Skip to content

Main Navigation

Puget Systems Logo
  • Solutions
    • Recommended Systems For:
    • Content Creation
      • Photo Editing
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Adobe Lightroom Classic
        • Adobe Photoshop
      • Video Editing
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Adobe After Effects
        • Adobe Premiere Pro
        • DaVinci Resolve
        • Foundry Nuke
      • 3D Design and Animation
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Autodesk 3ds Max
        • Autodesk Maya
        • Blender
        • Cinema 4D
        • Houdini
        • ZBrush
      • Real-Time Engines
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Game Development
        • Unity
        • Unreal Engine
        • Virtual Production
      • Rendering
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • OctaneRender
        • Redshift
        • V-Ray
      • Digital Audio
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Ableton Live
        • FL Studio
        • Pro Tools
    • Engineering
      • CAD
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Autodesk AutoCAD
        • Autodesk Inventor
        • Autodesk Revit
        • SOLIDWORKS
      • Photogrammetry
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • ArcGIS Pro
        • Agisoft Metashape
        • Pix4D
        • RealityCapture
    • Scientific Computing
      • Recommended Systems For:
      • Data Science
      • Machine Learning / AI
      • Scientific Computing
    • More
      • Recommended Systems For:
      • Compact Size
      • Live Streaming
      • NVIDIA RTX Studio
      • Quiet Operation
      • Virtual Reality
  • Products
    • Intel Core i7 & i9
      Workstations with 13th Gen Intel Core i7 & i9 processors on Z690 and Z790 chipsets
    • AMD Ryzen 7 & 9
      Workstations with AMD Ryzen 7000 Series processors on B650 and X670 chipsets
    • AMD Threadripper PRO
      Workstations with AMD Threadripper PRO 5000 WX processors on the WRX80 chipset
    • Intel Xeon W
      Workstations with Intel Xeon W 3300 processors on the C621E chipset
    • Rackmount & Server
      Servers and workstations in rackmount chassis
    • Custom Computers
      Customize a desktop workstation from scratch
    • Custom Servers
      Customize a rackmount server from scratch
    • QNAP Network Attached Storage
      Check out our external storage options as an authorized reseller for QNAP
    • Recommended Third Party Peripherals
      View our list of recommended peripherals to use with your new PC
  • Publications
    • Articles
    • HPC Blog
    • Blog Posts
    • Case Studies
    • Podcasts
    • Press
  • Support
    • Contact Support
    • Support Articles
    • Warranty Details
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Press Kit
    • Testimonials
    • Careers
  • Talk to an Expert
  • My Account
  1. Home
  2. /
  3. Hardware Articles
  4. /
  5. Adobe Creative Cloud: Intel Core i9 9990XE vs Xeon W-3175X

Adobe Creative Cloud: Intel Core i9 9990XE vs Xeon W-3175X

Posted on February 22, 2019 by Matt Bach
Always look at the date when you read an article. Some of the content in this article is most likely out of date, as it was written on February 22, 2019. For newer information, see our more recent articles.

Table of Contents

  • Introduction
  • Test Setup & Methodology
  • Photoshop CC 2019 Results
  • Lightroom Classic CC 2019 Results
  • After Effects CC 2019 Results
  • Premiere Pro CC 2019 Results
  • Is the Core i9 9990XE or Xeon W-3175X better for Adobe CC?

Introduction

Over the last couple months, Intel has released a couple of very interesting (and expensive) CPUs:

The Core i9 9990XE 14 Core is a high frequency, OEM-only, no warranty processor that only select system manufacturers like Puget Systems has access to via a once-per-quarter auction. While availability and pricing may end up being highly inconsistent, the capabilities of this processor should (on paper at least) be second to none in many workloads – including video and photo editing.

With 28 cores, the Xeon W-3175X 28 Core is the second of these special Intel CPUs that Intel has pushed it to the limit, only with a focus on core count rather than clock speed. In addition to the high cost of the CPU itself (coming in at a MSRP of $2,999), you also need a very specific socket 3647 motherboard and compatible cooler. Motherboards like the Asus ROG Dominus Extreme are expected to cost around $1,800 and will require a chassis that is able to handle its large physical size as it is larger than even standard EATX boards.

Intel Core i9 9990XE vs Intel Xeon W-3175X in Adobe Creative Cloud, Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, After Effects, Premiere Pro
Image
Intel Core i9 9990XE vs Intel Xeon W-3175X in Adobe Creative Cloud, Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, After Effects, Premiere Pro

In this article, we are going to see how the Core i9 9990XE and Xeon W-3175X perform in Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, After Effects, and Premiere Pro. In addition, we will be comparing them to the best of Intel's normal X-series and 9th Gen lineup as well as the top AMD Ryzen and Threadripper CPUs to see whether they even make sense for those that do have the budget and reach to afford them. If you are more interested in highly threaded workloads, we also have an article available looking at CPU rendering performance in V-Ray and Cinema 4D.

Test Setup & Methodology

Listed below are the systems we will be using in our Adobe CC 2019 testing:

Intel 9th Gen Test Platform
CPU Intel Core i9 9900K
CPU Cooler Noctua NH-U12S
Motherboard Gigabyte Z390 Designare
RAM 4x DDR4-2666 16GB (64GB total)
Video Card NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11GB
Hard Drive Samsung 960 Pro 1TB
Software Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (version 1809)
Intel X-series Test Platform
CPU Intel Core i9 9940X / 9980XE / 9990XE
CPU Cooler Noctua NH-U12DX i4
Motherboard Gigabyte X299 Designare EX
RAM 8x DDR4-2666 16GB (128GB total)
Video Card NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11GB
Hard Drive Samsung 960 Pro 1TB
Software Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (version 1809)
Intel Xeon W Test Platform
CPU Intel Xeon W-3175X
CPU Cooler Asetek 690LX-PN Liquid Cooler
Motherboard Asus ROG Dominus Extreme
RAM 12x DDR4-2666 16GB (192GB total)
Video Card NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11GB
Hard Drive Samsung 960 Pro 1TB
Software Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (version 1809)
AMD Ryzen Test Platform
CPU AMD Ryzen 2700X
CPU Cooler Corsair Hydro Series H80i v2
Motherboard Gigabyte X470 AORUS GAMING 7 WIFI
RAM 4x DDR4-2666 16GB (64GB total)
Video Card NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11GB
Hard Drive Samsung 960 Pro 1TB
Software Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (version 1809)
 
AMD Threadripper Test Platform
CPU AMD TR 2990WX
CPU Cooler Corsair Hydro Series H80i v2
Motherboard Gigabyte X399 AORUS Xtreme
RAM 8x DDR4-2666 16GB (128GB total)
Video Card NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11GB
Hard Drive Samsung 960 Pro 1TB
Software Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (version 1809)

Big thank you to Asus for the ROG Dominus Extreme motherboard and Asetek for the 690LX-PN CPU cooler! Without Asus and Asetek providing samples, we would not have been able to test the Intel Xeon W-3175X.

Listing out the details of our Adobe CC benchmarks would double the length of this article, so we are instead going to simply link out to either our benchmark download page (for Photoshop and After Effects) or a recent article that includes our benchmark process (for Lightroom Classic and Premiere Pro):

  • Adobe Photoshop CC 2019 – Benchmark download page
  • Adobe Lightroom Classic CC 2019 – Intel Core i9 9990XE Performance article
  • Adobe After Effects CC 2019 – Benchmark download page
  • Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2019 – Intel Core i9 9990XE Performance article

Photoshop CC 2019 Results

To start off our testing, we decided to look at Adobe Photoshop CC. Photoshop tends to only be able to use a handful of CPU cores, which means that while the Intel Core i9 9990XE should do fairly well due to its high clock speed, the Xeon W-3175X is unlikely to be one of the top performers.

Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Previous Next
System Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Previous Next

There results of our Photoshop benchmark is not too much of a surprise. The Core i9 9990XE does very well – essentially matching the Intel Core i9 9900K – due to its high 5.1 GHz maximum Turbo Boost frequency. That obviously doesn't make it very cost effective from a pure performance standpoint given that it is at least four times the cost of the i9 9900K, but the ability to utilize up to 128GB of system RAM could make it an interesting option for some users.

The Xeon W-3175X, however, is definitely not a CPU you should use if you are looking to get the best performance out of Photoshop. While it certainly works and is better than the AMD Threadripper 2990WX, it is still measurably slower than processors that are significantly less expensive. To be honest, this is not really the fault of this CPU. The Xeon W-3175X is intended for workloads that are able to effectively utilize a high number of CPU cores, which is simply not what Photoshop is.

Lightroom Classic CC 2019 Results

Keeping things in the image/photography field, Lightroom Classic CC is definitely much better at leveraging higher CPU core counts than Photoshop, although it really only does so for certain actions like exporting images or generating previews. Because of this, whether a high frequency or high core count CPU is best depends on what you are doing in Lightroom.

Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Previous Next
System Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Previous Next

Unlike in Photoshop, the Intel Xeon W-3175X does reasonably well in Lightroom Classic. In terms of the overall benchmark score it still falls behind the Core i9 9980XE and 9990XE, but it was easily the fastest CPU we have tested for bulk tasks like exporting and generating previews. Whether a 10% increase in performance for those tasks is worth the much higher cost and heat generation is something to be decided by each reader, but for most users the W-3175X is likely not the best choice as its performance everywhere else in Lightroom Classic is mediocre.

Even the Core i9 9990XE is a bit of a mixed bag. It also does very well for bulk tasks, but it falls behind the much less expensive Core i9 9990K when culling images or working in the Develop module. Since that is where we tend to hear the most demand for greater performance from our customers, the i9 9900K 8 core CPU is still our go-to recommendation for Lightroom Classic.

After Effects CC 2019 Results

Moving on video and motion graphics, Adobe After Effects is a bit similar to Photoshop in the fact that the vast majority of the software is only able to utilize a handful of CPU cores. There are some aspects (the C4D Renderer in particular) that can benefit from a higher core count CPU, but even there it is more about a balance between frequency and core count.

Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Previous Next
System Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Previous Next

Starting with the Intel Core i9 9990XE, this processor is really an ideal CPU for After Effects. The high clock speed makes it terrific for the single threaded aspects of Ae (which is most of it), while the high core count also makes it great when utilizing the C4D renderer. It only ends up being about 3% faster than the i9 9990K in our After Effects benchmark, but that technically makes it the fastest CPU we have tested for After Effects.

As for the W-3175X, we didn't expect it to do particularly well in Ae but we were a bit surprised at how poorly it performed. The standard and tracking results are to be expected given the nature of this CPU, but we expected it to do better in the Cinema 4D renderer tests. The W-3175X does well in the stand-alone version of Cinema 4D (as we discuss in our i9 9990XE vs W-3175X rendering article), but it appears that the lightly-threaded overhead from Ae means that it is very important to have a balance between core count and clock speed.

Premiere Pro CC 2019 Results

The last software we will be looking at is Premiere Pro CC 2019. Out of the Creative Cloud applications we tested, this is likely to be the best case scenario for a CPU like the Xeon W-3175X since you can often get better performance out of higher core count CPUs – especially when exporting.

Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Previous Next
System Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Previous Next

Interestingly enough, both the Core i9 9990XE and the Xeon W-3175X did well in our Premiere Pro benchmark. Typically, the i9 9990XE does best when clock speed (or a balance between clock speed and cores) is important, while the W-3175X is best for highly threaded workloads. Premiere Pro is apparently right on the line between those two scenarios which allows these two CPUs to do very well. If you are looking for the best possible performance in Premier Pro (regardless of price or the ability to actually get your hands on it), these processors are certainly what you would want.

Unfortunately, the performance gain isn't a particularly large one – you are only looking at about a 2.5% increase over the Core i9 9980XE. Considering the much lower cost and power draw (which means less heat and noise), along with the fact that you can readily procure a Core i9 9980XE, most users are going to be pretty hard pressed to justify using one of these special processors. Unless you have an unlimited budget, you would likely get better overall system performance with a Core i9 9980XE and spending the cost savings on something like more RAM or faster storage.

Is the Core i9 9990XE or Xeon W-3175X better for Adobe CC?

Before we get into our final conclusions, we want to again point out that both the Core i9 9990XE and Xeon W-3175X are not processors you are likely to be able to get your hands on. The i9 9990XE is only available to a handful of system integrators via a once per quarter auction which means that supply, availability, and even price is going to be highly inconsistent. The Xeon W-3175X should be more readily available, but again only system integrators are intended to be able to purchase not only the processor, but the special motherboard it needs as well. Due to the limited availability, high cost, and specialized system requirements, Puget Systems is not planning on offering either of these CPUs in our workstations at the current time.

Intel Xeon W-3175X in Asus ROG Dominus Extreme with Asetek 690LX-PN Liquid Cooler

Intel Xeon W-3175X installed in a Asus ROG Dominus Extreme with Asetek 690LX-PN Liquid Cooler

Image
Intel Xeon W-3175X in Asus ROG Dominus Extreme with Asetek 690LX-PN Liquid Cooler

With that said, here is the summary of our Adobe Creative Cloud testing with these two processors:

Core i9 9990XE vs Xeon W-3175X for Photoshop CC 2019

In most cases, neither of these CPUs are going to be the best choice for Photoshop. The i9 9990XE performs well, but is still a hair behind the much less expensive Core i9 9900K 8 Core CPU. The Xeon W-3175X does not fare nearly as well, coming in at about 30% slower than the Core i9 9900K.

Core i9 9990XE vs Xeon W-3175X for Lightroom CC 2019

While neither of these CPUs is better than the lower cost i9 9900K 8 Core CPU when culling images or working in the Develop module, they are both excellent at bulk tasks like importing, exporting, and generating previews. Be aware that the performance gain even in these tasks is relatively minor with the i9 9990XE being about 1% faster than the i9 9980XE while the W-3175X is about 10% faster.

Core i9 9990XE vs Xeon W-3175X for After Effects CC 2019

After Effects cares a lot about single-core performance, which automatically makes the Xeon W-3175X a poor choice. Overall, the W-3175X ended up being about 25% slower than the Core i9 9900K 8 core. On the other hand, the Core i9 9990XE does well, coming in at about 5% faster than the i9 9900K.

Core i9 9990XE vs Xeon W-3175X for Premiere Pro CC 2019

Premiere Pro is the one instance where both of these CPUs do well. In fact, they performed almost identically to each other and beat the next fastest CPU (the Core i9 9980XE) by a small 2.5%. This isn't a very large increase in performance – certainly nowhere near the relative price increase – but if you are looking for the best of the best regardless of any other consideration, these CPUs tie for that crown.

If you have read any of our other articles looking at Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, After Effects, or Premiere Pro, you likely are not too surprised that the Xeon W-3175X did relatively poorly in our Creative Cloud testing. To be frank, given the nature of this software and the workloads this CPU is designed for, we were actually a little surprised at how well it ended up doing in Lightroom Classic and especially Premiere Pro. So if anything, the Xeon W-3175X exceeded our expectations.

The Core i9 9990XE, on the other hand, is pretty much the ideal type of CPU for the software we tested. In most cases, raw performance per core is what matters most in Adobe applications, but there are also many situations where having a higher number of CPU cores helps. Since the i9 9990XE has both a high clock speed and a reasonably high number of cores, it ends up at the top our charts in pretty much every Adobe package we tested.

To be fair to the Xeon W-3175X, we do want to make it clear that in the situations it is designed for, it is a pretty decent processor. For example, it should do well in scientific workloads like NAMD and in CPU rendering applications like V-Ray and Cinema 4D it beats every other CPU we have tested to date. If nothing else, this article simply goes to show how important it is to get a CPU that is right for the software you use rather than just getting the most expensive CPU possible.

Looking for a
Content Creation Workstation?

Puget Systems offers a range of workstations designed specifically for video and image editing applications including Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, DaVinci Resolve, and more.

Configure a Content Creation Workstation

Tags: 2700X, 2990WX, 9900K, 9940X, 9980XE, 9990XE, After Effects, Intel 9th Gen, Intel X-series, Lightroom CLassic, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Ryzen, Threadripper, W-3175X

Who is Puget Systems?

Puget Systems builds custom PCs tailored for your workflow

Extensive in-house testing
making you more productive and giving you more performance for your dollar

Reliable workstations
with fewer crashes and blue screens means more time working, less time waiting on your computer

Support that understands
your complex workflows and can get you back up and running ASAP

Proven track record
check out our customer testimonials and Reseller Ratings

Get Started

Browse Our Workstations

Fractal Design Define 7 Chassis with Puget Systems Logo

Select your workflow:

Content Creation
Engineering
Scientific Computing
More

Latest Articles

  • Basic Guide to Identify and Remove Malware
  • Should I Upgrade My Gpu
  • Case Study with Lost Boys Interactive
  • Samsung 990 Pro Critical Firmware Update
  • How To Use Linux Kernel Boot Options
View All

Post navigation

 CPU Rendering: Intel Core i9 9990XE vs Xeon W-3175XLightroom Classic CC 2019: Enhanced Details GPU Performance 
Puget Systems Logo
Build Your Own PC Site Map FAQ
facebook instagram linkedin rss twitter youtube

Optimized Solutions

  • Adobe Premiere
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Solidworks
  • Autodesk AutoCAD
  • Machine Learning

Workstations

  • Content Creation
  • Engineering
  • Scientific PCs
  • More

Support

  • Online Guides
  • Request Support
  • Remote Help

Publications

  • All News
  • Puget Blog
  • HPC Blog
  • Hardware Articles
  • Case Studies

Policies

  • Warranty & Return
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Delivery Times
  • Accessibility

About Us

  • Testimonials
  • Careers
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

© Copyright 2023 - Puget Systems, All Rights Reserved.