The Intel Core i9-9990XE Review: All 14 Cores at 5.0 GHz
by Dr. Ian Cutress on October 28, 2019 10:00 AM ESTCPU Performance: Encoding Tests
With the rise of streaming, vlogs, and video content as a whole, encoding and transcoding tests are becoming ever more important. Not only are more home users and gamers needing to convert video files into something more manageable, for streaming or archival purposes, but the servers that manage the output also manage around data and log files with compression and decompression. Our encoding tasks are focused around these important scenarios, with input from the community for the best implementation of real-world testing.
All of our benchmark results can also be found in our benchmark engine, Bench.
Handbrake 1.1.0: Streaming and Archival Video Transcoding
A popular open source tool, Handbrake is the anything-to-anything video conversion software that a number of people use as a reference point. The danger is always on version numbers and optimization, for example the latest versions of the software can take advantage of AVX-512 and OpenCL to accelerate certain types of transcoding and algorithms. The version we use here is a pure CPU play, with common transcoding variations.
We have split Handbrake up into several tests, using a Logitech C920 1080p60 native webcam recording (essentially a streamer recording), and convert them into two types of streaming formats and one for archival. The output settings used are:
- 720p60 at 6000 kbps constant bit rate, fast setting, high profile
- 1080p60 at 3500 kbps constant bit rate, faster setting, main profile
- 1080p60 HEVC at 3500 kbps variable bit rate, fast setting, main profile
Our encoding tests require a good balance of cores and frequency, and the 5.0 GHz 14-core hardware easily pulls ahead of the 7940X, and shows that having 28 cores isn't always a good thing.
7-zip v1805: Popular Open-Source Encoding Engine
Out of our compression/decompression tool tests, 7-zip is the most requested and comes with a built-in benchmark. For our test suite, we’ve pulled the latest version of the software and we run the benchmark from the command line, reporting the compression, decompression, and a combined score.
It is noted in this benchmark that the latest multi-die processors have very bi-modal performance between compression and decompression, performing well in one and badly in the other. There are also discussions around how the Windows Scheduler is implementing every thread. As we get more results, it will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Please note, if you plan to share out the Compression graph, please include the Decompression one. Otherwise you’re only presenting half a picture.
This is where having 28-cores helps, as the extra frequency can't beat some extra cores.
WinRAR 5.60b3: Archiving Tool
My compression tool of choice is often WinRAR, having been one of the first tools a number of my generation used over two decades ago. The interface has not changed much, although the integration with Windows right click commands is always a plus. It has no in-built test, so we run a compression over a set directory containing over thirty 60-second video files and 2000 small web-based files at a normal compression rate.
WinRAR is variable threaded but also susceptible to caching, so in our test we run it 10 times and take the average of the last five, leaving the test purely for raw CPU compute performance.
WinRAR is one of our variable threaded tests, so here a mix of cores and frequency helps. Interestingly enough, the 9990XE despite with the higher frequency is slightly slower than the 7940X - this might be a function of the test getting too fast, or the fact that the extra power needed to drive up the cores to peak frequency might be causing additional delays with all the small files.
AES Encryption: File Security
A number of platforms, particularly mobile devices, are now offering encryption by default with file systems in order to protect the contents. Windows based devices have these options as well, often applied by BitLocker or third-party software. In our AES encryption test, we used the discontinued TrueCrypt for its built-in benchmark, which tests several encryption algorithms directly in memory.
The data we take for this test is the combined AES encrypt/decrypt performance, measured in gigabytes per second. The software does use AES commands for processors that offer hardware selection, however not AVX-512.
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Arc1t3ct - Wednesday, October 30, 2019 - link
I'd like to see the cinebench score for this cpu. It's probably the single most important performance metric for Architects and engineers.ballsystemlord - Wednesday, October 30, 2019 - link
Spelling error:"Blender can take advantage of more cores, and whule the frequency of the 9990XE helps compared to the 7940X, it isn't enough to overtake 18-core hardware."
"while", not "whule":
"Blender can take advantage of more cores, and while the frequency of the 9990XE helps compared to the 7940X, it isn't enough to overtake 18-core hardware."
ballsystemlord - Wednesday, October 30, 2019 - link
What's interesting about this processors benchmarks is that even at 5.0GHz AMD's Zen2 processors are still fairly close. -- Not that I'm trying to attract fanboys, it's just interesting to compare the IPC, memory latency, etc.TitovVN1974 - Wednesday, October 30, 2019 - link
IMHO, Linpack (Intel® Math Kernel Library (Intel® MKL) Benchmarks) with not-too-many cores gives good upper bound estimation of practically obtainable perfomance in engineering and science.ballsystemlord - Wednesday, October 30, 2019 - link
But only for Intel processors...edwardhchan - Wednesday, October 30, 2019 - link
Caseking is selling them for 1799 Euro with stock promised from Nov. 12.... So I guess the demand is low?cschlise - Thursday, October 31, 2019 - link
As I look at this and the struggle to make predictable quantum computing hardware, I see us reaching an inflection point where "traditional" methods will have to adapt a hybrid quantum piece because the features will have shrunk to the point where quantum effects become the norm, vice the exception.cschlise - Thursday, October 31, 2019 - link
What all this testing is showing me is that I should buy a mainstream Ryzen 9 3900X for $530 at newegg right now.yetanotherhuman - Friday, November 1, 2019 - link
Wow. There are times when it doesn't even touch a 3900X. This is not a desirable product.Icehawk - Friday, November 1, 2019 - link
So no latency testing of any kind... which is what this machine is about.