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The demonstration used the multi-threaded Blender rendering application on two similarly configured PCs. One featured an engineering sample Summit Ridge chip, while the other featured a new Intel Broadwell-E Core i7-6900K CPU. While the Core i7-6900K can run up to 4GHz on some workloads, AMD conducted the test with both CPUs locked at 3GHz.
This methodology may seem unorthodox to some, but matching the chips clock-for-clock helps reveal their efficiencies. Conducting the test this way also helps AMD protect the final shipping clock speeds of the chips. In the demo, which was performed just once, the Zen finished a nose ahead of the Broadwell-E Core i7-6900K chip.
It’s just a single test on an unreleased CPU, and under the control of AMD. Still, the significance of the performance feat quells any fears that Zen would be the all-too-familiar “too little, too late” story from a company that has eaten Intel’s dust.
The demonstration exceeded the crowd’s expectations. “This is the most exciting AMD (CPU) launch in a decade,” said Kevin Krewell, principal analyst with Tirias Research, who attended the event. “They really have hit the mark on this.”
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