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. Solidworks 2016 CPU Performance: Skylake-S vs Haswell-E/EP

Solidworks 2016 CPU Performance: Skylake-S vs Haswell-E/EP

Posted on December 31, 2015 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 December 31, 2015. For newer information, see our more recent articles.

Table of Contents

  • Introduction
  • Test Setup
  • Startup Time
  • File Open & Save
  • Rebuild
  • Motion Study
  • FEA and Flow Simulation
  • Rendering
  • Model Rotation
  • Conclusion

Introduction

Recently, we have published a number of articles testing various aspects of Solidworks including how well it is able to take advantage of multiple CPU cores. From that article, we determined that the best all-around CPU for Solidworks is going to be one with the highest operating frequency and a moderate core count. However, one thing that testing did not take into account was how much the architecture of the CPU can impact performance.

Currently, Intel has four processor product lines that a Solidworks user may be interested in. These lines and their current architecture are:

  • Core i3/i5/i7 (Skylake-S)
  • Xeon E3 (Skylake-S)
  • High End Core i7 (Haswell-E)
  • Xeon E5 (Haswell-EP)

Of these lines, the Core i3/i5/i7 and Xeon E3 are essentially the same products with a few minor feature differences. Likewise, the High End Core i7 and Xeon E5 are also closely related. When talking about performance, you can really combine these four product lines into two categories – the ones using the Skylake-S architecture and the ones using Haswell-E/EP.

What makes this distinction interesting is that the Haswell architecture is actually two generations behind Skylake-S. Haswell-E/EP allows for more cores and cache, but clock for clock a Skylake-S CPU should be faster than a Haswell CPU due to improvements in the architecture. What we want to do in this article is to determine how much of an impact using a newer CPU architecture has on performance in Solidworks. If you want to skip over our individual benchmark results and simply view our conclusions, feel free to jump ahead to the conclusion section.

Test Setup

In order to compare Skylake-S to Haswell-E/EP, we used two test systems with the following hardware:

Testing Hardware Skylake-S Haswell-EP
Motherboard: Asus Z170-A Asus X99 Deluxe
CPU: Intel Core i7 6700K Quad Core 8MB
(4.0-4.2GHz)
Intel Xeon E5-1650 V3 Six Core 15MB
(3.5-3.8GHz)
CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H60 CPU Cooler (Rev. 2)
RAM: 4x Crucial DDR4-2133 4GB (16GB total)
GPU: PNY Quadro M4000 8GB
Hard Drive: Samsung 850 Pro 512GB SATA 6Gb/s SSD
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 850W P2
Software: Solidworks 2016 SP 0.1

In order to keep out testing as consistent as possible, the majority of the hardware was shared between the two systems. In fact, the only hardware that was not used on both was the motherboard and CPU. Since we want to determine how much the CPU architecture impacts performance, in addition to testing each CPU at stock settings we will also be locking both CPUs to run with only four cores at 4.0GHz. This way we will be able to look at how both CPUs compare normally as well as comparing Skylake-S to Haswell-E/EP in general.

To make sure our results are as accurate as possible we used a combination of Solidworks macros and a custom AutoIt script to start Solidworks, load the relevant test file, then time how long it takes to perform the various task we want to benchmark. The files we used were a mix of Solidworks training files and files available from GrabCad.com. These files and the associated test are:

Test Files
Solidworks Startup N/A
File Open & Save Assembly – Vertical Twin Steam Engine with Reverse Gear (by Ridwan Septyawan)
Drawing – punch_holder (Solidworks Performance Test dataset)
Motion Study Gear Train Mechanism with Fixed and Swaying Axes (by trinityscsp)
FEA Simulation FEA Benchmark V3
Flow Simulation – Airflow Billboard – Lesson14 Case Study (Solidworks 2015 Flow Sim. training files)
Flow Simulation – Thermal PDES_E Box overall – Lesson06 Case Study (Solidworks 2015 Flow Sim. training files)
Rebuild/Rendering Vertical Twin Steam Engine with Reverse Gear (by Ridwan Septyawan)
Model Rotation Audi R8 by ma73us

File Open/Save  – Assembly

File Open/Save – Drawing

Motion Study

FEA Simulation

Flow Simulation – Airflow

Flow Simulation – Thermal

Rebuild/Rendering

Model Rotation

Startup Time


To begin our testing, we simply timed how long it took for Solidworks to startup. At stock speeds, the Core i7 6700K is about 34% faster than the E5-1650 V3. When both CPUs are locked to four cores at 4GHz, however, the E5-1650 V3 performance improves a bit due to the higher frequency but the 6700K is still 20% faster.

File Open & Save


When opening files, the 6700K is again faster than the E5-1650 V3 – this time by 30-37%. Locking the CPUs to four cores at 4GHz, the E5-1650 V3 actually gets worse by a small amount. It is not much, but it means that with an identical core count and frequency, a Skylake-S CPU should be about 34-35% faster than a Haswell-E/EP CPU.

For saving files the E5-1650 V3 actually did a bit better at stock settings but the 6700K was still 28-31% faster. With both CPUs locked, the 6700K was 27% faster when opening an assembly and 43% faster when opening a drawing.

Rebuild


When rebuilding our test assembly we interestingly did not see a difference in performance between the E5-1650 V3 at stock speeds and when it was locked to four cores at 4GHz. The 6700K did see a small drop in performance when limited to 4Ghz but even then the 6700K was about 30% faster than the E5-1650 V3.

Motion Study


Our motion study consists of a 10 second, 60 FPS animation. Oddly, the Xeon E5-1650 V3 performed worse with the frequency increased to 4GHz which is not what should happen since motion study is completely single threaded. No matter the reason behind this aberration, the 6700K was about 26% faster than the E5-1650 V3 at stock speeds and 28% faster when both CPUs were locked.

FEA and Flow Simulation

Solidworks Skylake Vs Haswell-E
For the two flow simulations, the results were pretty much in line with everything we have seen so far. At stock speeds the 6700K was 11.5-13% faster while with both CPUs locked to four cores at 4GHz the 6700K was about 21.5% faster.

The interesting result was the FEA simulation where the E5-1650 V3 was actually faster than the Core i7 6700K. At stock speeds it was 15.2% faster and when the CPUs were locked it was 3% faster. This is unexpected because our multi-threading testing showed that the parallel efficiency for this task is only 70% which means that at stock speeds the 6700K should be faster than the E5-1650 V3 by about 7.5%. However, this doesn't even take into account the newer architecture which means that the 6700K should be even better. Since this is not what we are seeing, it is likely that the increased cache available on the E5-1650 V3 (15MB vs 8MB) is what is making the difference for this task.

Rendering


In Solidworks, rendering is actually divided up into two steps: an irradiance pre-pass and the final render. The irradiance pre-pass typically only takes between 15-30% of the total render time, but for large renders that can still be a significant amount of time. Because of this we wanted to time both steps individually in case there was a significant difference in performance.

Rendering is extremely well threaded, so at the stock settings the extra two cores on the E5-1650 V3 makes a big difference. In fact, at stock the E5-1650 V3 is 13.1% faster for the pre-pass and 9% faster for the actual render. Overall, this makes the E5-1650 V3 about 10% faster than the Core i7-6700K.

When both CPUs are locked to four cores at 4GHz, however, the 6700K is significantly faster than the E5-1650 V3. In fact, the 6700K is 19.5% faster for the pre-pass and 28% faster for the actual render. In total, this makes Skylake-S clock-for-clock about 26% faster than Haswell-E/EP when rendering images in Solidworks.

Model Rotation

The FPS you can achieve when rotating a model is going to be heavily dependent on the complexity of the model, the quality settings you use, and the resolution of your display. For this test, we chose to use a fairly complex model as it gives us around 60 FPS with a 6700K. A less complex model may show a different result between the two CPUs, but if you are already getting 100-200 FPS, even a 10% improvement doesn't really mean anything since the FPS is already much higher than the human eye can actually detect.

Starting with the results with a 1080p display, at stock speeds the 6700K is about 32% faster without RealView and 29% faster with RealView enabled. With both CPUs locked to four cores at 4GHz, the difference is smaller as rotating and viewing models in Solidworks is single-threaded so the increase in frequency on the E5-1650 V3 results in an increase in performance. With both CPUs locked, the 6700K is only 20.5% faster without RealView and 16% faster with RealView enabled.


Increasing the monitor resolution to 4K doesn't change the results too much. At stock settings the 6700K is 29-38.5% faster while with both CPUs locked the 6700K is only 10.5-14% faster.

Conclusion

To summarize our results, here is the performance improvement we saw with the Core i7 6700K compared to the Xeon E5-1650 V3 for each test:

Performance improvement with
i7 6700K vs E5-1650 V3
Stock Locked to 4 Cores @ 4GHz
Solidworks Startup 34% 20%
File Open 34% 34%
File Save 29.5% 35%
Rebuild 33.5% 28%
Motion Study 26% 28%
FEA Simulation -13% -3%
Flow Simulation 13% 21.5%
Rendering -9% 26%
Model Rotation 36% 15%
OVERALL AVERAGE 20.5% 23%

At stock speeds, the Intel Core i7 6700K was 13-36% faster than the Xeon E5-1650 V3. The only exception was rendering (which is highly threaded so the extra cores on the E5-1650 V3 makes a big impact) and FEA simulations where the E5-1650 V3 was actually faster. We are not 100% sure why the FEA simulation was faster on the Haswell-EP CPU, but our best guess it that it has to do with the increased cache available on that CPU (15MB vs 8MB)

When both CPUs were locked to four cores running at 4GHz, we get a pretty clear picture of just how important using the latest CPU architecture can be. We still saw a small drop in performance with the 6700K when performing a FEA simulation (which would make sense if it can take advantage of the extra cache), but for everything else the 6700K was anywhere from 15-35% faster than the E5-1650 V3.

This means that, clock for clock, Skylake-S is on average 23% faster than Haswell-E/EP in Solidworks. Since Solidworks is primarily single threaded, if you wanted to match the performance of a Core i7 6700K (which runs at 4-4.2GHz), this works out to needing to overclock a Haswell-E/EP CPU to about 5GHz. While this is possible to do with a lot of effort, it is not easy and would require specialized cooling. Even then, that would be a major overclock which would likely be unstable and considerably more expensive than simply using a Core i7 6700K.

Overall, we were actually impressed by how much of a performance difference there is between Skylake-S and Haswell-E/EP. We expected to see a 10-15% performance difference when using the same core count and operating frequency, so seeing a difference of up to 35% surprised us. Of course, this isn't a perfect comparison since the chipset and other factors are playing a role, but it does give you a very good idea of how much performance you would be giving up if you wanted to use a Xeon E5 or high end Core i7 CPU rather than a Skylake-S CPU like the Core i7 6700K.

CTA Image
SOLIDWORKS Workstations

Puget Systems offers a range of powerful and reliable systems that are tailor-made for your unique workflow.

Configure a System!
CTA Image
Labs Consultation Service

Our Labs team is available to provide in-depth hardware recommendations based on your workflow.

Find Out More!
Tags: Architecture, CPU, Processor, SOLIDWORKS

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

  • Puget Systems Hardware Trends of 2022
  • Guide To Removing Instapak Foam
  • Basic Guide to Identify and Remove Malware
  • Should I Upgrade My Gpu
  • Case Study with Lost Boys Interactive
View All

Post navigation

 Network Rendering in Solidworks 2016Samsung SATA SSD’s Amazing Reliability 
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.