Synthetic Benchmarks

As always, I started off my testing with a few Synthetic benchmarks. I did these just to round out the gaming-focused coverage and they are also typically very consistent. The benchmark I tested both CPUs with was Futuremark’s 3DMark. I tested in their Fire Strike benchmark using all three performance settings that cover 1080p, 1440p, and 4k performance and I also tested using Time Spy, a DX12 focused benchmark. Unlike our normal CPU or GPU reviews, I did include a whole range of results for a better comparison here. When I did my CPU benchmarks I only used the Physics scores and for GPUs, I use the graphics score. These results were interesting, though. In all three of the Fire Strike benchmarks the 7700K dominated in the overall scores. This was mostly because the combined scores where they test the CPU and GPU together the R7 1700 fell behind. The gap moving up in resolution got smaller until in the Ultra test the results were similar. Time Spy also had a similar overall score but the CPU score on the 1700 was actually higher, the DX12 benchmark must take better advantage of the additional cores.

Like in 3DMark, I tested Catzilla across three different resolutions and I once again left all of the different results rather than sticking with the overall score that I normally use. The overall score on the 1080p result was just mind blowing how far ahead the 7700K was with it outperforming in nearly every category. Like before the gap does get smaller at 1440p and at 4k the two CPUs are nearly the same. In the CPU-focused test the 7700K does still have a lead as well as the GPU and CPU combined test, but at 4k the GPU is the main limitation, not the CPU.

For the last synthetic, I went back to Futuremark but this time for their new VRMark benchmark. This test takes a look at VR performance in two different tests. The Orange room benchmark is a good representation of most of today's VR titles and the Blue room is a future looking benchmark that shows what kind of power would be needed to get the detailed graphics we see in today's normal video games but in a full VR environment. In the Orange room benchmark the GTZ 1080 Ti wasn’t really the limitation and the end result was just over a 75 FPS gap in performance with the 7700K and its higher IPC and lower core count winning. In the Blue Room, the test is much more demanding and the GTX 1080 Ti is a limitation and the results end up being almost exactly the same.