SPECviewperf 10 Tests

SPECviewperf 10 is a synthetic benchmark designed to be a predictor of application performance and a measure of graphics subsystem performance. SPECviewperf 10 provides the ability to compare performance of systems running in higher-quality graphics modes that use full-scene anti-aliasing, and measures how effectively graphics subsystems scale when running multithreaded graphics content. The SPECopc project group's SPECviewperf 10 is a performance evaluation software requiring OpenGL 1.5 and a minimum of 1GB of system memory. It currently supports 32/64-bit versions of the Microsoft Windows Operating System.

UGS Teamcenter Visualization Mockup

The tcvis-01 viewset is based on traces of the UGS Teamcenter Visualization Mockup application (also known as VisMockup) used for visual simulation. State changes such as those executed by the application - including matrix, material, light and line-stipple changes - are included throughout the rendering of the model. All state changes are derived from a trace of the running application. The state changes put considerably more stress on graphics subsystems than the simple geometry dumps found in older viewsets. This viewset uses the glDrawArrays primitive to pass data through the OpenGL API.

PTC Pro/ENGINEER 2001

The proe-04 viewset was created from traces of the graphics workload generated by the Pro/ENGINEER 2001 application from PTC. Mirroring the application, draw arrays are used for the shaded tests and immediate mode is used for the wireframe. The gradient background used by the Pro/E application is also included to better model the application workload.

Two models and three rendering modes are measured during the test. PTC contributed the models to SPEC for use in measurement of the Pro/ENGINEER application. The first of the models, the PTC World Car, represents a large-model workload composed of 3.9 to 5.9 million vertices. This model is measured in shaded, hidden-line removal, and wireframe modes. The wireframe workloads are measured both in normal and antialiased mode. The second model is a copier. It is a medium-sized model made up of 485,000 to 1.6 million vertices. Shaded and hidden-line-removal modes were measured for this model.

VisMockup produced some interesting results; primarily because the AMD Phenom-II X4-965 topped all of the charts. Since each processor was tested a minimum of three times each, we knew our results were solid. What I don't know is why Teamcenter Visualization favors the X4-965 more than it favors an overclocked X6-1090T. It's also interesting to see that the X6-1090T performs the same at 3.2GHz as it does with a 4.0GHz overclock and 4.3GHz Turbo CORE. Forgetting all of this, the important result is that AMD's X6-1090T outperforms the much more expensive i7-980X using UGS Teamcenter Visualization Mockup.

PTC Pro/ENGINEER 2001 offered very similar results, where the AMD X4-965 is substantially ahead of the others and the AMD Phenom-II X6-1090T has considerably outperformed the Intel i7-980X CPU. Since Pro/ENGINEER offered excellent separation between products, we'll illustrate another price-performance breakdown. Beginning with the Intel Core i7-920, Pro/ENGINEER costs $16.56 per point of performance. Because of the low price and high benchmark result, AMD's X4-965 costs only $7.33 per point. The opposite is true for the expensive Intel i7-980X, which costs $66.90 per point of Pro/ENGINEER performance. Finally, the AMD Phenom-II X6-1090T costs 13.27 per point of performance.

Dassault Systemes CATIA V5R12

The catia-02 viewset was created from traces of the graphics workload generated by the CATIA V5R12 application from Dassault Systemes. Three models are measured using various modes in CATIA. Phil Harris of LionHeart Solutions, developer of CATBench2003, supplied SPEC/GPC with the models used to measure the CATIA application. The models are courtesy of CATBench2003 and CATIA Community. The car model contains more than two million points. SPECviewperf replicates the geometry represented by the smaller engine block and submarine models to increase complexity and decrease frame rates. After replication, these models contain 1.2 million vertices (engine block) and 1.8 million vertices (submarine).

3ds Max 3.1

The 3dsmax-04 viewset was created from traces of the graphics workload generated by 3ds max 3.1. To ensure a common comparison point, the OpenGL plug-in driver from Discreet was used during tracing. The models for this viewset came from the SPECapc 3ds max 3.1 benchmark. Each model was measured with two different lighting models to reflect a range of potential 3ds max users. The high-complexity model uses five to seven positional lights as defined by the SPECapc benchmark and reflects how a high-end user would work with 3ds max. The medium-complexity lighting models uses two positional lights, a more common lighting environment.

CATIA V5R12 appears to favor the AMD processors over Intel, judging by our results. This seems pecular, since the Intel systems were given 6GB of triple-channel 1333MHz DDR3, and the AMD systems received only 4GB of the same system memory. Unfortunately, SPECviewperf doesn't elaborate on what variables the tests deems most critical.

3ds Max 3.1 differs from the other tests, primarily because Intel's i7-920 and i7-980X both appear to respond in similar fashion to the AMD X4-965. Unfortunately, the AMD Phenom-II X6-1090T doesn't impress us with the lowest 3ds Max benchmark score of the group.

Dassault Systemes Solidworks 2004

The sw-02 viewset was created from traces of the graphics workload generated by the Solidworks 2004 application from Dassault Systemes. The model and workloads used were contributed by Solidworks as part of the SPECapc for SolidWorks 2004 benchmark. State changes as made by the application are included throughout the rendering of the model, including matrix, material, light and line-stipple changes. All state changes are derived from a trace of the running application. The state changes put considerably more stress on graphics subsystems than the simple geometry dumps found in older viewsets.

Alias Maya 6.5

The maya-02 viewset was created from traces of the graphics workload generated by the Maya 6.5 application from Alias. The models used in the tests were contributed by artists at NVIDIA. Various modes in the Maya application are measured. Models used in this version of the Maya viewset contain many more vertices than those used in maya-01, better reflecting models used by animators in the real world.

The Solidworks 2004 tests appears to mirror the UGS Teamcenter Visualization Mockup results, and give the AMD Phenom-II X4-965 a heady lead over the others. Surprisingly, the Intel Core i7-920 and i7-980X both produce nearly identical results as the AMD Phenom-II X6-1090T.

Quite possibly the opposite of PTC Pro/ENGINEER 2001 and Dassault Systemes CATIA V5R12, Alias Maya 6.5 test results appear pro-Intel. The Intel Core i7-920 and i7-980X both dominate their AMD counterparts, which illustrates how important it is to match your software needs to the best hardware for the task.

Unlike Cinebench, which relied primarily on CPU clock speed for results, the six real-world application benchmarks in SPECviewperf offer a more specific determination of performance. Five of the six programs benefited most by the AMD Phenom-II X4-965, with the Phenom-II X6-1090T trailing right behind, and only one test (Maya) craved Intel processors more than any other.

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