AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Review: Why Is This Amazon's Best Selling CPU?
by Dr. Ian Cutress on May 18, 2020 9:00 AM ESTCPU Performance: Encoding Tests
With the rise of streaming, vlogs, and video content as a whole, encoding and transcoding tests are becoming ever more important. Not only are more home users and gamers needing to convert video files into something more manageable, for streaming or archival purposes, but the servers that manage the output also manage around data and log files with compression and decompression. Our encoding tasks are focused around these important scenarios, with input from the community for the best implementation of real-world testing.
All of our benchmark results can also be found in our benchmark engine, Bench.
Handbrake 1.1.0: Streaming and Archival Video Transcoding
A popular open source tool, Handbrake is the anything-to-anything video conversion software that a number of people use as a reference point. The danger is always on version numbers and optimization, for example the latest versions of the software can take advantage of AVX-512 and OpenCL to accelerate certain types of transcoding and algorithms. The version we use here is a pure CPU play, with common transcoding variations.
We have split Handbrake up into several tests, using a Logitech C920 1080p60 native webcam recording (essentially a streamer recording), and convert them into two types of streaming formats and one for archival. The output settings used are:
- 720p60 at 6000 kbps constant bit rate, fast setting, high profile
- 1080p60 at 3500 kbps constant bit rate, faster setting, main profile
- 1080p60 HEVC at 3500 kbps variable bit rate, fast setting, main profile
7-zip v1805: Popular Open-Source Encoding Engine
Out of our compression/decompression tool tests, 7-zip is the most requested and comes with a built-in benchmark. For our test suite, we’ve pulled the latest version of the software and we run the benchmark from the command line, reporting the compression, decompression, and a combined score.
It is noted in this benchmark that the latest multi-die processors have very bi-modal performance between compression and decompression, performing well in one and badly in the other. There are also discussions around how the Windows Scheduler is implementing every thread. As we get more results, it will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Please note, if you plan to share out the Compression graph, please include the Decompression one. Otherwise you’re only presenting half a picture.
WinRAR 5.60b3: Archiving Tool
My compression tool of choice is often WinRAR, having been one of the first tools a number of my generation used over two decades ago. The interface has not changed much, although the integration with Windows right click commands is always a plus. It has no in-built test, so we run a compression over a set directory containing over thirty 60-second video files and 2000 small web-based files at a normal compression rate.
WinRAR is variable threaded but also susceptible to caching, so in our test we run it 10 times and take the average of the last five, leaving the test purely for raw CPU compute performance.
AES Encryption: File Security
A number of platforms, particularly mobile devices, are now offering encryption by default with file systems in order to protect the contents. Windows based devices have these options as well, often applied by BitLocker or third-party software. In our AES encryption test, we used the discontinued TrueCrypt for its built-in benchmark, which tests several encryption algorithms directly in memory.
The data we take for this test is the combined AES encrypt/decrypt performance, measured in gigabytes per second. The software does use AES commands for processors that offer hardware selection, however not AVX-512.
114 Comments
View All Comments
Meteor2 - Wednesday, May 20, 2020 - link
What a great site, thank you for posting it!tommythorn - Monday, May 18, 2020 - link
Typo: ">>Unfortuantely<< AMD has stated ...""once in a while, a truly great CPU" The 300 (but really, 450) MHz Celeron C300 II was such a processor. It was a kludge (desperate to compete with AMD, Intel rushed out a chip that was essentially a P-II but much cheaper). It ended up being an amazing value and with a few hacks even become the introduction to SMP for many.
catavalon21 - Monday, May 18, 2020 - link
I remember it well. Crazy to get a 50% overclock, but almost everyone's 300A would hit, and keep, 450.MDD1963 - Monday, May 18, 2020 - link
The famous Celeron 300A@464 MHz for $79 was quite popular, and, gamed as well as the $450 PII-450...Spunjji - Tuesday, May 19, 2020 - link
Funny how Intel's best price/performance moments tend to be knee-jerk responses to AMD :DToTTenTranz - Monday, May 18, 2020 - link
Does the USB-C Hub support AVX2?1_rick - Monday, May 18, 2020 - link
I'm not sure. Do the chickens have large talons?mikato - Sunday, May 24, 2020 - link
Really, is that the only USB hub on sale in Australia to rank that high?yeeeeman - Monday, May 18, 2020 - link
Cheap price and good performance. That is why.Flunk - Monday, May 18, 2020 - link
$200 is the prime price for people building a fairly powerful computer, but with a budget. 3600 pairs well with pretty much any video card for gaming and is pretty powerful for anything else. Intel competition at this price point is weak, at least until Apollo Lake. 3600 is a obvious recommendation.