Maingear Vybe Review: Dual GTX 1070s And Kaby Lake Cranked To 5GHz

We'll start off our benchmark gauntlet with some standard productivity and content creation metrics.

Cinebench R11.5 64-bit Content Creation Performance

Based on Maxon Cinema 4D software, this test uses a 3D scene and polygon and texture manipulation to assess GPU and CPU performance. We ran the Main Processor Performance (CPU) test, which builds a still scene containing about 2,000 objects, for a total polygon count above the 300,000 mark. Here we're focusing strictly on software rendering on the CPU and it's heavily taxing on this one aspect of system performance, both with multi-threaded and single-threaded rendering. 

Wielding an overclocked Core i7-7700K pushed to 5GHz, the Vybe bursts out of the gate with the top single-threaded score of the bunch at 2.45. In multi-threaded performance, the Vybe impressively squeezes in between Dell's Area 51 with a Core i7-5930K processor (6 cores, 15MB cache, 3.5GHz to 3.7GHz) and Maingear's own Rush desktop with a Core i7-4960X (6 cores, 15MB cache, 3.6GHz to 4GHz).

The Vybe is at a core- and thread-count disadvantage with both systems, as the Core i7-7700K is a quad-core processor. However, the faster clockspeed when at 5GHz (overclocked) and newer architecture combine to make the system competitive with rigs featuring processors with more cores/threads.

Futuremark PCMark 8 Simulated Application Performance

PCMark 8 simulates the workloads computers face in several different settings, including home, office and content creation. The benchmark also has a test that simulates a creative professional’s usage, as well as battery and storage tests. We ran the tests with OpenCL acceleration enabled to leverage the power of the Cybertron CLX Ra's GPUs, CPU and storage subsystem combined.

In PCMark 8, the Vybe springs to the top spot in both the Home Accelerated and Work Accelerated benchmark runs. These benchmarks test for general purpose and productivity computing and put a heavy emphasis on processor and storage performance. Pushing the Vybe to 5GHz and pairing the processor with a Samsung 960 Pro SSD with an NVMe interface that taps into the PCI-Express bus allows it to put other high-performing systems in the rear-view mirror. Having 16GB of DDR4-2666 memory and two GeForce GTX 1070 graphics cards doesn't hurt either, though it's really the processor and storage that shine in PCMark 8.

Of course, the Vybe as configured isn't intended to spend its days looking at spreadsheets and generating TPS reports. This is a gaming system, so let's look at some game tests next...