Cinebench 10

The results shown took us totally by surprise in the CB X CPU test therefore to ensure that this was to be no fluke run we rebooted the system and ran the test twice over.  The results below clearly show how close each run was and there can be no confusion at all - the results shown are extremely accurate.

SPECviewperf 10 ® 64-bit Mode

Most will have observed the results are pretty near as that of the 32-bit tests undertaken just 3 weeks ago.  Although this does clearly demonstrate ATI's aggressive move in producing robust driver sets covering all operating systems.

Conclusions

Most system builders look to a single socket Xeon based system with its reliability of ECC memory for complete security, for those who cannot afford to the full impact move and leap upwards to these boards.   Here is were the cost can be cut without any impedance of overall performance.  A win - win for all parties concerned.   Supermicro and Intel have most certainly done their sums right.  To reiterate from before roll on the Dual Nehalem CPU boards as these must certainly bring forth a huge explosion with their intimidating computational power.

Unfortunately a lacking in 64 bit tests means we therefore have to look to these as keystone makers.   Though the not to distant future will see this being overturned and much more will come from the SPEC organisation.  For examples  - the next version of SPECviewperf® will jump up to 11, instead of 10.1 as originally planned.   The move reflects major revisions, including measurement of power consumption, new viewsets, Perl scripting, a new user interface, and updated screen sizes. SPECviewperf 11 is expected to debut in the summer of 2009.    SPECapc is getting busy on a wide range of new and updated benchmarks. New benchmarks for Lightwave, Maya, 3ds max and others are expected in the first half of 2009.   With these points in mind we will be seeing many different types of results appearing.   Within this paragraph are a few clues for submitting companies to take note.   As more information becomes available we will keep you appraised.

The results shown have to have been some of the fastest 64 bit professional graphic scores we have ever seen.   The Multi CPU test within Cinebench 10 puts credence here - less than 45 seconds to complete the render from a single socket CPU is a spectacular achievement.   The extra memory inserted although a complete mismatch number has shown the how well the QPI controller copes upon the mainboard interacting fully with the CPU.   One sits in awe wondering how this mainboard will react with a full complement of 24GB's of memory installed would show.

What is interesting is how the memory from Crucial has been so resilient in its mismatch within the memory controller channels.  A slight drop in memory bandwidth, though not much and not enough to prevent the QPI and CPU churning out a Multi CPU result of 19570 within Cinebench.

It goes without saying that a system of this magnitude functions with the aid of carefully chosen peripherals.   The test system parts shown within are all readily available from various suppliers, therefore you as the end user can have that all important high-speed computational box for approximately $4000 US Dollars, £2450 UKP or the same in Euro land (part prices abstracted from various competitive e-tailers).   The lower end 940 and 920 i7 CPU's will produce good sound productivity output and it means that tight deadlines can be easily met.  However with today's technology bringing to the fore better and exceedingly fast output, to the smart customer this will only mean that they are more demanding in getting the final output to them quicker.   A catch 22 scenario for the cutting edge studio.

64 bit mode  normally sees a slight hit in performance in the graphical field of approximately 5% - 8%.  Today we do not see this as the carefully constructed driver from ATI nearing full maturity is hitting home hard and fast and the power of the FirePro V8700 is coming to the fore.    The leap upstairs to 64-bit mode has been very interesting indeed and will have many thinking.

What more can be said; than yet another exceptional outing from the last appearance of Supermicro's X8SAX mainboard.  Supermicro has ultimately shown how that they have advanced their train of thought on how influential this chipset is going to be within the professional arena.

The results shown within have unequivocally shown that this is a mainboard to be seriously looked at by many system builders.  It was stipulated on our first outing that this is the gold standard - the bar has now been raised.

Page 1 - Introduction and Set-Up
Page 2 - Results and Conclusions