32 PCWorld AUGUST 2019REVIEWS RYZEN^3000
Not all megahertz are the same, though.
With AMD’s much-improved instructions per
clock—essentially how efficient the chip
is—the Ryzen 9 is but 2 to 3 percent slower
than the Core i9.
Cinebench R15, however, is fairly old, having
come out in 2013, so we also measured all
three CPUs using the new Cinebench R20 (go.
pcworld.com/cr20). Intel generally is a bit faster
in this updated test—against older Zen+ cores.
The situation changes for the Zen 2 cores
in the Ryzen 9 3900X, resulting in a 3-percentbump in single-threaded performance. That’s
a nice shift for AMD.
The tables turn for multi-threaded
performance. The 12-core AMD part smashes
the 8-core Intel part by 42 percent.
We also tested the chips using Chaos
Group’s Corona Renderer benchmark.
Corona is a “modern unbiased photorealistic
renderer,” which refers to the precision in
which it renders the scene—not unbiased
based on the hardware it’s run on. In this
multi-threaded test, we see the Ryzen 9Dayum! The Ryzen 9 3900X is fast.Ryzen 9 3900X Zen 2 (12/24)Core i9-9900K
Coffee Lake R (8/16)
Ryzen 7 2700X
Zen+ (8/16)Blender 2.79
BMW CPU MCE/PBO Off (Sec)SHORTER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE117181216Bored yet? V-Ray Next reinforces what we’re
seeing in other modeling apps.Ryzen 9 3900X Zen 2 (12/24)Core i9-9900K
Coffee Lake R (8/16)
Ryzen 7 2700X
Zen+ (8/16)POV-Ray
Next Render MCE/PBO OffLONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE19,73614,37712,230The Corona modeler likes 12 cores more than 8
cores.Ryzen 9 3900X Zen 2 (12/24)Core i9-9900K
Coffee Lake R (8/16)
Ryzen 7 2700X
Zen+ (8/16)Corona Renderer 1.3
(Rays per second)LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE6,575,1704,776,2004,139,060What a shocker: The Ryzen 9 mops the floor with
the Core i9.Ryzen 9 3900X Zen 2 (12/24)Core i9-9900K
Coffee Lake R (8/16)
Ryzen 7 2700X
Zen+ (8/16)POV-Ray 3.7 nT
(Pixels per second)LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE6,0813,8713,631