Hierarchy of benchmarking methodologies explained. By Bob Cramblitt An article last year in Jon Peddie’s Tech Watch provided an overview of SPEC/GWPG benchmarks, citing the struggle in the early days of computer graphics between application-based and synthetic benchmarks to measure performance. For the vast majority who are not in the day-to-day performance evaluation trenches, it’s … Read more
Detailed configuration information helps recreate the same performance as that documented on the SPEC website. By Bob Cramblitt A lot has been written about the movement of applications to the cloud, but if you are involved in tasks that demand outstanding GPU, CPU and/or storage performance, you likely rely on a professional-level workstation. The SPEC/GWPG group … Read more
Five different machines. At SIGGRAPH, PNY introduced their first mobile workstation products, the Prevailpro P4000 and P3000, while Dell announced a new Anniversary Edition thin and light 5520 mobile workstation. We tested a Prevailpro P4000 and 5520 against three other workstations and offer the results here. When evaluating a mobile workstation, from our point of … Read more
Users can run synthetic benchmarks without having actual application installed and still get rigorous results. By Bob Cramblitt In ancient times when I was in college, there was a faddish rash of imitation leather jackets. Some looked authentic and others looked like a baggie with a zipper and pockets. It led to the inevitable question … Read more
Do you measure to get better workstation performance or choose ignorance as bliss? Special to GraphicSpeak by Bob Cramblitt When it comes to measuring workstation performance, clichès spring to mind: Faster is better. You get what you pay for. Mileage may vary. There is a kernel of truth in all of these sayings or they … Read more
A generation of computer and workstation reviewers in the CAD industry have relied on this industry standard benchmarking software. By Bob Cramblitt If there is a review of a professional workstation or graphics card within an online or print publication, the reviewer is likely to quote results from a SPEC Graphics and Workstation Performance Group … Read more
Full-size graphics and storage in a tiny box. By Tom Lansford The amount of performance that can be packed into a 10-liter small form-factor workstation just jumped – a lot. Fujitsu has been designing and manufacturing professional workstations in Germany for 25 years. They just released the company’s first small form-factor workstation. This 10 liter … Read more
VMware brings more cachet to existing virtualization standards support. Virtualization specialist VMware has joined the SPEC Graphics and Workstation Performance Group (SPEC/GWPG) as a new member. The company is also a member of the SPEC Open Systems Group and the SPEC Research Group. The SPEC Graphics and Workstation Performance Group is a leader in standardized … Read more
Now virtual workstations can be tested the same as physical workstations. The SPEC Graphics Performance Characterization Group (SPECgpc) has released a new version of its SPECviewperf benchmark that extends performance measurement from physical to virtualized workstation configurations. The new benchmark measures the 3D graphics performance of systems running under the OpenGL and Direct X application … Read more
Dell now has three 15-inch mobile workstations. Tom Lansford takes a close look at the newest in the line, the Precision M2800. Today, Dell offers three models of 15-inch mobile workstations. At first glance, more than one 15-inch mobile workstation seems like two too many. In this review I’ll take a look at the newest … Read more
