CPU Benchmarks – Cinebench, Handbrake and WPrime
Cinebench R15
Cinebench is a widely respected benchmark for testing the performance of x86 CPUs. The program allows you to test single and multi-threaded performance as well as GPU performance by rendering with Open GL. Download here.
Cinebench is the go-to benchmark for testing productive CPU performance. Interestingly we see not that much progress has been made since Llano. The step to Bulldozer (A10-5800K) architecture led to a performance decline when looking at multi-threaded performance, Piledriver’s revision with the A10-6800K gave the necessary bump to nudge past the initial 32nm “Thuban-style” A8-3870K. Kaveri actually falls behind the A10-6800K due to a much lower clock speed but all three APUs have improved single threaded performance over Llano which is important for everyday applications.
Handbrake
HandBrake is a tool for converting video from nearly any format to a selection of modern, widely supported codecs. Download here.
Handbrake is an encoding tool that allows you to covert video files between different formats so it is representative of real-world performance unlike Cinebench. We see every generation of APU brought an improvement although the improvements are fairly small, around 5% each generation.
WPrime
wPrime is a leading multithreaded benchmark for x86 processors that tests your processor performance by calculating square roots with a recursive call of Newton’s method for estimating functions. wPrime is a free utility that is available for download here.
WPrime showed a similar picture to Cinebench, the initial move towards Bulldozer architecture saw a dip in performance. The A10-6800K being a virtually identical part except with some slight refinements still couldn’t catch 2011’s A8-3870K part. Kaveri does manage to beat out the A8-3870K but let’s face it: that’s not by much.
For laptops which are often used without connection to a power supply, I think the iGPU will be great if you need it often (and a better solution for a long lasting battery than a discrete GPU and also for the life of the system by having less heat output). For browsing/office tasks though, the strong Intel CPU’s (i5 and i7) might have the edge since they’ll soundly win the race to idle.
I’d probably prefer the Core i7 with Iris Pro there, despite the much higher price 🙂
This review would be a bit more believable if a current low end i5 was added. But that would hurt Intel’s performance.
So many reviewers are afraid to upset Intel and would rather give the internet public half the story instead.
1) It isn’t a review. 2) We have no issues with upsetting Intel or any other hardware vendor if that’s what the results of objective testing cause. 3) It isn’t possible to test everything, this is about the progression of the APU, the other processors are just in there for a bit of background and relativity. This is not an Intel vs AMD article but great job for trying to make it one.
You say: ‘It isn’t possible to test everything.’ Yes that’s true, but not only have you not included a low end i5 but you haven’t included any i5’s at all. It sound’s like you went to a lot of trouble to find an i5. The biggest loser here is credibility (Intel say’s thankyou once again) of this review and the consumer.
Not at all. If i remove the Intel results from the review it doesn’t add anything. I don’t think any credibility is lost here, especially as I’ve said numerous times we’re not comparing the APUs to the i7, they are just extra results we had that provide interesting context. Of course you’re entitled to your opinion so if you feel this review has no credibility then you’re welcome to that opinion. Should I manage to come across an i5 I may update the graphs at a later date.
Sad to see no worthy improvements on the CPU side of things reason why no one is taking their APU’s seriously its almost just a gimmick to hide their god awful CPU performance that is still around a Llano CPU. At least their GPU was improved doesn’t seem like Amd learned their lessons either since next design is rumored to also have many cores and that probably means low single threaded performance yet again.
The best thing at Amd is hope i guess with Jim keller and their wins on the consoles as well as moving into the Arm market for servers.
Also to be fair this review should of used 2133 ram on the APU’s that supported it.