CineBench R20 benchmark now available, is 8x more demanding than CineBench R15

After 6 years of CineBench R15, Maxon finally has a proper CineBench R20 benchmark with new features and test standards more representative of modern processors. The free benchmark is now available for download via the Microsoft Windows Store or the Apple App Store.

A major difference between the CineBench R15 and CineBench R20 benchmarks is that the latter renders a much larger and more demanding scene requiring at least 4x the system RAM to run. Because the benchmark takes longer to complete, CineBench R20 should be better at differentiating the performances of different laptops equipped with the same CPU as any throttling would impact the final score more significantly.

As an example, the Huawei MateBook X Pro is equipped with the same Core i7-8550U CPU as the Lenovo Yoga C930. The CPU in the Huawei, however, throttles much sooner than on the Lenovo when subjected to very high processing loads. Since the CineBench R15 benchmark test finishes rather quickly, we would have to run the benchmark multiple times consecutively before throttling becomes apparent. The longer CineBench R20 benchmark means throttling would more likely occur during the first run without needing to rerun the test multiple times.

Another benefit of the more demanding test is its improved accuracy at benchmarking multi-core CPUs with over 12+ threads. Intel Xeon processors in particular can have over 20 physical cores and 40 simultaneous threads that the short CineBench R15 test was not designed to benchmark.

We'll be adding the CineBench R20 benchmark to our usual suite of tests soon.