The AMD Ryzen 7 processors are arguably the most anticipated processors of the last few years. This is because they promise to offer 8-core performance at the price of an Intel quad-core processor, with comparable power efficiency! In this article, we will examine the AMD Ryzen 7 performance in 3D rendering and video transcoding speed, and see how it compares against a quad-core Intel Core i7 processor.

The extra cores of the AMD Ryzen 7 processors will deliver the greatest performance boost in 3D rendering and video transcoding. They are very compute-intensive work, and are therefore programmed to take full advantage of all available cores. Let’s check out how well it does!

The AMD Ryzen 7 Performance Advantage

The AMD Ryzen 7 processors do not just boast 8 cores, they are also the first AMD processors to support SMT (Simultaneous Multi-Threading). SMT allows each core to handle two simultaneous threads, as if they are two virtual processor cores.

In this article, we will take a look at the Ryzen 7 performance in 3D rendering and video transcoding by comparing the AMD Ryzen 7 1800X against the Intel Core i7-6700K processor. Here is a table comparing their key specifications.

Now, we will be the first to admit that this is a rather “unfair” comparison because the Core i7-6700K is a quad-core processor that costs only as much as the Ryzen 7 1700. However, this is the fastest Intel processor we have on hand, so let’s just roll with it, and see what we find…

Ryzen 7 3D Rendering Speed – CINEBENCH R15

CINEBENCH R15 is a real-world 3D rendering benchmark based on the MAXON Cinema 4D animation software. This is a great way to accurately determine the actual performance of a processor in 3D content creation.

CINEBENCH R15 Single Core

This Single Core test is not reflective of real world performance, but it is useful to find out the performance of the individual core.

The Single Core test shows that the individual processor core of the Ryzen 7 1800X is about 13.4% slower than the processor core of the Core i7-6700K. Of course, the Core i7-6700K has a 5% higher boost clock speed. If we adjust the results to account for that, the Intel Skylake core is about 10% faster than the AMD Ryzen core, clock for clock.

CINEBENCH R15 Multi Core

This shows the real-world performance of both processors. Having twice the number of cores allowed the Ryzen 7 1800X to beat the Core i7-6700K by 81%. Adjusting for the average 7.5% difference in base and boost clock speeds, the Ryzen 7 1800X would deliver 94% better performance than the Core i7-6700K at the same clock speeds.

CINEBENCH R15 MP Ratio

The analysis of the Multi-Processing Ratio is useful in checking the efficiency of the SMT implementation. The MP Ratio is independent of the processor’s clock speed.

The multi-threading capability of the Intel Core i7-6700K delivered a 22% boost to its Multi-Core processing speed. The AMD Ryzen 7 1800X, on the other hand, recorded a 27.4% boost to its Multi-Core processing speed. This means the AMD Ryzen’s SMT implementation is 5.8% more efficient than the Intel Skylake’s Hyper-Threading.

Ryzen 7 Transcoding Speed – HandBrake

HandBrake is a free, open-source video transcoding utility. Video transcoding basically converts a video file from one resolution / format to another. As you can imagine, it’s very compute-intensive. In our test, we converted a 4K video of 1.3 GB in size into a 1080p video (HQ1080p30).

The AMD Ryzen 7 1800X transcoded the video in less than 4.5 minutes, while the Intel Core i7-6700K took just under 7.5 minutes. This makes the Ryzen 7 1800X 68% faster than the Core i7-6700K.

If we adjust for the average 7.5% difference in base and boost clock speeds, the Ryzen 7 1800X would deliver 81% better performance than the Core i7-6700K at the same clock speeds.

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