Test Bed and Setup

As per our processor testing policy, we take a premium category motherboard suitable for the socket, and equip the system with a suitable amount of memory running at the manufacturer's maximum supported frequency. This is also typically run at JEDEC subtimings where possible. It is noted that some users are not keen on this policy, stating that sometimes the maximum supported frequency is quite low, or faster memory is available at a similar price, or that the JEDEC speeds can be prohibitive for performance. While these comments make sense, ultimately very few users apply memory profiles (either XMP or other) as they require interaction with the BIOS, and most users will fall back on JEDEC supported speeds - this includes home users as well as industry who might want to shave off a cent or two from the cost or stay within the margins set by the manufacturer. Where possible, we will extend out testing to include faster memory modules either at the same time as the review or a later date.

Test Setup
AMD Ryzen 3000 AMD Ryzen 3 3300X
AMD Ryzen 3 3100
Motherboard GIGABYTE X570 I Aorus Pro (1.12e)
CPU Cooler AMD Wraith
DRAM G.Skill FlareX 2x8 GB DDR4-3200 C14
GPU Sapphire RX 460 2GB (CPU Tests)
MSI GTX 1080 Gaming 8G (Gaming Tests)
PSU Corsair AX860i
SSD Crucial MX500 2TB
OS Windows 10 1909

 

Many thanks to...

We must thank the following companies for kindly providing hardware for our multiple test beds. Some of this hardware is not in this test bed specifically, but is used in other testing.

Hardware Providers
Sapphire RX 460 Nitro MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X OC Crucial MX200 +
MX500 SSDs
Corsair AX860i +
AX1200i PSUs
G.Skill RipjawsV,
SniperX, FlareX
Crucial Ballistix
DDR4
Silverstone
Coolers
Silverstone
Fans
Power Consumption and Frequency Ramps CPU Performance: New Tests!
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  • Ian Cutress - Thursday, May 7, 2020 - link

    Unfortunately, we never got any of those. I'm recently stretched six ways from Sunday. Pulled an all-nighter just to even get to this point in the review process. As much as people would love me just to bench CPUs all day every day, even in lockdown I've got these CPUs, EPYC, Motherboards, Xeons, laptops to test, as well as news coverage and all the behind the scenes stuff no-one ever sees. Writing isn't a quick process, either.
  • destorofall - Thursday, May 7, 2020 - link

    Surely Ian you can just use the AI wirter now :)
  • Lord of the Bored - Thursday, May 7, 2020 - link

    The AI Writer read the comments and now just fanboy-flames.
  • eastcoast_pete - Thursday, May 7, 2020 - link

    Appreciate the reply! I think the fact that you never got those current-gen i3s and i5s is not on you, but on Intel. If they want their stuff reviewed, they know they need to send some samples. Unless, of course, they're afraid of the test results. Which they might just be.
  • Namisecond - Thursday, May 7, 2020 - link

    I just noticed in the "AMD 500 SERIES CHIPSET PROCESSOR SUPPORT" chart; 4000 series/Zen2 based desktop APUs are not represented. An oversight? or is AMD trying to say something?
  • qwertymac93 - Thursday, May 7, 2020 - link

    There's got to be something strange going on with the 7700k system. In several benchmarks the 6700k outperforms the 7700k, even though the only difference between them is the 7700k is clocked higher. Under no circumstances should the 6700k outperform the 7700k.

    Were the Skylake and Kaby lake systems tested with different motherboards or with different BIOS revisions? Its possible some security patch was active on one system but not on another.
  • EdgeOfDetroit - Thursday, May 7, 2020 - link

    You should have benched it against a Xeon E-2174G. At least that's the most modern 4C8T CPU Intel sells right now. But I look forward to seeing how it does against the i3-i3-10320 to see if Intel still has the IPC-clockspeed crown or not.
  • schujj07 - Friday, May 8, 2020 - link

    The performance of the i3-10320 will be very similar to the 7700k. The i3 has clock speeds of 3.8/4.6 and the 7700k is 4.2/4.5. That means that on single threaded the 10320 will be slightly faster but in heavily threaded work loads the 7700k will probably be faster due to the higher base clock. This is know because both CPUs are on the Sky Lake architecture and will have the same IPC. Therefore we can infer what the 10320 will do based on what we see the 7700k doing in this review.
  • Sushisamurai - Thursday, May 7, 2020 - link

    I think it'd be nice to see generational to generational improvements on intel vs AMD's side of things, you guys use to do that everytime a new generation came out. It'd be nice to see how far my 4th gen Intel chip has gone vs a new gen now.
  • Maxiking - Thursday, May 7, 2020 - link

    Again your garbage reviews. Apparently all the cpus on the world are bottlenecking 1080 gtx @ 1080p except 3300x.

    Do you even think when checking the results. This thing happens constantly, especially when you test low end garbage amd cpus.

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