About CB using ICC:
Images shows compiler being selective when it comes to CPU vendor string. Wonder why would that be.....?
Credit goes to OCN user sdlvx.
Dont trust the source? Let's see what Anand thinks about this (on the
Interlagos Review):
"Before we look at the Multi-threaded benchmark, Andreas Stiller, the legendary German C't Journalist ("Processor Whispers") sent me this comment:
'You should be aware that Cinebench 11.5 is using Intel openMP (libguide40.dll), which does not support AMD-NUMA'
So while Cinebench is a valid bench as quite a few people use the Intel OpenMP libraries, it is not representative of all render engines. In fact, Cinebench probably only represent the smaller part of the market that uses the Intel OpenMP API. On dual CPU systems, the Opteron machines run a bit slower than they should; on quad CPU systems, this lack of "AMD NUMA" awareness will have a larger impact.
Cinebench R11.5 MT
We did not expect that the latest Opteron would outperform the previous one by a large margin. Cinebench is limited by SSE processing power. The ICC 11.0 compiler was the fastest compiler of its time for SSE/
FP intensive software, even for the Opterons (up to 24% faster than the competing compilers), but it has no knowledge of newer architectures. And of course, the intel compiler does favor the Xeons."
2 notes on this review:
1. Note how Anand always discusses FP performance when talking about CB, wonder why would that be?
2. Anand mentions the usage of the ICC 11.0 on this test, but omits the usage of AVX. Let's see what truth there is to your claim of "CB doesnt use AVX"
ICC being unfair by making different paths and using different instructions depending on vendor string:
LINK. Credit goes to Agner Fog's findings on the subject.
As you can see, ICC 11 already makes the distinction between SSE2 for non-Intel vendor string, AVX for Intel processors.
So now lets rebuild it up so anyone, even the usual suspects, can understand it:
If CB uses ICC (11 version specifically) and ICC 11 uses AVX for intel processors, CB will run under avx if an Intel processor is detected. In AMD's case, it will run under SSE2.
CB is FP heavy, from the moment we are discussing SSE2 and AVX.
You can spin it any way you want, keep citing doubtful sources, I'm even citing the very owner of this site as my source of information.
