Test System and Methods
Here is the full range of test systems used for CPU and APU reviews:
Test System
AM4
- Motherboard – MSI X370 XPOWER Gaming Titanium
- RAM – 16GB Crucial Ballistix Sport XT (2 x 8GB) DDR4 2666MHz (Running at 2400MHz due to BIOS issues)
- CPU Cooler – Thermaltake Water 3.0 with Gelid GC-Extreme
- Graphics Card – Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 980Ti
- Power Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt
- Main Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB
- Chassis – Lian Li T80 Test Bench
- Displays – U2868PQU 4K
- Operating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit
Z87
- Motherboard – ASUS Maximus VII Ranger
- RAM – 16GB Crucial Ballistix Sport XT (2 x 8GB) DDR3 1866MHz (10-10-10-30)
- CPU Cooler – Thermaltake Water 3.0 with Gelid GC-Extreme
- Graphics Card – Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 980Ti
- Power Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt
- Main Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB
- Chassis – Lian Li T80 Test Bench
- Displays – U2868PQU 4K
- Operating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit
Z170
- Motherboard – ASRock Z170 Extreme7+
- RAM – Crucial Ballistix Elite 16GB (2x8GB) 2666MHz (16-17-17)
- CPU Cooler – Thermaltake Water 3.0 with Gelid GC-Extreme
- Graphics Card – Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 980Ti
- Power Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt
- Main Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB
- Chassis – Lian Li T80 Test Bench
- Displays – U2868PQU 4K
- Operating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit
Z270
- Motherboard – Combination used to determine widespread performance
- RAM – Crucial Ballistix Elite 16GB (2x8GB) 2666MHz (16-17-17)
- CPU Cooler – Thermaltake Water 3.0 with Gelid GC-Extreme
- Graphics Card – Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 980Ti
- Power Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt
- Main Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB
- Chassis – Lian Li T80 Test Bench
- Displays – U2868PQU 4K
- Operating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit
X99
- Motherboard – ASUS ROG STRIX X99 GAMING
- RAM – 32GB Crucial Ballistix Sport (4x8GB) 2400MHz (16-16-16-39)
- CPU Cooler – Thermaltake Water 3.0 with Gelid GC-Extreme
- Graphics Card – Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 980Ti
- Power Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt
- Main Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB
- Chassis – Lian Li T80 Test Bench
- Displays – U2868PQU 4K
- Operating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit
Games Used
- Ashes of the Singularity (DirectX 12)
- Rise of the Tomb Raider (DirectX 12)
- Shadow of Mordor
- Tomb Raider
Test Software
- 3DMark – available here
- AIDA64 Engineer – available here
- Cinebench – available here
- CPUID HWMonitor – available here
- CPU-Z – available here
- Handbrake – available here
- Prime95 – available here
- WinRAR – available here
- WPrime – available here
Test Procedure
Here at eTeknix, we endeavour to disclose key information regarding the benchmarking process so that readers can quantify the results and attempt to replicate them using their own hardware. When it comes to CPU reviews, the benchmarks are pretty self-explanatory although there are a few exceptions. Please note, we prefer to re-test each CPU within a product’s performance range to ensure the results are completely accurate and reflect any changes to our samples over time or enhancements via graphics drivers.
This means we now include fewer results, but they are more accurate and easier to decipher. As always, your choice of motherboard, the silicon lottery and other factors can yield different numbers, and there’s always a margin for error when using software. Therefore, your experience may vary. Saying that, each benchmark is run at least three times and the average figure is taken to try to reduce the effect of hardware variation. Any important details regarding the benchmarks will be listed below.
Handbrake
To stress processors to their absolute limit and accurately judge performance in video editing workloads, we transcode a 7.7GB compilation of gaming footage. This particular file is freely available from here. The captured footage is 22 minutes and 12 seconds long, has a bit rate of 50.1 Mbps and uses the Advanced Video Codec. Additionally, the video runs at a constant 30 frames-per-second and opts for a 3820×2140 (4K) resolution. Once loaded into Handbrake, we transcode the 4K MP4 to a 1080p MKV file.
Nice review.
I think that the 1700 is by far the most interesting chip to date as this can be easily overclocked and has a lower starting TDP than the other 2 cpu’s. Motherboard support is terrible, but I believe that this is more due to AMD not letting the vendors have the code to play with until very close to release!!
Your recommended vcore for overclocking is a bit on the high side, 1.475v will likely end up being closer to 1.5v under load and this is well above even the 1.45vcore that AMD suggests would already shorten the life of the cpu.
Perhaps this could be a starting point to determine full stability and then a user might start to lower vcore until stability is lost. I have my 1700 at 4.00ghz on the MSI Carbon at full stability at 1.3875v and 1.10v on NB. I have a custom loop and this results in OCCT load temps of 54C on the cpu!!
Cooler loop means that my 1080 runs even cooler and I can now overclock the GPU by another 10mhz on the core. Not much, but interesting none the less.
Lower vcore for overclocking may be a result of the initial lower tdp of the 1700 cpu. Something for a future article on Ryzen overclocking???