AMD Ryzen 9 7900X And 7950X CPU Review: Fantastic Zen 4 Performance Gains
LAME XP Audio Encoding
For this test, we created 16-copies of our own 223MB WAV file (an 11 minute Grateful Dead jam) and converted it to the MP3 format using the multi-thread capable LAME XP tool. Processing times are recorded below, listed in minutes:seconds. Shorter times equate to better performance.
Intel's architectures have historically performed really well with the LAME encoder, but AMD's new Zen 4 based processors have caught up. The Ryzen 9 7950X ties for the top spot, followed by the 12-core Ryzen 9 7900X. What is also noteworthy is that the Ryzen 9 7900X with "only" 12 cores is able to overtake the 16-core Ryzen 9 5950X.
x265 Video Encoding Benchmark
The multi-threaded HWBOT x265 Benchmark is based on the open source x265 encoder that leverages modern CPU instructions to speed video encoding. We tested the CPUs represented here with the 64-bit encoder using the default 1080p and 4K workloads.
The new AMD Ryzen 7000 series processors are video encoding beasts. These new chips crush every other platform we tested. In fact, the Ryzen 9 7950X finishes roughly 50% better than the Core i9-12900K in the 1080P test.
The new AMD Ryzen 7000 series processors are video encoding beasts. These new chips crush every other platform we tested. In fact, the Ryzen 9 7950X finishes roughly 50% better than the Core i9-12900K in the 1080P test.
Blackmagic RAW Video Encoding Speed
The Blackmagic RAW Speed Test is a CPU and GPU benchmarking tool that tests full-resolution Blackmagic RAW video decode performance. The tool can be used to evaluate the performance at various resolutions and bitrates on the CPU or using OpenCL on a GPU. We're reporting two results here, both using 8K resolution, but at differing bitrates and compression levels.
In the Blackmagic RAW speed test, the Ryzen 9 7950X trades blows with the Core i9-12900K. Here, the Intel processor pulls ahead by a small margin when encoding more compressed 8K video, but the Ryzen 9 7950X turns the tables in the more taxing, lower-compression test.
Cinebench R23 Rendering Benchmark
Cinebench rendering performance test based on Cinema 4D from Maxon. Cinema 4D is a 3D rendering and animation tool suite used by animation houses and producers like Sony Animation and many others. It's very demanding of system processor resources and can utilize any number of threads, which make is an excellent gauge of computational throughput. This is a multi-threaded, multi-processor aware benchmark that renders and animates 3D scenes and tracks the length of the entire process. The rate at which each test system was able to render the entire scene is represented in the graphs below.
The Ryzen 9 7950X and 7900X showed massive performance improvements over the Ryzen 5000 series in Cinebench and finished at the top of the charts, when ranked on multi-threaded performance at least. The 16-core 7950X simply dominates here, with the 7900X overtaking the Core i9-12900K and Ryzen 9 5950X. In terms of single-thread performance, the new Ryzen 7000 series processors also perform well, significantly outpacing previous-gen Ryzen processors, but Intel's Alder Lake still came out on top.
POV-Ray CPU Ray Tracing Benchmark
POV-Ray, or the Persistence of Vision Ray-Tracer, is an open source tool for creating realistically lit images. We tested with POV-Ray's standard 'one-CPU' and 'all-CPU' benchmarking tools on all of our test machines and recorded the scores reported for each. Results are measured in pixels-per-second throughput; higher scores equate to better performance.
The overall performance trend in POV-Ray mostly mimics Cinebench. The Ryzen 9 7950X takes the top spot in the multi-threaded test by a large margin, followed by the Core i9-12900K which manages to outrun the Ryzen 9 7900X. Single thread performance is also strong with the new Ryzen chips, but ultimately continues to trail Intel's top-end parts.
Blender Rendering Benchmarks
Blender is a free and open source 3D creation suite that can handle everything from modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking. It has a purpose-built benchmarking tool that will track the time it takes to complete rendering a particular model (or models). We used the CPU-focused benchmark with all three models currently available...
The new Ryzen 7000 series processors are rending beasts with the latest version of Blender. The Ryzen 9 7950X and Ryzen 9 7900X finish in the top two positions, outgunning all of the other processors we tested with all three models.
Y-Cruncher Multi-Threaded Pi Calculator
Y-Cruncher is a multi-core-capable tool that calculates the value of pi to a specified number of digits. In this case, we ran the tool on all threads and had the application calculate the value of pi to 1 billion digits. The values below are the time required to perform the calculation expressed in seconds. As a result, lower values indicate better performance.
This one was somewhat puzzling, but likely due to the 7900X running at higher frequencies when all cores were under load. When number crunching Pi, the top-end Ryzen 7000 series processors once again outrun the competition, and finish in the top two positions.
This one was somewhat puzzling, but likely due to the 7900X running at higher frequencies when all cores were under load. When number crunching Pi, the top-end Ryzen 7000 series processors once again outrun the competition, and finish in the top two positions.
STARS Euler3d Multi-Threaded CFD Benchmark
STARS Euler3d is a computational fluid dynamics benchmark which uses a CFD grid that contains 1.23 million tetrahedral elements and 223 thousand nodes. The benchmark executable advances a mach 0.50 Advisory Group for Aerospace Research, or AGARD, flow solution for an aeroelastic test wing. The benchmark score is reported as a CFD cycle frequency in Hertz.
The new Ryzen 7000 series processors show big gains over the previous-gen Ryzen 5000 series in this benchmark, but can't catch Intel's current flagship.
This benchmark is multi-threaded, but is also dependent on platform bandwidth, and cache and memory latency, so the final results are not determined by compute performance alone. Cache sizes / speed and memory bandwidth affect the score as well...
The new Ryzen 7000 series processors show big gains over the previous-gen Ryzen 5000 series in this benchmark, but can't catch Intel's current flagship.
