would instead perhaps choose to automate these benchmarks via inputs, however the extremely variable loading time is a strong barrier to this.

So we have the following benchmarks as part of our 4/2 script, automated to the point of a one-button run and out pops the results four hours later, per GPU. Also listed are the resolutions and settings used.

• Civilization 6 (1080p Ultra, 4K Ultra)
• Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation* (1080p Extreme, 4K Extreme)
• Shadow of Mordor (1080p Ultra, 4K Ultra)
• Rise of the Tomb Raider #1 - GeoValley (1080p High, 4K Medium)
• Rise of the Tomb Raider #2 - Prophets (1080p High, 4K Medium)
• Rise of the Tomb Raider #3 - Mountain (1080p High, 4K Medium)
• Rocket League (1080p Ultra, 4K Ultra)
• Grand Theft Auto V (1080p Very High, 4K High)

For each of the GPUs in our testing, these games (at each resolution/setting combination) are run four times each, with outliers discarded. Average frame rates, 99th percentiles and 'Time Under x FPS' data is sorted, and the raw data is archived.

The four GPUs we've managed to obtain for these tests are:

• MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X 8G
• ASUS GTX 1060 Strix 6G
• Sapphire Nitro R9 Fury 4GB
• Sapphire Nitro RX 480 8GB

In our testing script, we save a special thing for the GTX 1080 here. The following tests are also added:

• Civilization 6 (8K Ultra, 16K Lowest)

These two benchmarks, with a little coercion, are able to be run beyond the specifications of the monitor being used, allowing for 'future' testing of GPUs at 8K and 16K with some amusing results. We are only running these tests on the GTX 1080, because there's no point watching a slideshow more than once.

*A note on Ashes. During our initial testing, 8K and 16K testing were working great. But a game update around v.2.2 broke our scripting methods due to a new splashscreen/popup. We worked to find a solution that worked in order to start testing, however it still remains a kludge and the new resolution testing system stopped working. If it ever works again, we might start testing in 8K/16K.