With new CPUs from Intel and AMD hitting the market, it's time for another round of hardware testing. AMD has become a serious contender in the CPU space by offering a lot of cores at very competitive prices . In response, Intel has begun increasing the number of cores in its CPUs . While they still don't offer as many cores as AMD , they do have higher clock speeds. This new competition has resulted in CPUs ranging from 10 cores /20 threads to 64 cores /128 threads.
In this article, we'll take a look at how the latest CPUs compare to each other and the previous generation Intel i9-9900K . The focus will be on CPU performance using our in-house developed benchmark suite .
test setup
Here are the detailed specifications of the test platform we used:
| AMD Ryzen Test Platform |
|
| CPU |
AMD Ryzen 9 3950X |
| CPU cooler |
Owl NH-U12S |
| motherboard |
Gigabyte X570 AORUS ULTRA |
| Memory |
4 x DDR4-2933 16GB (total 64GB) |
| AMD Threadripper 3rd Generation Testbed |
|
| CPU |
AMD TR 3990X |
| CPU cooler |
Owl NH-U14S TR4-SP3 |
| motherboard |
GIGABYTE TRX40 AORUS PRO WIFI |
| Memory |
4 x DDR4-2933 16GB (total 64GB) |
| Intel 10th Generation Test Platform |
|
| CPU |
Intel Core i9 10900K |
| CPU cooler |
Owl NH-U12S |
| motherboard |
Gigabyte Z490 Vision D |
| Memory |
4 x DDR4-2933 16GB (total 64GB) |
| Intel X-10000 Test Platform |
|
| CPU |
Intel Core i9 10980XE |
| CPU cooler |
Owl NH-U12DX i4 |
| motherboard |
Gigabyte X299 Designare EX |
| Memory |
4 x DDR4-2933 16GB (total 64GB) |
| Intel 9th Generation Test Platform |
|
| CPU |
Intel Core i9 9 900K |
| CPU cooler |
Owl NH-U12S |
| motherboard |
Gigabyte Z390 Design |
| Memory |
4x DDR4-2666 16GB (total 64GB) |
| shared hardware |
|
| graphics card |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11GB |
| hard disk |
Samsung 960 Pro 1TB |
| software |
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit |
benchmark details
This version of the 3dMax benchmark suite was created by myself and runs in 3dMax primarily using MAXscript . Thankfully, Autodesk has built a very powerful scripting language into 3dMax . AutoIt is used as a wrapper to handle things like remotely launching benchmarks, uploading results, and cleaning up any temporary files left behind after each pass.
These tests fall into three categories: rendering, simulation, and general use. This should make it easier for people to see results specific to their own workflow, and then in turn make the best decisions for their needs. I'll break down the details of each test below.
These tests are run multiple times on each CPU and averaged. We saw little variance between runs, except for a couple of system errors, in which case the results were discarded and re-runs. For the scores, I used the 10900K as a benchmark, and the scores indicate the percentage faster or slower than that CPU . Let's get into the results.
rendering result
When it comes to CPU rendering, nothing beats the performance of AMD 's Threadripper . We tested Arnold , ART , and Scanline , and the Threadripper CPU came out on top in all three tests . Arnold is highly optimized especially for multi-core CPUs . The 3990X managed to finish rendering almost 4.5 times faster than the 10900K and more than 2.5 times faster than Intel's flagship 10980XE . With ART and Scanline the margin shrinks, but Threadrippers are still much faster than anything else. In both cases, the 3970X actually leads the 3990X . We've seen similar results with other applications in the lab. even AMD 'sThe Ryzen 9 3950X managed to outperform all Intel CPUs in every test , making it an excellent budget choice.
Simulation results
For simulation we have two tests: cloth simulation and Bifrost fluid simulation. These are the two ends of the spectrum. In 3dMax , the cloth simulation does prefer higher clock speeds, so we see the Intel 10900K taking the lead. On the other hand, fluid simulations are a bit more complicated. The AMD Threadripper 3970X and 3960X took the top spot with almost the same time, while the 3990X was near the bottom. Most notably the gap to the Fluid Simulation test is now narrowed. Also, note that both tests use built-in mock methods. If you are using 3rd party plugins like RealFlow , FumeFX or Phoenix FD your experience may be different.
general action results
This series of tests is more applicable to every user. They cover tasks such as loading large scenes (up to 4GB files ), saving scenes, and performing a range of extrusions, tessellations, and mesh smoothing. This is meant to represent the fundamentals of modeling for anyone using 3dMax . Stretch, subdivision, and mesh smoothing tests were exaggerated a bit beyond what the average user would perform to make it easier to measure the difference. A lot of it has to do with what users perceive as " lively " . When you click on an action, there is sometimes a delay of a few seconds before the action occurs. Every time this happens it's just for a brief moment, but throughout the course of the project it adds some real frustration.
As you can see from the graph, the clock speed of the 10900K leads all of these tests. If your workflow often slows down when performing basic modeling tasks, a CPU with a higher clock speed (even if it has fewer cores) might help you speed it up.
What is the best CPU for 3dMax ?
Choosing the right CPU for 3dMax depends largely on what you care about - general modeling performance, simulation or rendering. For most users, performance is paramount when they are sitting at the system (modeling and simulating) which makes the Intel Core i9-10900K an amazing choice as it is easily the fastest in general CPU , a little bit faster than AMD for emulation, although this may depend a lot on the particular emulation.
If rendering is a significant bottleneck in your workflow, the best CPU is one of AMD 's Threadripper line of CPUs , as all three models outperform any Intel CPU by a wide margin . Even AMD 's Ryzen 9 3950X will beat top-tier Intel processors while costing almost half as much.
If you need more comprehensive performance, AMD Ryzen 9 3950X is a good choice. While it's not as fast as the 10900K in modeling tasks , its rendering performance will likely more than offset any slight slowdowns you experience.
When it comes to modeling tasks, the Intel i9-10900K 's high clock speed makes it the best choice for those who don't do any CPU rendering.
AMD 's Threadripper CPUs are by far the best CPUs for rendering , including baking textures and using the Activeshade viewport, delivering up to twice the performance of any Intel - based CPU .
AMD 's Ryzen 9 3950X earns recognition for its stellar all-around performance without the cost of upgrading to Threadripper .