CINEBENCH R15
CINEBENCH is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation.
winRAR Benchmark
WinRAR is a popular file compression and decompression tool that also happens to be multi-threaded application. While it does have a built in benchmark we have opted to use a custom 3GB test consisting of small, medium, and moderately large files. We then time how long it takes to compress the files into one .rar file with all WinRAR settings left at their defaults.
x264 HD Benchmark
x264 HD Benchmark is a benchmark that allows you to measure how fast your PC can encode a 1080p video clip into a high quality x264 video file. It allows for an easy comparison because everyone running it will use the same video clip and software. The x264 video encoder has a fairly accurate internal benchmark (in frames per second) for each pass of the video encode and it also uses multi-core processors very efficiently. All these factors make the x264 HD Benchmark an ideal tool in comparing the video encoding performance of different processors and systems.
Adobe
Photoshop is a notoriously slow loading program under the best of circumstances, and while the latest version is actually pretty decent, when you add in a bunch of extra brushes and the such you get a really great torture test which can bring even the best of the best to their knees. Let’s see how our review unit faired in the Adobe crucible! 
PCMark 8
PCMark 8 is the latest iteration of Futuremark’s system benchmark franchise. It generates an overall score based upon system performance with all components being stressed in one way or another. The result is posted as a generalized score.
Overall these numbers are pretty darn good and just underscore how good a value these APU’s in general, and the 7870K in specific, really are. Basically this APU costs only ten dollars more than an Intel i3 but has performance that is closer to that of an Intel i5. That is pretty much the epitome of ‘value’… and this is just on the CPU side of the equation where Intel are ‘known to be’ superior.
3DMark Ice Storm Benchmark
The latest version of 3DMark from FutureMark includes numerous benchmarks including one they have “Ice Storm” and we have used the ‘Extreme’ settings.
