Intel Core i9-9900K 8 Core vs Intel Core i10-9900K 10 Core

[flbreen]

Designing a new system using the Puget Pr 4K design. The Puget design call for the Intel Core i9-9900K 8 Core processor but it was suggested by a forum contributor that I wait for the yet to be available Intel Core I10-9900K 10 Core processor. I used the Puget Systems email support to see if they would be offering the new processor in their 4K system. The answer was that their testing showed that the older 8 core processor was better for 4K work than the newer 10 core processor. Can anyone comment?

[Peru Bob]

Premiere Pro dosn't yet work better with more than an 8 core processor. Perhaps sometime in the future Adobe will improve support for 10 core and up processors.

[flbreen]

That would be great except that Puget uses a 12 core processor for its Pr 6K/8K system and a 24 core processor for its best Pr system.

[RjL190365]

Here's the issue with the new 10-core QuickSync-enabled CPU: Heat and power draw. It draws much more power than the LGA 1151 socket itself was designed to handle while producing a ton of heat at even stock clock speeds.

And the 10-core Intel CPU that Puget Systems tested was NOT that new, now-delayed 10-core mainstream CPU. Instead, it was an HEDT i9-10900X that has no integrated graphics and no QuickSync. As such, the scores are predictably lower all around, especially when there is H.264 (AVC) or H.265 (HEVC) decoding or encoding involved, than the mainstream iGPU-equipped Intel CPUs.

And many of the tests within the Puget Systems benchmark are sensitive to CPU clock speed. Thus, the i9-10900X scored lower not only due to the lack of QuickSync decoding/encoding, but also due to the lower all-core Turbo clock speed.

[Andy 1968]

I can see this thread is old but Quick Sync will draw less power and remain cooler than having all 8 or 10 cores pumping away to encode and decode h.264/265. That is why I wanted to get a consumer based Intel CPU instead of a Xeon or X Series CPU.

[flbreen]

I got the name of the new processor incorrect. The following is the description of the new processor: Compatible with their X299 chipset-based motherboards, the Core i9-10900X 3.7 GHz 10-Core LGA 2066 Processor from Intel has a base clock speed of 3.7 GHz and comes with features such as Intel Optane Memory and SSD support, Intel Device Protection with Boot Guard, Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d), Intel Trusted Execution

[RjL190365]

If you're working primarily with H.264 or H.265 video content, the 8-core i9-9900K is the better choice of those two. None of the X299-compatible CPUs have integrated graphics at all, and thus do not support QuickSync at all. That, plus the lower all-core Turbo clocks of the 10900X, are the reasons for the poorer scores of that CPU, especially for the total cost of that CPU platform.

[JonesVid]

Can any Adobe Professionals now comment on this interesting thread from Feb 2020 - we are now 12 months on nearly since the original post.

Intel 10 core 10900K gives an opportunity to clock up to 5.3GHz (with appropriate coolers).

I also read somewhere that Premiere Pro will use as many cores as you can throw at it ... but not so sure this is correct?.

An Adobe web article just states it runs at 93 to 96% with 8 cores .... but that was with older Software releases.

I'm considering a platform upgrade but hesitant as I'm currently using an i9 9900K with all 8 cores overclocked to 5GHz and locked.

I'd already noticed the X266 series do not have QuickSync but as far as I can see the Comet Lake S1200 series do.

This gives reasonable performance but rendering out my ProRes 422 master takes some time, and I'm looking for a performance improvement if I can get it with new CPU/Motherboard.

I have opted for the Hybrid method of editing rendering all Previews to Pro Res 422 before hand (Render as I go along)  - but edit with the H264 based Long GOP base footage. For me this works as I don't want the pain of transcoding everything to Pro Res422  before hand.

Already running 64GB fast memory and all drives are SSD / some NVMe. NVidia 2070 Super GPU and Quicksync enabled.

Can any Adobe Community Professionals comment on future upgrades of CPU Hardware now the new processors are released?. This might be useful to many users perhaps?

By the way - whatever happended to the split within Premiere Pro Community Forum to target Hardware discussions etc ?

[RjL190365]

Here's the problem:

Current non-beta versions of Premiere Pro, up to and including the current 14.8 release, still has its QuickSync support broken with Intel driver versions newer than 27.20.100.8476. Beginning with the next Intel driver release after 8476, a newer version of the QuickSync toolkit is required. Unfortunately, the current 14.8 version of Premiere Pro still uses the older QuickSync toolkit.

As a result, with newer Intel drivers, QuickSync will be effectively disabled in Premiere Pro.

[JonesVid]

Thanks. Interesting point about Quicksync not working on later Intel Drivers/Premiere 14.8. NOt seen this info anywhere else !!

I have the Intel Driver update tool running on my PC which always loads the latest which is 27.20.100.9168 on my machine for 630 GPU.

Looking at the performance check in Task Manager - yes - Intel GPU is just sitting there doing Zero on an Export using Hardware. My Nvidia 2070 super is at about 70%.

Have Adobe Premiere team updated to the new Quicksync Toolkit in the Beta version?. Not tried it yet.

As regards upgrade - Since Intel announced the 11th Generation in January 2021 I'm going to wait now and look at the 11900K which reports say is better than the 10900K 10 core ??. The new ASUS 590 MOtherboard series is also there to support it.

[RjL190365]

No. The i9-11900K will not be an improvement over the current i9-10900K. In fact, it is in a "one step up, two steps back" situation: All of the new 11th-Gen Intel mainstream-platform CPUs will be limited to 8 cores and 16 threads (whereas the i9-10900K has 10 cores and 20 threads), more than negating the clock speed and IPC gains.

[JonesVid]

Well...... lots of conflicting reports on what performs best, opinions and muscle flexing versus AMD.

As far as I can see there are no actual 'volume' commercial products there to test yet - but what is highly likely is that Intel will end of Life the previous generation at some point in the future.

If 11th Generation is worse than the previous generation then what is the point ?

I'm in no hurry so will sit back and wait for the dust to settle.

[Andy 1968]

The new Intel CPUs are supposed to get a better IGPU and Intel's Quick Sync should get a revamp. Quick Sync is good to have.

[RjL190365]

Exactly why the 11th-Gen Intel CPUs are in a "one step up, two steps back" situation. Since the new CPUs will have fewer CPU cores and fewer CPU threads than the current 10th-Gen CPUs, exporting to formats other than H.264 or HEVC will be noticeably slower than with the current 10th-Gen CPUs (and this applies only to the i9-branded models).

[Andy 1968]

Your assumption might be incorrect. If the new CPU design has 50% better performance then an new 8 core CPU would keep up with an old 12 core CPU. 8 cores is enough for me. I think it might be best for Intel to use more of the CPU real estate for the IGPU. Apple's M1 chip seems impressive. I imagine over time AMD and Intel will follow Apple's lead.

[RjL190365]

I have seen early results with the i7-11700K. The results with that CPU so far are disappointing for the hype. The single-core performance improved by only 15% over the current i7-10700K. As such, the i7-11700K still trails the R7 5800X in most tests.

This, combined with an increased core-to-core latency of Rocket Lake, make Rocket lake not worth the higher cost at this time.

The i9-11900K has an additional Turbo boost - but all-core performance is still limited. Thus, the i9-11900K will at best merely match the R7 5800X in terms of performance in Premiere Pro (buggy QuickSync implementation notwithstanding).

And all this is because Rocket Lake, although it is a "new-for-desktop" architecture, is simply a 14nm "Cypress Cove" backport of the existing 10nm "Sunny Cove" architecture that's used in the low-power Tiger Lake CPUs.

What a disappointment right now (although that might change once the drivers for Rocket Lake mature).

[RjL190365]

PugetBench Systems posted the first results this morning for the just-now-shipping 11th-Gen Intel CPUs (albeit using a Z490 chipset-based motherboard). With this chipset, the 11th-Gen i5 and i7 CPUs perform almost equal to the AMD Ryzen 5000-series equivalents, but at a slightly lower price (but generally increased heat output and power consumption).

If there is one disappointment with the new 11th-Gen Intel CPUs, it's the i9-11900K. That CPU performs no better in Premiere Pro than the i7-11700K, but it costs more than $200 more! That makes the i9-11900K way overpriced for its performance.

As a result of this early testing, if I were building an entirely new PC right now, and have only about $1,500 USD to spend, then right now I would recommend either the i5-11600K or the i7-11700K over their AMD Ryzen 5000 equivalents, in light of the cryptocurrency-mining-inflated current pricing for all decent recent-gen discrete GPUs (leaving only very-low-end and old-gen discrete GPUs as "affordable" at this present time).

[JonesVid]

So ... if Premiere code is currently written to only support 8 cores (ref Peru Bob) how come people like Puget Systems are selling 24 or 32 core AMD machines and claiming such massive performance improvement?.

Is this just sheer brute force and high system clock speeds?.

[Peru Bob]

So ... if Premiere code is currently written to only support 8 cores

By @JonesVid

That may have changed since a year ago when my reply was posted. 

Feb 19, 2020

[RjL190365]

That improvement, while noticeable, is nowhere near as massive as the core count and cost of the CPU would have suggested. You have to factor in the other components. And besides, a 32-core CPU is not sufficiently more powerful (real-world-performance-wise) over a 12-core CPU to justify the nearly $1,500 USD difference in CPU cost. Thus, the law of diminishing returns certainly kicks in, in this particular instance.

That said, Puget Systems uses such a high-core-count and massively expensive CPU for its GPU acceleration comparison tests (that means it is comparing all the different discrete GPUs) in order to eliminate the CPU as a bottleneck.

[JonesVid]

Back around Feb 2020 was release 14.1 ? - so we are now still on the main Release 14.x stream with 14.9 just released

I have not seen anywhere a credible answer from an Adobe Design Authority who defines exactly how Premiere will treat anything above 8 cores. The post below back in 2019 said 8 to 10 cores - but the Software has to be written to handle the 8, 10,12, 14 cores (whatever you have) to correctly route it to the number of supermarket queues analogy (as used in the article)

https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro/premiere-pro-and-multicore-support/m-p/4788536

Anyway - the main aim here is to see how much 'reasonable' cash you really should pay for a CPU to have a very good performance on Premiere.

Also assuming of course you could use Quicksync on your Intel GPU for H264 and you have a good level discrete GPU.

If  8 cores give you 93 to 98% (see below) then is it worth spending more cash ?.

https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/premiere-pro/kb/hardware-recommendations.html

[Andy 1968]

I have seen several benchmarks on Youtube between 4,8 and 12 core CPUS and Premere Pro does make use of all twelve cores.

[flbreen]

Amazon 2/24/2021

Intel Core i9 i9-10980XE  - $1024
Intel Core i9-10940X - $684
Intel Core i9-10900K - $468
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X - $531
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X - (not available)
According to Puget testing the best deal is the Intel Core i9-10900K. the 6 core processor score is 70% of the 24 core processor score and the 8 core processor is 80% of the 24 core processor score.

[Andy 1968]

Intel will have new CPUs this year.

[JonesVid]

At the moment the Intel 10900K looks the best option as this has the embedded QuickSync support.

Use it on an ASUS Z490A motherboard (or similar) supporting the 1200 Intel package.

Over the next 2 or 3 months I'll be looking out to see how the new generation 8 Core i9 11900K stacks up.

I'm using i9-9900K at present which is Overclocked to 5GHz (with a watercooler) on an ASUS 390A and this seems to run quite well editing 4K H264 based source footage on the timeline.

As for pricing - in the UK pricing is 1.3x more

The Intel i9 10900K being at approx £489 GBP as of Feb 2021 ....... 1.3x more ($645 )

A CPU is never fast enough these days though is it ?....... there is always bigger and better around the next corner .