Media Encoding and Rendering
Audacity MP3 Encode
Keeping mind that lower is better on this test, the Core i9-7980XE and Core i9-7960X are able to offer better single threaded performance than the 16-core Threadripper 1950X that is beneficial to this legacy, but still common, audio encoding workload.
Handbrake 1.0.2
Handbrake results are interesting. Even though the Core i9-7980XE (18-core) is 20% faster than the Core i9-7900X (10-core), it is actually still slightly behind the Threadripper 1950X (though only by 3%).
X264 Benchmark 5.0.1
Another interesting set of results. As it turns out, we run all of our testing and benchmarks with Windows 10 in the "Balanced" power mode. For some reason, the first pass of the X264 Encode benchmark behaves very differently in that mode than in "High Performance" based on conversations with Intel. While that warrants further discussion for future testing, our results remain in Balanced mode today. As a result, 7960X performs better than the 7980XE and both of the new Intel parts are slower than the Threadripper options. Pass 1 is only lightly threaded.
Pass 2 is a more traditional workhorse part of the encoding process. Here, the Core i9-7980XE is nearly 5% faster than the Threadripper 1950X and 30% faster than the Core i9-7900X.
Cinebench R15
Single threaded Cinebench R15 results again show the advantage that Intel has over AMD in frequency and IPC. The Core i9-7980XE is 19% faster than the AMD Threadripper 1950X and essentially on par with the Core i7-7700K, which is a good sign. In the multi-threaded test, the Core i9-7980XE is 11% faster than the top AMD result from the 1950X and 53% faster than the Core i9-7900X. Also interesting: the Core i9-7980XE is 3.4x the result from the Core i7-7700K!
POV-Ray
POV-Ray is another example of a highly threaded workload that can fully utilize more cores and more clock speed. The Core i9-7980XE is 11% faster than the AMD Threadripper 1950X. Even if we match core to core, the Core i9-7960X is about 6% faster than the 1950X, both with 16-cores.
Blender 2.78b
In both of our tested Blender workloads, the Core i9-7980XE and 7960X are faster than both Threadripper options. In the BMW test that gap is over 20% and on the Gooseberry file it is 42%!
Intel 18C SL-X -$2000
AMD 32C
Intel 18C SL-X -$2000
AMD 32C EPYC 7551P -$2100
Want a *real* workstation ? You don’t want Intel then. Because single socket EPYC buries everything they’ve got. But the ‘press’ never mentions it. They just keep comparing $2000 Intel chips to $1000 Threadripper.
Bunch of shills. You’re right, workstation buyers *don’t* care about cost so much, which is exactly why they will spend the extra $100 on an EPYC, and leave this expensive, hot, zero value for money ‘kidde 18C’ junk from Intel in the trash, where it belongs.