CPU Tests: Legacy and Web

In order to gather data to compare with older benchmarks, we are still keeping a number of tests under our ‘legacy’ section. This includes all the former major versions of CineBench (R15, R11.5, R10) as well as x264 HD 3.0 and the first very naïve version of 3DPM v2.1. We won’t be transferring the data over from the old testing into Bench, otherwise it would be populated with 200 CPUs with only one data point, so it will fill up as we test more CPUs like the others.

The other section here is our web tests.

Web Tests: Kraken, Octane, and Speedometer

Benchmarking using web tools is always a bit difficult. Browsers change almost daily, and the way the web is used changes even quicker. While there is some scope for advanced computational based benchmarks, most users care about responsiveness, which requires a strong back-end to work quickly to provide on the front-end. The benchmarks we chose for our web tests are essentially industry standards – at least once upon a time.

It should be noted that for each test, the browser is closed and re-opened a new with a fresh cache. We use a fixed Chromium version for our tests with the update capabilities removed to ensure consistency.

Mozilla Kraken 1.1

Kraken is a 2010 benchmark from Mozilla and does a series of JavaScript tests. These tests are a little more involved than previous tests, looking at artificial intelligence, audio manipulation, image manipulation, json parsing, and cryptographic functions. The benchmark starts with an initial download of data for the audio and imaging, and then runs through 10 times giving a timed result.

We loop through the 10-run test four times (so that’s a total of 40 runs), and average the four end-results. The result is given as time to complete the test, and we’re reaching a slow asymptotic limit with regards the highest IPC processors.

(7-1) Kraken 1.1 Web Test

Google Octane 2.0

Our second test is also JavaScript based, but uses a lot more variation of newer JS techniques, such as object-oriented programming, kernel simulation, object creation/destruction, garbage collection, array manipulations, compiler latency and code execution.

Octane was developed after the discontinuation of other tests, with the goal of being more web-like than previous tests. It has been a popular benchmark, making it an obvious target for optimizations in the JavaScript engines. Ultimately it was retired in early 2017 due to this, although it is still widely used as a tool to determine general CPU performance in a number of web tasks.

(7-2) Google Octane 2.0 Web Test

Speedometer 2: JavaScript Frameworks

Our newest web test is Speedometer 2, which is a test over a series of JavaScript frameworks to do three simple things: built a list, enable each item in the list, and remove the list. All the frameworks implement the same visual cues, but obviously apply them from different coding angles.

Our test goes through the list of frameworks, and produces a final score indicative of ‘rpm’, one of the benchmarks internal metrics.

We repeat over the benchmark for a dozen loops, taking the average of the last five.

(7-3) Speedometer 2.0 Web Test

Legacy Tests

(6-5a) x264 HD 3.0 Pass 1(6-5b) x264 HD 3.0 Pass 2(6-3a) CineBench R15 ST(6-3b) CineBench R15 MT

CPU Tests: Encoding CPU Tests: Synthetic and SPEC
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  • Makaveli - Tuesday, January 26, 2021 - link

    lmao the amount of times I see that just go to a MicroCenter. lol not everyone on this site lives in the USA. Secondly even if you are in america not everyone has access to a MicroCenter. So no all his problems are not solved next...
  • bji - Tuesday, January 26, 2021 - link

    My comment was tongue in cheek. Every time I say there is a shortage of AMD product available, people make posts about how there must not be a problem since they just bought a chip from MicroCenter.

    See the most recent comments for the article about the Intel chip for an example of my copious frustration with these MicroCenter commenters.
  • bji - Tuesday, January 26, 2021 - link

    https://www.anandtech.com/show/16343/intel-core-i7...

    Page 7 I start a comment with: "Ryzen 5 5600x at $299 is a lie right now than and has been for months. It's slowly coming down to $399 with general availability. It will be months before it's actually available at $299."

    MicroCenter hilarity ensues.
  • Nottheface - Saturday, January 30, 2021 - link

    I do say Microcenter is the best place on earth.
  • Spunjji - Thursday, January 28, 2021 - link

    Some of us also pointed to availability in other countries that aren't the USA. If you're sick of the MicroCenter comments, why drag it back out again over here? 🙄
  • bji - Thursday, January 28, 2021 - link

    Show me where I said I was sick of it.
  • Spunjji - Thursday, January 28, 2021 - link

    @bji - seriously?
    3 comments back: "See the most recent comments for the article about the Intel chip for an example of my copious frustration with these MicroCenter commenters."

    🤷‍♂️
  • eek2121 - Wednesday, January 27, 2021 - link

    I live in the U.S. in a major city and the closest Microcenter is 4.5 hours away.
  • Sharma_Ji - Wednesday, January 27, 2021 - link

    What fourth world country do you live in mate, even in india there are micro center alternatives on which the zen 3 desktop CPUs are available at hardly any premium.
  • Sharma_Ji - Wednesday, January 27, 2021 - link

    For those of you say i might be a fluke.

    Here's the link, estimated delivery in a week. (India)
    https://www.primeabgb.com/buy-online-price-india/c...

    All parts are available 5600, 5700, 5800, 5900, etc.

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