CPU Benchmark Relevancy

[Borgus Bohr]

Hi everyone,

 

I've been doing overclocking tests here and there in the past year or so (i7 8700k). I'm a photographer, I use my computer to game but mostly for work. I overclocked my processor to 4.8ghz, and ran it like that for about 6 months(good temps, Windows never crashed). Obviously, at 4.8, it's faster and snappier than the stock configuration. While gaming, everything is fine, no complaints. Most of the time when I'm working (Photoshop, multitasking between different softwares) everything is good, but when ''I'm on a roll'' and working fast for a certain amount of time, weird things happens, like weird software behaviors or Photoshop crashing for example. My reflex was to leave it at 4.8ghz because of the ''snapiness'' of the system, and the fact that my cpu benchmark results are higher (Geekbench, Cinebench), higher than stock settings for example. Higher results, seems to mean better. Lately I've dropped from 4.8ghz to 4.7ghz. My benchmark results are lower, of course, but the flow of the system in real life, is smoother and faster, even if the clock speed is lower. A few weeks has passed, and so far so good.

 

Long premise I know, but from your opinion, how high would you value a cpu benchmark score? From my perspective, it seems that benchmark scores may overshadow real life performance. In the sense that we value the performance of a system based on a benchmark score, rather than the system performing in more complex situations.  

 

Anyone have an opinion or knowledge to bring to the table?

 

Thanks!

[Shimejii]

Benchmark scores are for the luls and seeing what you CAN get out of your cpu in an ideal scenario. I could techincally get 4.5 or 4.6 out of my 3800x if i pump enough voltage, but im happy with 4.4 at 1.375. Stable in everything i do and havent had a single issue.

 

You just want whats Stable and works best for you.

[SnowyMus]

CPUs are good at many different things, but some CPUs are better at some things than other things (and vice versa), and there's no such thing as a "catch all" benchmark that encompasses that. Sure, if one CPU scores higher than another in Cinebench or Geekbench, it's probably going to be faster in many other things, but it isn't necessarily going to be faster in all tasks. After all, these are "synthetic" benchmarks. They don't often test the CPU in specific areas that might matter, thus some people may find OCs to seemingly be stable in these but the OCs fail in action.

 

I think the best benchmark for someone wanting to a CPU is testing a workload you actually intend to use the CPU for. If it doesn't score as well in Cinebench but it's great at your intended use cases, then does it really matter? Probably not.

[Guest]

I use my 8700K stricktly for F@H and Benchmarking. When it's not benching, it's folding.

 

So to me, benchmark scores mean a lot. Because I'm doing it competitively and submitting scores along the way.

 

For every day people using it for a daily working rig, stability should always be first concern. Especially if you don't have additional hardware to do testing with in case you blow up a ram stick or something........

 

Arbitrary number chasing is all benchmarking really is. And it can be addictive.

 

8700K example number chasing......

3DMark03 HD 6950

This is 9th place out of 150 submissions.

 

[Roswell]

4.8 to 4.7 is only around a 2% decrease. I don't think you or anyone else for that matter would be able to perceive a difference in a blind test. I wouldn't worry about it much.

[Eigenvektor]

I would say benchmark results are mostly important before you buy. They can give you a rough idea of how well a CPU is going to perform in the tasks you're going to use it for. Of course this means primarily looking at benchmarks that actually reflect that. E.g. gaming benchmarks if you're a gamer and Cinebench if you happen to use Cinema 4D.

 

Running a few benchmarks after you assemble your own computer can tell you if everything performs as it should and/or if your overclock is stable. Other than that, it's mostly just numbers and bragging rights.