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AMD vs Intel Single threading?

Soldato
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The chart you demonstrated above is a batch test. I'm not sure you've worded that correctly as ANY batch test is always FULLY MULTI-THREADED. Consequently, they have a lot to do with core count. Extra cache will aid performance though the main reason for the better performance of the 3900x is the full usage all core clock speed + IPC. The Threadripper 2950x is ~3.5ghz compared to the 3900x which is ~4.2Ghz plus it has higher IPC (~18% I believe). This alone could account for the 3900x's 12/24 better performance than the 2950x 16/32 not including the larger cache:
2950X = 16x3500 = 56,000
3900x = 12x4200 x1.18(IPC) = 59,472

Either way that graph is definitely a fully multi-threaded graph and I can pretty much guarantee you that every CPU on that list was maxing out all of its cores when doing that batch test. As such it is not really the topic of this thread, neither is power consumption or value for money etc. We're just concerned with single threaded performance or as I prefer, non-fully multi threaded performance.

I told you its a batch test.

Anandtech has done IPC tests for the actual core:

https://i.imgur.com/hXbCqQG.png

hXbCqQG.png

Again actually look at the graph CAREFULLY:

https://i.imgur.com/IkN4Pwy.png

IkN4Pwy.png

A Ryzen 7 2700X is 58% slower than a Ryzen 7 3700X in the test,and a Core i9 9900K is 45% slower in that test. All have the same core counts. Look at CB20,a Core i9 9900K is slightly ahead of the Ryzen 7 3700X. A Core i7 7820X is barely slower than a higher clocked Core i9 9900K,which is also interesting,so maybe memory bandwidth is also useful here.

The fact is the cache(and maybe even memory bandwidth) impacts the score massively - Lightroom exports are more determined by cache it appears,than the number of cores and the single threaded performance. The same with the latency stuff I was talking about. Performance in applications isn't just about pure single threaded performance,ie,there are other factors at work here.

If someone were to try and gauge IPC from using Lightroom export tests,a Core i9 9900K would be considered very poor against a Ryzen 7 3700X. That is the problem,there is more to apparent single threaded performance than just IPC or clockspeed. Even software which has lack of optimisations for newer CPUs,cause problems,ie,like I tried to explain with Fallout 4.

That game is latency and memory bandwidth bound,to the extent you can have the SAME HEDT Skylake cores on a mesh bus(such as the aforementioned Core i7 7820X),and the consumer Skylake cores on a ring bus,and the former is worse. So the same IPC. This game is bound by the first two cores which become saturated,and scales less to the next four.

PzzNd8y.png

A Core i7 7820X at worst should be at 3.6GHZ base clock,and the Core i5 7600K at best would be at a 4.2GHZ boost clock. For a maximum 16% clockspeed difference,performance is close to 30% higher on the Core i5 7600K with the same Skylake cores,less memory bandwidth,and half the cores(and the game will use the two extra threads in a minor way). That is what going from a ring bus to a higher latency mesh bus,and a different cache topology does,in a game which is still very single thread bound.

Zen performance not only increases with single threaded performance in the game,it also benefit a lot from latency and memory controller improvements from Zen to Zen2(can only going by forum tests for Zen2,but there is a decent improvement).

Then you move to audio processing benchmarks,where Zen and Zen+ were behind down to latency concerns. People thought it was down to only single threaded performance,but no it was latency too. Then you had some of the bioinformatics stuff which was single threaded,but its major bottleneck was RAM and memory bandwidth,which impacted performance more in the realworld.

You need to appreciate its not all about IPC*clockspeed for every piece of software,its about other things too which affect APPARENT single threaded and multi-threaded performance.

Also,in the case of many here they are talking about gaming too,which I have shown is just not about IPC,or single threaded performance. Things such as latency or even an engine not being optimised for newer CPUs,can cause big problems.

I know this from having to profile hardware recommendations for friends for non-standard software. On the interwebs people tend to only look at basic IPC and clockspeed as a measure. You need to consider different software maybe bottlenecked by other metrics,which affects performance. Its why wheeling out CB or any "insert name" software can't tell you a full picture.

This is why it needs to be investigated on a case by case basis.



With this being an overclockers forum, a few folks do run overclocked CPU's. The big issue for me is that most of the charts and reviews do not compare standard overclocked systems (High end air/AIO).

As I've demonstrated, there can be quite a disparity in the results when comparing stock systems with overclocked ones. This is more pronounced in software that uses less than the maximum threads available.

The fact that Humbug, an experienced member with over 30,000 posts, can be so off base believing his Ryzen 3600 with PBO would be faster than an overclocked 9700K in single threaded (or non fully multithreaded) software makes me wonder if there is a general lapse of understanding of;
  1. How software utilises cores/threads
  2. How overclocking on both platforms works.
If you look at DXO Photolab on Humbug's post you will see it uses about 8 threads.
C7PJKWOt1I3lMrak7xnLqWVA-mHdFh2kCh8XPnvN4G2rf8iy5va8Xl6gQTHXygl7LCfCEwxrUkcTOWkumQO-owU75iStIDVMZHjDqSLSFeCGdMM=s0-d-e1-ft



My 3900X exhibits a similar behaviour:
Mut6bQXX62q792c3GXNUGgE0nbyISMyF_hImNOGAhQtiZS7D5jSz4WANZZp6RG1fLNhlFQmhXLGyp-o62UDF-OfRpVDHbDpnuggYclajpnRfGzU=s0-d-e1-ft


Though look at the core clock speeds for the 3900X taken during just the 18secs while DXO Photolab was exporting during the test.
The columns are Current - Minimum - Maximum - Average
MuiMkFnT-9aIRhTe-UFL49Lkqln4hmpxukaE30wGhWz5BJADlCcuVBU-5_HjH6WckkjTnoMn4B-oZF3_ngmBzqmuCww6UlSnLK7G6xgUwAJn7SI=s0-d-e1-ft


You can see that 8 cores are using the average of ~4.25Ghz

This is the 3900X core clock during the ~9min Single Thread run on Cinebench r20
PzJxWjYRSCxGCmzdjTFhNwFd2OCrgxHWRDVYbD_vQmnwjnaIRenNnA2xNKTfE94g_K5I4FeYlY3AkZkuciQ6_yTVWoI3BAEJgYt7sfswYdX1Nd0=s0-d-e1-ft


You can see that 1 core did achieve 4.6Ghz though the average of that core (along with 1 other) was 4.5Ghz. The other cores are way below it.

We all know that the advertised clock speed of Ryzen 3900X is 4.6Ghz but what a few people don't understand is that under most conditions where software is using several threads then it does not reach that speed, plus you normally can not do an all core overclock exceeding 4.6Ghz. Most people will be able to do all core overclock 4.3-4.4Ghz. Though as Grim5 stated earlier in the thread, doing an all core overclock on Ryzen 3000 will lessen Single-Threaded performance.

Compare the DXO Photolab test of the 9700k at stock speeds.
cvRGYGuk5CflmxdvQUE5eNXyM5ePi38JZvvDbhoT3OFm0n6tiBsrBTM6aie7zaIL3D_mxEtIZc8XJOLBCf4ND9Y24GW-eLygskFoGZq8GCjg=s0-d-e1-ft


and now overclocked.
49658171413_3ee268b472.jpg


The Cinebench R20 Single-Threaded difference between Humbug's 3600X and my 9700K is ~12%. The Geekbench single threaded benchmark difference is 20% (I made a mistake earlier running Geekbench in 64bit, the 32bit difference is 20%) but the real world performance in software that can leverage ~8 cores/threads then the difference is ~35%.

Also if you look at the Photoshop Puget Overall score for the top rated systems score is ~940 for the 3900X, 3960X and 9900K, my 9700K scores 1136, which is ~20% faster. This is simply the current position when it comes to overclocked systems on both platforms and has been for the last 6 months. This may well change in the next 6 months but that is another topic.

Those PS tests are probably a combination of lightly threaded and multi-threaded though,if not a Core i3 7350k at 5GHZ would score in the top few percent.

:p

The rest of this also you don't need to explain this to me - you need to explain it to Humbug as we had this discussion before in another thread. However,as I told you before I don't overclock and neither do almost all of my friends,including those who are interested in photography. I only know one mate who would overclock their system. A lot of them won't overclock as they need full stability for certain stuff they run. I don't do it because I have a mini-ITX system(and yes there are those who like overclocking those,but its not what I do). My previous two Intel CPUs were desktop Xeons which were locked. So for me the stock results are relevant in my use case and they are also especially relevant for the SFF systems I run,as they are more TDP limited.
This may well change in the next 6 months but that is another topic.

You see the biggest change I have heard rumoured is the move from 4 core CCX to an 8 core CCX. If this happens and it means there is no inter-CCX latency and lower memory-CCX latency with Zen3,I think that will have a larger impact on performance than core IPC and clockspeed improvements,especially in certain games and in audio processing. Personally I would be very surprised if Zen3 is a massive improvement in IPC and clockspeed over Zen2. After all AMD is not using 7NM EUV.
 
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Soldato
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@CAT-THE-FIFTH some good points there. A lot of moving parts to consider these days. The software seems to be a much bigger factor than the hardware in a lot of cases. I was surprised at the huge performance uplift that can be had with running some tasks on Linux Vs W10. Intel have spent millions optimising software for multicore CPU's, they wouldn't be doing that if there weren't large gains to be had. Fortunately AMD have also gained from that too. There's no substitute for testing exactly what you want to run to see how well it performs. Much more reliable than extrapolating theoretical IPC. It's what you don't know that you don't know that catches you out ;)

Has anyone considered that due to the slow progress from Intel at the moment AMD might for Zen 3 then Zen3+ on AM4? First iteration on 7nm and a refresh on 7nm EUV. More products for the news cycle, more revenue and a bit more time to refine AM5?
 
Associate
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However,as I told you before I don't overclock and neither do almost all of my friends,including those who are interested in photography. I only know one mate who would overclock their system. A lot of them won't overclock as they need full stability for certain stuff they run. I don't do it because I have a mini-ITX system(and yes there are those who like overclocking those,but its not what I do). My previous two Intel CPUs were desktop Xeons which were locked. So for me the stock results are relevant in my use case and they are also especially relevant for the SFF systems I run,as they are more TDP limited.
.

And this is where the biggest disconnect seems to be in these discussions.

The main advantage of an Intel platform is it's ability to OC and if you're not taking advantage of that, it's not a good play. Getting a 9900k to 5.2/5.3 with power limits removed is a different ball game than running one within spec. You're also not limited to any type of IF ratio on RAM so as long as you have a good ram bin/imc/mobo, the limit is your knowledge and patience.

The AMD platform is more attractive for plug and play and gives you very close to max performance out of the box. However, if you're willing to tune, the Intel platform will just pull ahead comfortably in virtually all scenarios given core quantity parity.
 
Soldato
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@CAT-THE-FIFTH some good points there. A lot of moving parts to consider these days. The software seems to be a much bigger factor than the hardware in a lot of cases. I was surprised at the huge performance uplift that can be had with running some tasks on Linux Vs W10. Intel have spent millions optimising software for multicore CPU's, they wouldn't be doing that if there weren't large gains to be had. Fortunately AMD have also gained from that too. There's no substitute for testing exactly what you want to run to see how well it performs. Much more reliable than extrapolating theoretical IPC. It's what you don't know that you don't know that catches you out ;)

Has anyone considered that due to the slow progress from Intel at the moment AMD might for Zen 3 then Zen3+ on AM4? First iteration on 7nm and a refresh on 7nm EUV. More products for the news cycle, more revenue and a bit more time to refine AM5?

Well you can see that with the 32 core and 64 core AMD CPUs which fall apart with certain applications under Windows 10,and AMD has a hill to climb trying to get over Intel specific software optimisations. So in that sense Ryzen CPUs need to brute force older applications or those which don't get as good optimisations for newer CPUs. TBF,it also does effect the Intel HEDT CPUs too in gaming.

I think for AMD the consoles having Zen2 will help them,as at the engine level there will be optimisations that will need to be incorporated.

And this is where the biggest disconnect seems to be in these discussions.

The main advantage of an Intel platform is it's ability to OC and if you're not taking advantage of that, it's not a good play. Getting a 9900k to 5.2/5.3 with power limits removed is a different ball game than running one within spec. You're also not limited to any type of IF ratio on RAM so as long as you have a good ram bin/imc/mobo, the limit is your knowledge and patience.

The AMD platform is more attractive for plug and play and gives you very close to max performance out of the box. However, if you're willing to tune, the Intel platform will just pull ahead comfortably in virtually all scenarios given core quantity parity.

I don't disagree with that TBF,but I think also one of the things here,is back in the day,even the Intel CPUs,were nowhere near maximum performance,ie,a Q6600 and E5200 could easily get between 30% to 60% by overclocking,so for me I might be willing to put up with extra cooling,etc and I did do that in a Shuttle SFF PC with modified cooling,but it was PITA so after that I just wanted something not so noisy and hot under load. The Core i5 2500K also was another one from recent memory which people got a huge jump in performance with overclocking. But even with the newer Intel CPUs,you are slowly getting closer to closer to maximum performance out of the box. I think the newer generations on 10NM will be like AMD especially if 10NM does not clock as high,ie,Intel will optimise their boosting mechanisms. To some degree we are already seeing this with the mobile CPUs.
 
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Soldato
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And this is where the biggest disconnect seems to be in these discussions.

The main advantage of an Intel platform is it's ability to OC and if you're not taking advantage of that, it's not a good play. Getting a 9900k to 5.2/5.3 with power limits removed is a different ball game than running one within spec. You're also not limited to any type of IF ratio on RAM so as long as you have a good ram bin/imc/mobo, the limit is your knowledge and patience.

The AMD platform is more attractive for plug and play and gives you very close to max performance out of the box. However, if you're willing to tune, the Intel platform will just pull ahead comfortably in virtually all scenarios given core quantity parity.

5.2ghz is unreasonable for most buyers.

Only 1 in 20 9900k achieve it AND it was time dependent, buying the 9900k while 9900KS was in production meant even getting just 5.0ghz was rare.

Of course you could just buy a binned 5.2ghz capable 9900k instead of playing the lottery but the price of that is nearly the same as 2x 3950x or one 3960x... so you can decide
 
Soldato
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I know this from having to profile hardware recommendations for friends for non-standard software. On the interwebs people tend to only look at basic IPC and clockspeed as a measure. You need to consider different software maybe bottlenecked by other metrics,which affects performance. Its why wheeling out CB or any "insert name" software can't tell you a full picture.

This is why it needs to be investigated on a case by case basis.
I wholeheartedly agree with pretty much everything you wrote, especially the bit I quoted above. On the subject of the German graph, I don't really put too much stock in the testing methodology, if you're running memory at different speeds then you're bound to have big differences based on memory alone. Though you wrote it has "nothing" to do with core count what you have clarified is that it is "not only" core count + IPC, which I'm well aware of as I also do audio work;

Here is the best latency I get on the 3900X (though notice the comparable read/write/copy)
49661207633_756998696c.jpg


compared to the 9700K
49661409478_dba5588b77.jpg


and this is overall memory performance using Passmark.
3900X
49661749216_bac188cbe3_z.jpg


9700K
49661437028_f80acf721c_c.jpg


Though as we known synthetic benchmarks might give you an idea, there's nothing like real world software or games so I tried Shadow of the Tomb Raider as that is a recent title that uses several cores and has a very good in-built benchmark which also gives a 'GPU Bound' rating. Ideally you want to be 100% GPU Bound.

First is 1440p as I consider that to be the average resolution for those with high end GPU's and we know that at this resolution that it is more about the GPU though the CPU has a role to play helping to keep up the minimum frame rate.

3900X 1440p
49653241541_8e7a856f44_k.jpg


9700k 1440p
49661382378_2a42771248_k.jpg


and just to try 1080p to more isolate the CPU's etc

3900X 1080p
49653241351_cb44e9b11e_k.jpg


9700k 1080p
49661382308_2b8e910308_k.jpg
 
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True, not a patch on Asus or EVGA for memory though Asus messed up for CPU overclocking with Z390; My Z390 Maximus XI Code ran 10c hotter with exactly the same CPU/Cooling and voltage compared to GB due to the much poorer VRM's.

If they just focused on RTL tuning the mem issues would be pretty much resolves on the master at least but they seemed to have moved on. Let's see if any lessons are learned for z490.

btw thanks for actually doing testing along the way rather than typing or using reviews without context.
 
Soldato
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If Intel have that kind of lead with their next big lineup (2022?) i will probably switch back to them, lets hope AMD can get that latency down quite a bit with Zen 3 and we'll see what happens with gaming performance.
 
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If Intel have that kind of lead with their next big lineup (2022?) i will probably switch back to them, lets hope AMD can get that latency down quite a bit with Zen 3 and we'll see what happens with gaming performance.

Took out two squads in APEX by myself with stock R5 3600 and 5700 at 1440. All those in game bench marks only show half the story. Does not take to get to the leader board in every game to enjoy gaming. Now, if im a pro, yah. I'll spend 2000 quids. For sure most of us here are just casual gamer.
 
Soldato
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I wholeheartedly agree with pretty much everything you wrote, especially the bit I quoted above. On the subject of the German graph, I don't really put too much stock in the testing methodology, if you're running memory at different speeds then you're bound to have big differences based on memory alone. Though you wrote it has "nothing" to do with core count what you have clarified is that it is "not only" core count + IPC, which I'm well aware of as I also do audio work;

Here is the best latency I get on the 3900X (though notice the comparable read/write/copy)
49661207633_756998696c.jpg


compared to the 9700K
49661409478_dba5588b77.jpg


and this is overall memory performance using Passmark.
3900X
49661749216_bac188cbe3_z.jpg


9700K
49661437028_f80acf721c_c.jpg


Though as we known synthetic benchmarks might give you an idea, there's nothing like real world software or games so I tried Shadow of the Tomb Raider as that is a recent title that uses several cores and has a very good in-built benchmark which also gives a 'GPU Bound' rating. Ideally you want to be 100% GPU Bound.

First is 1440p as I consider that to be the average resolution for those with high end GPU's and we know that at this resolution that it is more about the GPU though the CPU has a role to play helping to keep up the minimum frame rate.

3900X 1440p
49653241541_8e7a856f44_k.jpg


9700k 1440p
49661382378_2a42771248_k.jpg


and just to try 1080p to more isolate the CPU's etc

3900X 1080p
49653241351_cb44e9b11e_k.jpg


9700k 1080p
49661382308_2b8e910308_k.jpg

Error post
 
Soldato
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If they just focused on RTL tuning the mem issues would be pretty much resolves on the master at least but they seemed to have moved on. Let's see if any lessons are learned for z490.

btw thanks for actually doing testing along the way rather than typing or using reviews without context.
Yes, the RTL's and IOL's can fluctuate from boot to boot. They are the reason that 3900Mhz C15 gives me better scores than 4000C15 when ALL the other timings are exactly the same.

On the subject of non fully multi thread performance, just trying to extrapolate from the plethora of charts can sometime lead to distorted perceptions, especially when systems used don't exactly match the one you're using.

It's been great having the two systems and this has allowed me to see past some of the BS banded about. As Anandtech discovered, it really is quite straight forward and almost the norm to be able to overclock an R0 9700K to ~5.2Ghz and at those speeds it really is the king when it comes to gaming in the majority of games.

If people are doing anything that can leverage all threads, only ever run everything at stock or on a budget then Ryzen 3000 is a no brainer.
 
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It's been great having the two systems and this has allowed me to see past some of the BS banded about. As Anandtech discovered, it really is quite straight forward and almost the norm to be able to overclock an R0 9700K to ~5.2Ghz and at those speeds it really is the king when it comes to gaming in the majority of games.

If people are doing anything that can leverage all threads, only ever run everything at stock or on a budget then Ryzen 3000 is a no brainer.

Yeah I did all my own testing for close to a year as there is much to test but also learn the real world impact of various configurations. A lot of the reviewers are sadly rushed to make content and things that can be heavily impact are often overlooked.

That review linked earlier by Humbug for example has all sorts of issues but I don't fault the reviewers as I'm sure the they were under a lot of time pressure to have something out by embargo.

The hardware companies need to go a better job of delivering hardware well in advance so it's not a rush to publish.
 
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Caporegime
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Yeah I did all my own testing for close to a year as there is much to test but also learn the real world impact of various configurations. A lot of the reviewers are sadly rushed to make content and things that can be heavily impact are often overlooked.

That review linked earlier by Humbug for example has all sorts of issues but I don't fault the reviewers as I'm sure the they were under a lot of time pressure to have something out by embargo.

The hardware companies need to go a better job of delivering hardware well in advance so it's not a rush to publish.

Any reviewer worth their salt will show you similar power consumption levels on the 9900K, you will find some who show a lot less, $$$$$$$ what they are doing is power consumption testing those CPU on junk TDP locked Motherboards $$$$$$$$$, Intel's complete pie in the sky TDP. Like PCPer, that's a fact, they have been caught doing it.
 
Soldato
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Yeah I did all my own testing for close to a year as there is much to test but also learn the real world impact of various configurations. A lot of the reviewers are sadly rushed to make content and things that can be heavily impact are often overlooked.

That review linked earlier by Humbug for example has all sorts of issues but I don't fault the reviewers as I'm sure the they were under a lot of time pressure to have something out by embargo.

The hardware companies need to go a better job of delivering hardware well in advance so it's not a rush to publish.

Thats why I place less value on old reviews anmd so should you.
I personally dont care about any reviews done more than 3 months ago, always trust the latest results to reflect your real world experience
 
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Thats why I place less value on old reviews anmd so should you.
I personally dont care about any reviews done more than 3 months ago, always trust the latest results to reflect your real world experience

Unfortunately, the narrative is generally set around launch and it’s really hard to unwind after the fact. add a dose of sensationalism to get more hits and you carry that anchor with you until the next launch.
 
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Ryzen 7 4800 Beats the Intel Core i9-9900KF in CPU-Z Benchmark while Drawing just 45W

I score about 500 @ 4.2Ghz boost. The Ryzen R7 4800H is a Zen 2 mobile part, its probably boosting to about 4.6Ghz single core, this isn't even the highest end Zen 2 mobile part, that would be the Ryzen R9 4900HS.

The single and multicore performance for a 45 Watt part is impressive, that's down to 7nm and a very good architecture. Its basically full fat 9900K performance in a laptop.

MUF0wvM.png

WAvRR4b.png
 
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