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Software
Used.
We looked at the average packages found
within systems within Corporate
Workplace, Studio’s and the SoHo users
and primarily used here to show both
systems and graphic cards at their best.
The final output of benchmarks results
here are important as we need to see
that no productivity is lost but the
actual wattage consumption has dropped,
which in turn means less energy consumed
but the productivity deadline output has
been met! Not withstanding
as so many of the readers out there rely
purely on benchmarks as their guidelines
so we inserted a few of the more common
benchmarks used within the community.
Microsoft
Windows XP Professional SP2
SPECviewperf 10 ®
Introduction.
Benchmarking with SPECviewperf -
SPECviewperf parses command lines and
data files, sets the rendering state,
and converts data sets to a format that
can be traversed using OpenGL rendering
calls. It renders the data set for a
pre-specified amount of time or number
of frames with animation between frames.
Finally, it outputs the results.
Source:
SPEC.ORG, 2008
HD Tach Version 3.0.4.0
Journalists
Edition.
Introduction.
HD Tach is a low level
hardware benchmark for random access
read/write storage devices such as hard
drives, removable drives (ZIP/JAZZ),
flash devices, and RAID arrays. HD Tach
uses custom device drivers and other low
level Windows interfaces to bypass as
many layers of software as possible and
get as close to the physical performance
of the device possible. Whilst the trial
version (not used in these instances) of
HD Tach measures the sequential read
speed (at various points on the device),
the random access speed, interface burst
speed and CPU utilization of the drive.
The registered version of HD Tach adds
sequential write testing of the Hard
Disc.
Source:
Simpli Software 2008
SiSoftware Sandra XII
SiSoftware Sandra
(the
System
Analyser,
Diagnostic
and
Reporting
Assistant)
is a 32 and 64-bit Windows system
analyser that includes benchmarking,
testing and listing modules. It attempts
to go beyond other utilities to show you
more of what is really going on within
the complete system so you draw
comparisons at both a high and low-level
in a single product. There are
some 74 test modules contained within
this suite however for the purpose of
this paper we will be focusing upon the
2 synthetic tests; the File System &
Physical Disc Benchmarks which deal with
the hard discs of the system.
Source:
SiSoftware SANDRA 2008
MAXON CINEBENCH 10
Introduction;
This is a real-world test suite that
assesses your computer's performance
capabilities. MAXON 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. MAXON software has been used
in blockbuster movies such and
Spider-Man, Star Wars, The Chronicles of
Narnia and many more.
Source:
MAXON 2008
Autodesk 3ds Max 9 SP2
Introduction
- Generate
realistic characters for a top-selling
game. Bring 3D effects to the big
screen. Autodesk® 3ds Max® 9 brings 3D
modelling, animation, and rendering
software helps design visualization
professionals, game developers, and
visual effects artists maximize their
productivity by streamlining the process
of working with complex scenes.
Source:
Autodesk, 2007
SPECapc for 3ds Max™ 9
Introduction
-
Measures performance
based on the workload of a typical user,
including functions such as wireframe
modelling, shading, texturing, lighting,
blending, inverse kinematics, object
creation and manipulation, editing,
scene creation, particle tracing,
animation and rendering. The benchmark
runs under both OpenGL and DX
implementations of 3ds max 9, and tests
all the components that come into play
when running the application.
Source:
SPEC.ORG, 2008
SPECapc for SolidWorks 2007™
Introduction - SPECapc
for SolidWorks 2007™ is designed to
represent a day in the life of a typical
SolidWorks 2007 user. The benchmark was
developed by SolidWorks. It is written
in Visual Basic and C, and runs on
Windows XP 32- and 64-bit platforms. The
benchmark uses different-sized CAD/CAM
solid models, the largest of which is an
engine model with 3.13 million vertices.
Eight tests are included within the
benchmark: I/O-intensive operations,
CPU-intensive operations, and six
different graphics tests. A single
number is derived from a weighted
geometric mean of the normalized score
for all eight tests. Scores are also
reported for each of the eight
individual tests and for the geometric
mean of the six graphics tests.
Source:
SPEC.ORG, 2008
Solidworks 2007
SolidWorks software:
...is the leading 3D CAD
solution worldwide, providing all of the
functionality needed to design
world-class products with unmatched ease
of use for the freedom to focus on
product design, not software.
...has proven its adaptability to most
engineering design needs. Customers have
used it to design a broad range of
products, including exploratory sub-sea,
electric vehicles, Formula one race
cars, and industrial machinery with tens
of thousands of parts.
...has a larger and more active user
community worldwide than any other
mainstream 3D CAD software with 1/2
million designers and engineers
designing products at more than 80,000
companies in more than 100 countries.
...has been endorsed and embraced by the
world's top-ranked four and five-year
engineering degree programs, worldwide.
Over 14,000 academic institutions are
using SolidWorks software to teach
engineering technology and design.
...has evolved with more
product innovations and enhancements
than any other 3D CAD product in the
industry. This means SolidWorks has kept
abreast of evolving customer needs and
enhanced the technology to constantly
meet those needs.
Source
Solidworks 2008
Diskeeper®
2008
Pro Premier Edition
Diskeeper®
2008
Pro Premier Edition
provides unparalleled peak
performance for power users and high
powered workstation computing,
delivering the ultimate in performance
and reliability to those who need it
most. InvisiTasking
true transparent, background processing
technology allows
Diskeeper® 2008
to defragment your system in real-time,
completely eliminating the need for
cumbersome maintenance operations.
Free up gridlocked resources and let
your computer zoom at peak performance
while you work.
Diskeeper®
2008
Pro
Premier Edition
enhances the reliability and
performance of your
computer—automatically! Source
Diskeeper Europe
2008
Benchmarks and Application Testing
The plethora of
benchmarks available in this arena; one
could spend all day in producing results
if the time permitted; paralysis by
analysis is the al to common phrase! It
has taken considerable amounts of time
to complete each section in which to
complete this basic but factual report
we felt that the Tests/Benchmarks shown
above were sufficient for the reading
public.
Each card completed the test on a clean
system hard drive to ensure that no
residue drivers were left installed with
all updates/patches applied. The test
has been completed many times over
different periods of the system
uptime. Maintaining the fair play
rules of SPECviewperf® and
SPECapc for SolidWorks
2007™
we did not manipulate any
of this mainboards functionality and
left it at its default settings in which
it was supplied. All tests have been
conducted at 1280 X 1024 @ 60Hz in 32
bit colour. Results that have been shown
on this review are from the benchmarks
first run in accordance with the
SPECviewperf® fair play rules.
No other
applications were running in the
background I.A.W fair play rules for
these mission critical results.
One point
that must be stressed and made
abundantly clear so that there can be
absolutely no confusion at all which may
be perceived from users uncertain or
will misapprehend. The installation of
Diskeeper Pro Premium was the final set
of tests to be completed and therefore
had no impact on any of the
results/benchmarks which follow next.
The impact of Diskeeper and its
performance under these mission critical
points has to be a subject covered soon
under its own merits.
The results speak very clearly for
themselves as a picture paints a
thousand words; so there is no need for
a running commentary of the results
gained from each system. “Run Logs” the
SPECviewperf® and
SPECapc for SolidWorks
2007™
tests are available to those of you who
wish to see them. Please e-mail the
administrator here who will forward them
onto you on a first come first served
basis. This may take some time to get
back to you as on first out launches of
this nature we are undated with
requests.
To complete the differential comparison
of both Hard Discs within the test
system. Each hard disc drive has been
set-up as one single drive without any
partitions. This has been so that we
can see the full wattage consumption of
the System and Hard Disc at critical
relevant points were it is normally
audibly noted the increase in power as
noted below.
These points are of simple note so that
even the most basic of users will be
able to understand were the most actual
Wattage consumption is to be seen from. |
