HandBrake Video Transcoding

Website: HandBrake

We perform a simple encoding test using the freely available HandBrake software, which converts a 60-second, 400MB, 4K, MKV video sample to a high quality, 1080p, MP4 file using the available presets. Our results show strong scaling with increasing threads, which is indicative of high-performance video editing suites, albeit without any GPU acceleration.

PCMark 10 Photo Editing

Website: Futuremark

This workload involves making a series of adjustments to a set of RAW and JPG photographs using ImageMagik - an open-source image processing library - to apply a range of filters with a live preview. The images are then saved in JPG and PNG formats.

Hamster Zip Archiver

Website: Hamstersoft

Hamster Zip Archiver is a free and popular file compression tool which supports CPU multithreading. We use a 1.5GB folder which includes large video files plus hundreds of photos and documents in the normal compression mode and record the time it takes to complete the task.

Cinebench R15 64-bit

Website: Maxon

Cinebench uses Maxon's Cinema 4D engine to render a photo-realistic scene of some shiny balls and weird things (we miss the motorbike). The scene is highly complex, with reflections, ambient occlusion, and procedural shaders, so it gives a CPU a tough workout.

As Cinema 4D is a real-world application - used on films such as Spider-Man and Star Wars - Cinebench can be viewed as a real-world benchmark.

POV-Ray

Website: POV-ray

The Persistence of Vision Raytracer is a high-quality, Free ray tracing program for creating three-dimensional graphics, which generates images from a text-based scene description and is available for a variety of computer platforms. We use the all-CPU built in benchmark, which completes a timed task and we record the time it takes for each CPU to complete it.