- Joined
- Mar 25, 2011
- Location
- Pacific NW USA
Let me begin by saying this, this thread is not meant to be an Intel "bashing" or "smearing" thread. I won't be getting into the merit's of one companies CPU's over another. This thread is about the benchmarks that all of us use all the time to measure the performance of our CPU's and if there is any "bias" in the results. I think that it's in all of our best interests to answer that question either way. The following is merely an explanation of past events and how they may or may not be affecting current programs.
It's been well documented and gone over about how Intel's compiler and Libraries have a biased CPU dispatcher which negatively affects Intel's competitors largely brought to everyone's attention by a man named Agner Fog. That same dispatcher resulted in being part of AMD's lawsuit against Intel as well as being part of the numerous anti-trust filings and fines levied against intel in the U.S., the E.U. as well as other countries. As part of the Federal Trade Commission's suit against and settlement with Intel it was required that Intel post a "disclaimer" for it's compiler as well as reimburse any developers who used the program for the cost as well as their costs in recoding their programs with a different compiler etc. Part of AMD's settlement with Intel was that they remove the compromised code and replace it with one that does not discriminate based on the vendor string in the CPUID (i.e. AuthenticAMD etc.). Intel later stated that their compiler no longer discriminates (yet the CPU dispatcher code is still there) but has remained silent as to all of their libraries that had the same CPU dispatcher coded in as well. You can read about all of it here at agner's blog as well as by doing a google search for the lawsuit and anti-trust actions. http://www.agner.org/optimize/blog/read.php?i=49
With all of that in mind and a good amount of curiosity I set out to try and see if benchmark programs are still affected by this. At first I tried using VMWare and altering the CPUID in the config file as others in the past have done with some success but unfortunately nothing I tried worked (that function was removed maybe?). So I broke down and purchased a Via Nano Motherboard, downloaded Agner's program and started to get to work to see if there is any bias in the programs we trust to give us an idea of our CPU's capabilities as well as the programs and games we use all the time. With that in mind let's take a look at the results. All results within 3% of each other should be considered equal as that is within the margin for error.
I'm still in the process of testing so these results aren't final. I'll update the charts as I go and screenshots when I'm done with everything as I have literally hundreds of screenshots already to go through and upload.
*NOTE - If the results do not show any difference no matter what the "Vendor ID" is set to (normal 1 point or small variations less than 3% etc) I will only run the tests once as there is no need to do triple runs and average the results. I will also, in the interests of saving bandwidth not upload and post the screenshots for those tests although I'm thinking of a way to have a bulk link to everything instead of posting individual screenshots.
Aida 64 Extreme Edition
*with Vendor ID set to Intel and "Bubba Hotep Aida 64 would not run when selecting memory tests.
Cinebench 11.5
Conclusion: All results within normal deviation between runs.
Passmark Performance Test 7
*With Vendor String set to AMD, PT7 instantly crashes when opened.
PCMark 7
*Note all results, higher = better
PC Wizard 2012 Benchmark
This test could not be completed due to consistent random BSOD crashes when changing the Vendor string.
NovaBench
Sisoft Sandra 2012
MaxxMem^2
3DMark 11
It's been well documented and gone over about how Intel's compiler and Libraries have a biased CPU dispatcher which negatively affects Intel's competitors largely brought to everyone's attention by a man named Agner Fog. That same dispatcher resulted in being part of AMD's lawsuit against Intel as well as being part of the numerous anti-trust filings and fines levied against intel in the U.S., the E.U. as well as other countries. As part of the Federal Trade Commission's suit against and settlement with Intel it was required that Intel post a "disclaimer" for it's compiler as well as reimburse any developers who used the program for the cost as well as their costs in recoding their programs with a different compiler etc. Part of AMD's settlement with Intel was that they remove the compromised code and replace it with one that does not discriminate based on the vendor string in the CPUID (i.e. AuthenticAMD etc.). Intel later stated that their compiler no longer discriminates (yet the CPU dispatcher code is still there) but has remained silent as to all of their libraries that had the same CPU dispatcher coded in as well. You can read about all of it here at agner's blog as well as by doing a google search for the lawsuit and anti-trust actions. http://www.agner.org/optimize/blog/read.php?i=49
With all of that in mind and a good amount of curiosity I set out to try and see if benchmark programs are still affected by this. At first I tried using VMWare and altering the CPUID in the config file as others in the past have done with some success but unfortunately nothing I tried worked (that function was removed maybe?). So I broke down and purchased a Via Nano Motherboard, downloaded Agner's program and started to get to work to see if there is any bias in the programs we trust to give us an idea of our CPU's capabilities as well as the programs and games we use all the time. With that in mind let's take a look at the results. All results within 3% of each other should be considered equal as that is within the margin for error.
I'm still in the process of testing so these results aren't final. I'll update the charts as I go and screenshots when I'm done with everything as I have literally hundreds of screenshots already to go through and upload.
*NOTE - If the results do not show any difference no matter what the "Vendor ID" is set to (normal 1 point or small variations less than 3% etc) I will only run the tests once as there is no need to do triple runs and average the results. I will also, in the interests of saving bandwidth not upload and post the screenshots for those tests although I'm thinking of a way to have a bulk link to everything instead of posting individual screenshots.
Aida 64 Extreme Edition
*with Vendor ID set to Intel and "Bubba Hotep Aida 64 would not run when selecting memory tests.
Cinebench 11.5
Conclusion: All results within normal deviation between runs.
Passmark Performance Test 7
*With Vendor String set to AMD, PT7 instantly crashes when opened.
PCMark 7
*Note all results, higher = better
PC Wizard 2012 Benchmark
This test could not be completed due to consistent random BSOD crashes when changing the Vendor string.
NovaBench
Sisoft Sandra 2012
MaxxMem^2
3DMark 11
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