CPU Showdown Part 2! Can DX12 and Vulkan Save the i7 2600K and i5 2500K?
452Welcome to Part 2 of our CPU Showdown Series. Today we take a look a the 2nd gen Core series from Intel featuring the i7 2600K CPU. To emulate i5 2500K performance we disable Hyper Threading in all tests to see if the extra thread performance from the Core i7's are really worth it. Unlike in Part 1 of our CPU Showdown series today we focus on DX12/Vulkan titles to see if the reduced CPU over head of these new API's will breath new life in these 5 year old CPUs.
Skip Ahead:
Benchmarks:
Crysis 3: 1:44
Witcher 3: 2:58
Batman Arkham Knight: 5:17
Ashes of the Singularity: 7:48
Rise of the Tomb Raider: 10:48
Gears of War Ultimate Edition: 12:24
DOOM 2016: 14:52
Testing Notes:
Crysis 3
· i7 10% higher average FPS over the i5
· i7 minimum framerate 38% higher
· i7 GTX 970 Higher Minimum FPS than i5 GTX 1070
· 4690K 4% average faster than 2500K, and 10% faster minimum FPS
· 2600K 3% average faster than 4690K, with 26% higher minimum FPS
Witcher 3
· Same Story as Crysis 3
· i7 19% faster average FPS over i5, and 30% faster minimum FPS
· i7 RAM difference 14% average, 19% minimum
· i5 RAM difference 17% average, 22% minimum
· i5 1070 vs 970 only 17% slower on average FPS, and a meger 5% lower minimum FPS
· I7 vs 4690 14% average Faster, 23% minimum
· 4690 vs i5 5% average, 6% minimum
· i7's DOMINATE Witcher 3
Arkham Knight
· i7 4% faster average, 10% faster minimum
· i7 2133 vs 1600 7.5% faster average, 3% faster minimum
· i5 2133 vs 1600 7.5% faster average, 8% faster minimum
· GTX 970 basically even GPU limited
· 2600K and 4690K nearly identicle
· 4690K vs 2500K 7.5% average faster, 7.5% faster minimum
Ashes of the Singularity
· DX11 is faster than DX 12
· CPU limited even in DX 12. i7 GTX 970 = i5 1070
· DX12 i7 vs i5 13% faster
· DX 11 i7 vs i5 8.5% faster
· 2133 vs 1600 i7 DX12 11%, in DX11 12.5%
· 2133 vs 1600 i5 DX12 8%, in DX11 16%
· RAM bigger deal in DX11
· 4690K Faster in DX12 vs DX11. In DX12 Faster than 2600K. IPC gains helpful in Ashes.
ROTTR:
· RAM Makes NO difference on i7, i5 takes 20% loss in minimum FPS with 1600
· 17% better minimum, 52% better minimum 1600ram
· GTX 970 i5 Minimums much higher than GTX 1070. Clrearly driver issues
· 4690 IPC gains make up much of the minimum FPS difference, but not all.
Gears of War UE:
· RAM only makes 4.5% difference
· i5 Superior. Another DX12 example that prefers real cores.
· Regarless similar performance all around. Plenty of CPU overhead.
DOOM:
· Vulkan Balances i5 and i7. OpenGL i5 is faster. Clearly OGL does not like Hyper Threading.
· RAM difference in OpenGL i7 = 7% i5 = 21%. Hyper Threading midigates slower RAM in OGL
· RAM difference Vulkan i7 = 4%, i5 = 3%. RAM Speed no longer an issue.
· RAM difference on i5 goes from 21% loss to mere 3% loss. Vulkan far more memory efficient
· 4690 more efficient in OpenGL. No gains in Vulkan.
· Vulkan Clearly CPU bound, OpenGL Memory limited.
Conclusion:
· More recent DirectX11 games clearly favor Core i7 over Core i5.
· DX11 RAM speed is also critical
· In DX12/Vulkan CPU overhead reduced. Core i5 actually faster at this point. More likely since it's coded for hardware level it doesn't like HyperThreading, and needs actual cores.
· IPC gains only beneficial in Ashes of the singularity. However the whole benchmark is odd. Not sure if it's a driver/game code issue. Other DX12 titles have enough CPU overhead that IPC doesn't matter.
· GTX 970 sees very minor gains from DX12 as all games were already GPU limited. 1070 takes advantage of extra headroom.
· RAM speed negated in DX12/Vulkan is huge. Faster RAM not necessary.
· DX12/Vulkan seem to be delivering. A Core i5 2500K with DDR3 1600 is plenty for a GTX 1070. In DX11 Fastest i7 and fastest RAM needed.
· Buying for the future is weird right now. Unclear where things will be headed. Recommend cheap system for now, buy higher actual core CPUs in the future for best results. More testing necessary.
· Future looks great for inexpensive systems :).
Other Videos By The Good Old Gamer (TheGoodOldGamer)
Other Statistics
Ashes of the Singularity Statistics For The Good Old Gamer (TheGoodOldGamer)
At present, The Good Old Gamer (TheGoodOldGamer) has 31,760 views spread across 2 videos for Ashes of the Singularity, with his channel publishing less than an hour of Ashes of the Singularity content. This is less than 0.48% of the total video content that The Good Old Gamer (TheGoodOldGamer) has uploaded to YouTube.