ICYMI, 3DMark CPU Profile Mk. 1

I Pity The Fool That Thought They Wouldn’t Have To Dig Out Old Silicon Again

3DMark have just updated their suite of benchmarks to include a new 3DMark CPU Profile Mk. 1 test specifically focused on measuring multithreaded performance.  It runs six tests, the first with maximum available cores, then 16, 8, 4, 2 and a final test of which you will never guess the count.  Currently it seems the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X is the king, with the Threadripper 3970X also showing up many slots, but the third and fourth places belong to the Intel Xeon W-3175X.

If you own the 3DMark Suite you can add the DLC (sigh) for free, if you don’t it is currently on sale for ~$5.00 on Steam as are many things during their latest inwalletary temptation.  It offers an interesting insight into how the performance of your CPU will scale with programs that are not as aware of multithreaded processors as one might wish, as well as providing a look at how different architectures handle loads.  As there were only an AMD 5800X and Threadripper 1900X on hand, that is what will be presented, the frequencies of the processors do not match nor the memory; DDR4-3200 for the Threadripper and DDR4-3600 for the Ryzen 7 5800X.

The bottom of your results will offer a look at both the frequency and temperature of your CPU which you can toggle between, offering a detailed look at how your silicon of choice handles the benchmark.  This is a nice gauge of how capable your cooling system is, a drop in frequency attended by a commensurate rise in temperature might indicate a possible improvement to be made.  You are able to mouse around the resulting graph to see specific values during the tests and idle periods, and compare your results as well of course.

The Ryzen 7 5800X is rather enjoying the ClockTuner v2.0 for Ryzen which is why the frequencies are so solid, though there is a new 2.1 which preemptively obsoletes these benchmarks; as is traditional.  The veteran Threadripper has but two CCX cores to give, which does hinder it compared to it’s brethren but offers an insight into the condition of AMD’s evolution. There will be some scrambling to see how this new benchmark fits into the current ecosystem, with new versions in the near future a likely occurrence, but the more tools you have to evaluate your current hardware and future purchases the better!

Though, someone does have to run all those tests.