Metashape, formerly known as PhotoScan, is a photogrammetry program that takes a set of images and combines them to create a 3D model or map. Processing of those images into point clouds and 3D meshes/textures is time-consuming, heavily using a computer’s CPU and GPU. With the release of AMD’s latest Ryzen 9 3950X processor, which combines a high core count with good per-core performance, we wanted to see how it and its sibling 3900X fare in this application compare to the reigning champ: Intel’s Core i9 9900K.
Metashape 1.5.1: Intel Core i7 & Core i9 vs AMD Threadripper Performance
Metashape, formerly known as PhotoScan, is a photogrammetry program that takes a set of images and combines them to create a 3D model or map. Processing of those images into point clouds and 3D meshes/textures is time-consuming, heavily using a computer’s CPU and GPU. We have updated our benchmark tools, following the recent rebranding of this software, so in our first article focusing on the new Metashape we will take a look at how Intel’s Core i7 and i9 processors stack up against AMD’s Threadripper chips.
Windows 10 Security Patch Slowed Intel Core i9 9900K in Pix4D, Metashape, & RealityCapture
Over the last couple of years, several new vulnerabilities have been found in modern microprocessor architectures. Many of these have been related to speculative execution techniques used across most of Intel’s product line, and a patch was released for Windows 10 last week which was intended to address some of those weaknesses. Unfortunately, it has also reduced performance in some applications – which this article will demonstrate by comparing processing speed in three photogrammetry programs before and after the update.
Testing Dynamic Local Mode on AMD Threadripper 2970WX – Photogrammetry
Dynamic Local Mode is a new feature on AMD’s biggest Threadripper processors. These CPUs have cores grouped internally, some with direct access to system memory and some which have to communicate through those other cores to access data in memory. DLM prioritizes running code on the cores which have a direct line to the memory, helping to improve performance in situations where not all of the cores are in use. How does that translate to real-world workloads, though? Let’s take a look at two photogrammetry applications and see how the 24-core 2970WX behaves with this feature on and off.
Agisoft PhotoScan 1.4.3: Intel Core i7 9700K & i9 9900K Performance
PhotoScan makes heavy use of the central processor (CPU) in a computer to run many of the calculations involved in turning still images into a 3D model or map. Different steps in that process utilize the CPU in various ways, though, with both clock speed and core count coming into play. Let’s see how the new 9th Gen Intel Core processors perform compared to existing Intel and AMD chips.
Agisoft PhotoScan 1.4.1 – Apple iMac Pro and Mac Pro vs PC Workstations
PhotoScan makes heavy use of both the central processors (CPUs) in a computer and the video cards (GPUs) to run many of the calculations involved in turning still images into a 3D model or map. Agisoft, the makers of PhotoScan, have versions available for both Windows and macOS – so let’s take a look at how these two, competing computer platforms compare.
Agisoft PhotoScan 1.4.1 – Xeon Scalable CPU Performance and GPU Scaling
PhotoScan makes heavy use of both the central processors (CPUs) in a computer and the video cards (GPUs) to run many of the calculations involved in turning still images into a 3D model or map. Intel’s new Xeon Scalable processors offer configurations with dozens of CPU cores, as well as the ability to support multiple GPUs – so let’s see how they perform in PhotoScan.
Agisoft PhotoScan 1.4.1 – CPU Performance Comparison
PhotoScan makes heavy use of the central processor (CPU) in a computer to run many of the calculations involved in turning still images into a 3D model or map. Different steps in that process utilize the CPU in various ways, though, so we are looking at how several Intel and AMD processors compare in this application.
Agisoft PhotoScan 1.4.1 – CPU and GPU Preferences
PhotoScan makes use of both the CPU and GPUs (video cards) in a computer, during different steps of the photogrammetry workflow. One of the configuration options within this program also allows the CPU to be utilized during steps that are primarily performed on the GPU – and it is enabled by default. However, we have found in our testing that this option usually hampers performance more than it helps!