This article looks at the performance of Intel’s Skylake-X CPUs (including the new Core i9 7920X 12-core) compared to AMD’s Threadripper 12- and 16-core CPUs in Cinebench R15. Several other CPU platforms are also included for reference.


This article looks at the performance of Intel’s Skylake-X CPUs (including the new Core i9 7920X 12-core) compared to AMD’s Threadripper 12- and 16-core CPUs in Cinebench R15. Several other CPU platforms are also included for reference.

Processors often get a ton of reviews and benchmarks, but unfortunately for content creators (and other professionals), it is difficult to find benchmarks that focus on professional applications. In this article we will be looking at a number of Intel CPUs and how they perform in Autodesk 3ds Max.

If you are in the market for a new PC, you have likely had a taste of the huge variety of different Intel CPU models available. In addition to the Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 brands it turns out that there are actual two or three different product lines within each of those brands – including “K”, “S”, and “T”. In this article, we want to take a look at the S-series product line to determine how it differs from the standard line.

While we all know that modern processors need active cooling, there is actually very little official information on how temperature affects a CPU’s performance. Do you really need a high-end liquid cooled setup to get peak performance, or is the little stock cooler that comes with most CPUs enough? In this article we will examine exactly how temperature affects CPU performance.

When the new Haswell K-series processors were still under NDA, there was a rumor that Intel was going to be moving back to soldering the CPU die to the heat transfer plate instead of using a TIM (thermal interface material). This rumor has been pretty well busted since we now know that these CPUs use what Intel is calling NGPTIM, or Next-Generation Polymer Thermal Interface Material.

The Z97 and H97 chipset have recently been added to Intel’s line of chipsets, replacing the previous Z87 and H87 chipsets. In this article we will take a look at the specifications for the Z97 and H97 chipsets to see what differences there are between them.

The Z97 and H97 chipset have recently been added to Intel’s line of chipsets, replacing the previous Z87 and H87 chipsets. These new chipsets are really more of an incremental update, but still add a little bit in terms of new features.

Using numerous technologies, CPUs are able to dynamically adjust their frequency based on how much load is being put on it. The end result is much greater efficiency, but it calls into question whether the base frequency of a CPU really means anything on modern processors since a CPU will rarely spend much of it’s time at that advertised frequency.

With Ivy Bridge-E, Intel is finally moving their enthusiast CPUs to their newer 22nm manufacturing process. While this does not greatly increase the raw frequency that the CPUs are able to run at, it does allow them to draw less power while doing so. In addition to the smaller manufacturing process, the new line also has more L2 cache per core and improved memory support.

Haswell is the codename for Intel’s 4th generation of processors and is the “tock” in Intel’s “tick-tock” development cycle. This means that it uses the same 22nm process as Ivy Bridge, but includes a different mounting socket and many refinements to the chip’s architecture.