Comparison benchmark Cinebench 2026 released for free
The popular comparison benchmark Cinebench has a new version. It explicitly includes a test for Simultaneous Multithreading.
(Image: Mark Mantel / heise medien)
Software developer Maxon is replacing Cinebench 2024 after a good two years. The successor version, Cinebench 2026, is now intended to enable even better comparisons of processors and graphics cards.
Cinebench 2026 remains a comparison benchmark that renders a virtual 3D scene. The new version uses a revised variant of Maxon's Redshift render engine. New compilers based on Clang 19 have also been added. The benchmark shares its technical underpinnings with Maxon's Cinema 4D 2026 software suite.
New SMT Test
The developer is splitting the single-threading test into two variants: one benchmark that, as before, starts a single thread on a single CPU core, and a second that uses Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT). On processors with SMT, Cinebench 2026 starts two threads. Since Intel has temporarily abandoned its SMT implementation (Hyper-Threading) in its Core Ultra processors, the option is mainly of interest for AMD's Ryzen CPUs.
Due to the new technical underpinnings, the results from Cinebench 2026 are not comparable with previous versions. Current processors achieve around 500 to 700 points in the single-threading test without SMT. In the 2024 benchmark, the limit was around 150 points.
Cinebench 2026 runs multiple times for 10 minutes by default to measure the influence of temperature development on clock frequencies. If you want to start a single run, you need to click on "File" at the top and select "Advanced Benchmark". Then the option "Minimum Test Duration" appears in the top left, which can be turned off with "Off".
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Windows and macOS
Cinebench 2026 is available for Windows 11/10 (AMD, Intel), Windows on ARM (Qualcomm Snapdragon), and macOS (Apple Silicon). The minimum RAM requirement increases to 16 GB under Windows. Under macOS, the benchmark also works with 8 GB of RAM, but with limitations.
Meanwhile, the GPU test learns how to handle current graphics cards: AMD's Radeon RX 9000 series and Nvidia's GeForce RTX 5000. For the first time, Cinebench also runs with Nvidia's AI accelerators from the Hopper and Blackwell generations. The GPU benchmark requires at least 8 GB of graphics memory.
Maxon offers Cinebench 2026 free of charge. The download is around 2.5 gigabytes.
(mma)
