Analysis: Price vs. Operation and Takeaways

Earlier jumping to conclusions, let's try putting our results into perspective with a price vs. operation scatter plot for the Cinebench R15 multi-threaded results. Ideally, for all the price vs. performance graphs here you desire the CPU to exist as far right equally possible and as low as possible, the further right the ameliorate the operation and the lower the better the price.

As you tin can see, the Ryzen 7 1800X is rather far right and nonetheless quite depression, looking a bit improve than the Core i7-7800X in terms of value. Retrieve, the 1800X itself isn't a particularly good value sitting next to the Ryzen 7 1700, which sadly we didn't have fourth dimension to add together to this review but will in future manufactures.

Compared to the 6950X, the new 7900X is a massive step forward in terms of value offering much greater performance at a much better price.

Moving to the Blender results nosotros over again run across that the Ryzen seven 1800X and Core i7-7800X are similar in terms of value, though again the pesky Ryzen 7 1700 volition mess things up for Intel hither. Anyone looking strictly at Intel's line-up will see that the 7900X is a huge leap forrad, priced alongside the 6900K it offers significantly better performance in this application.

The Core i9-7900X proves a very significant upgrade over Broadwell-E in our Handbrake test. For the same coin you're substantially getting a 50% boost in performance, I believe the increased retentiveness bandwidth really helped here. Meanwhile the Ryzen 7 1800X finds itself situated between the 7800X and 7820X in terms of cost and performance.

The Corona price vs performance figures expect peculiarly impressive for the Ryzen 5 1600X as it sneaks in merely behind the Core i7-7800X at a much lower price. Meanwhile, the 1800X is much closer to the 7820X while once more coming in at a lower price.

For 7-Zip I take only looked the decompression results and AMD does much better here when compared to the compression testing. That said, I feel most of you will practice significantly more decompression work than compression and as y'all tin can see for decompression, the 1800X is a lot better value than the Core i7-7800X and 7820X processors.

Looking at the PCMark rendering and visualization figures we see that the Cadre i9-7900X is a massive upgrade over what Intel was previously offering, but for less than half the price the Ryzen 7 1800X isn't much slower and in terms of value information technology besides gives the 7820X and 7800X a hard time.

Lastly we take the Premiere Pro CC results and here the scatter plot looks quite a scrap different to those seen previously as this application doesn't really do a good task of utilizing the higher core count CPUs. Even and then, the 7900X does still offer a decent increase in value over the 6900K.

Conclusion

I think we can all hold that Skylake-X offers mighty impressive performance. The Core i9-7900X blows everything else out of the water and the 7820X does a adept job of making Intel's previous-generation 8-core CPU look a trivial sluggish. Single and dual-thread performance is great, roughly on par with the best quad-core CPUs.

Afterwards testing Intel'south new 6-, 8- and 10-core parts, we're peachy to cheque out the pricier 12, 14, sixteen and 18-cadre editions later this year, simply let'southward not worry well-nigh those for at present.

Power consumption appears to exist the only hiccup for these chips, which burned between xx and 40% more power than the equivalent Broadwell-Due east parts -- pretty brutal.

Although I haven't delved too deep into overclocking however, based on what I've seen so far I wouldn't get my hopes upwardly, and if go-to AIO liquid coolers aren't cutting it, serious custom loops volition be required.

To recap: performance is good and power consumption is scary, merely what about the cost?

Compared to Broadwell-E, Skylake-X is a far ameliorate value. We've gone from $1,700 for Intel's exclusive ten-cadre chip to $1,000, and in the process nosotros're getting a much faster processor, albeit a hungrier and hotter one, too.

The Core i9-7900X is even so seriously expensive, just with no contest in front of it, Intel can get abroad with that for at present. ThreadRipper will likely change that soon, which is a relief to say after and so many years, but that will exist a story for another day.

Let'due south talk eight-core CPUs for a minute. The Ryzen vii 1800X costs $460, merely smart shoppers will opt for the much cheaper $310 1700, which can exist overclocked to accomplish the same performance. The Cadre i7-7820X comes in at $600, making it 30% more expensive than the 1800X, but almost twice the price of the 1700.

Even so looking at the real-world applications, the 7820X was on boilerplate only ten% faster. The 7820X does have the advantage of 28 PCIe 3.0 lanes versus 16 for the Ryzen 7 CPUs. Although this is something ThreadRipper volition address, for the time beingness the 7820X is the obvious pick if yous need the actress lanes.

If all you intendance about is value, Ryzen seven is the obvious choice as decent X370 boards first at $110, making the CPU and motherboard combo just $420 if you intelligently opt for the R7 1700. Comparatively, the 7820X and the cheapest X299 lath will set y'all dorsum $830, basically twice the price for nowhere nearly twice the performance.

Likewise, the 6-core 7800X roughly equals the 1800X in terms of performance. If you lot throw the R7 1700 into the mix, even Intel's most affordable Skylake-X CPU is a tough sell.

Now, if you don't care virtually value, the Core i9 7900X is the mode to become. Its performance is exceptional, you get loads of PCIe lanes, overclocking is an choice to some degree (quite a few degrees in fact) and the X299 platform is superior to AMD's X370. But if you can wait a couple of months, my advice is to concur out and see what AMD has to offer with and and so go from there -- if null else, Intel might have to adjust pricing.

Shopping shortcuts:

  • Intel Cadre i9-7900X on Amazon, Newegg
  • Asrock X299 Taichi motherboard on Newegg
  • Intel Core i7-7820X on Amazon, Newegg
  • Intel Core i7-7800X on Amazon, Newegg

Pros: Skylake-10 topped our operation charts, bringing a much better value over Broadwell-E on the high-finish.

Cons: Information technology'southward extremely power hungry and considerably more expensive than Ryzen equivalents.