PC Hardware Articles
One of the core values of Puget Systems is transparency
We detest hype in the midst of an industry that is full of it. Our mission is to provide the highest quality hardware and consultation services to our customers, and to back up our decisions by freely sharing what we've learned along the way. To earn a place in our product line, a computer component undergoes rigorous testing. We apply the results of our testing, along with our years of experience in learning reliability trends and manufacturer characteristics, to make prudent decisions about what we can put our name behind, whether that's an individual part or an entire computer. With the following articles, we are writing up the results of these internal processes and discussions, and taking them public. We feel we can take this on with a unique perspective as we evaluate each topic with the experience, resources, and objectivity of a system builder. If there is a topic you'd like us to write about, email us at !Redshift 2.6.11 Multi-GPU Performance Scaling
Written on June 18, 2018 by William GeorgeRedshift is a GPU-based rendering engine, but how well does its performance scale when multiple video cards are used in a system?
Agisoft PhotoScan 1.4.1 - Apple iMac Pro and Mac Pro vs PC Workstations
Written on June 18, 2018 by William GeorgePhotoScan 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.
Titan V Multi GPU Performance Scaling in OctaneRender
Written on June 11, 2018 by William GeorgeNow that OctaneRender has been updated to support the Volta GPU architecture, how well does its performance scale when using multiple Titan Vs? And how does that compare to other popular rendering cards like the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti?
Is the Titan V a Good GPU for OctaneRender?
Written on June 9, 2018 by William GeorgeAs of version 3.08, the Volta GPU architecture is now supported in OctaneRender. How does it stack up compared to other Titan and GeForce series graphics cards - in terms of both performance and value?
Does the CPU Matter for OctaneRender?
Written on June 8, 2018 by William GeorgeOctaneRender is a GPU-based rendering engine, so the bulk of the processing it does is carried out on the video cards in a system. Different processors and motherboards can impact the number of cards that can fit in a single system, but do they matter beyond that? Does the CPU itself have any impact on rendering speed/performance?
Agisoft PhotoScan 1.4.1 - Xeon Scalable CPU Performance and GPU Scaling
Written on May 18, 2018 by William GeorgePhotoScan 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.
V-Ray CPU Comparison: Xeon Scalable vs Core i7 8700K, Core X, and Threadripper
Written on May 18, 2018 by William GeorgeIntel has launched their new Xeon Scalable processor series, with very high core counts and multi-CPU configurations. How do they stack up to single-socket workstations using other Intel and AMD processors when rendering in V-Ray?
V-Ray CPU Rendering: Apple iMac Pro and Mac Pro vs PC Workstations
Written on May 17, 2018 by William George"Mac or PC?" - the age-old question among computer enthusiasts. How fast are Apple and PC workstations when rendering in V-Ray? And which offers a better value?
Cinema 4D: Apple iMac Pro and Mac Pro vs PC Workstations
Written on May 17, 2018 by William George"Mac or PC?" - the age-old question among computer enthusiasts. How do Apple and PC workstations compare for content creation and rendering in Cinema 4D?
Cinema 4D CPU Comparison: Xeon Scalable vs Core i7 8700K, Core X, and Threadripper
Written on May 16, 2018 by William GeorgeIntel has launched their new Xeon Scalable processor series, with very high core counts when used in dual CPU configurations. How do they stack up to single-socket workstations using other Intel and AMD processors in Cinema 4D?
After Effects CC 2018: iMac Pro & Mac Pro vs PC Workstation
Written on May 15, 2018 by Matt BachAfter Effects users are often held back by the performance of their workstation, yet a surprising number of users lock themselves into the Mac ecosystem. In this article we will be looking at just how much faster a PC workstation can be in After Effects compared to the iMac Pro and Mac Pro.
Premiere Pro CC 2018: iMac Pro & Mac Pro vs PC Workstation
Written on May 15, 2018 by Matt BachApple may have had a stranglehold on video editing workstations for many years, but with 4K, 6K, and even 8K footage being used more and more, many are starting to jump ship in favor of a PC workstation. Most people know that they can get more out of a PC, but just how much faster is a PC versus a Mac Pro or iMac Pro in Premiere Pro?
DaVinci Resolve 14: iMac Pro & Mac Pro vs PC Workstation
Written on May 15, 2018 by Matt BachWith the rise of 4K, 6K, and even 8K footage, colorists using DaVinci Resolve are quickly discovering that the Mac ecosystem is simply not able to give them the performance they need. Most people know that they can get more out of a PC, but just how much faster is a PC versus a Mac Pro or iMac Pro?
Puget Systems Benchmark Tool for Pix4D
Written on May 15, 2018 by William GeorgeWant to see how your system stacks up to the latest hardware? Download our free, public Pix4D benchmark tool which will walk you through a couple of basic projects and display the calculation times. We've also included a video walkthrough, showing how to use this tool, and some comparison results from recent workstations built here at Puget Systems.
Agisoft PhotoScan 1.4.1 - CPU Performance Comparison
Written on May 11, 2018 by William GeorgePhotoScan 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
Written on May 3, 2018 by William GeorgePhotoScan 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!
Agisoft PhotoScan 1.4.1 - Multi GPU Scaling
Written on May 2, 2018 by William GeorgePhotoScan makes use of the video cards in a computer to assist with the computation of certain steps. As such, both the model of video card used and the number of GPUs present in a system can have an impact on the amount of time those steps take. In this article, we take a look at how multiple GeForce GTX 1080 Ti cards scale in performance across a few different CPU platforms.
Agisoft PhotoScan 1.4.1 - GeForce GPU Comparison
Written on April 26, 2018 by William GeorgePhotoScan makes use of the video cards in a computer to assist with the computation of certain steps. As such, the model of video card used can have an impact on the amount of time those steps take. In this article, we take a look at the GeForce 1000-series - based on NVIDIA's Pascal GPU architecture - to see how they compare to each other.
Agisoft PhotoScan 1.4.1 - PCI Express Scaling
Written on April 23, 2018 by William GeorgePhotoScan makes use of the video cards in a computer to assist with the computation of certain steps. The performance of an individual video card, or GPU, is known to impact the processing speed - but what about the connection between the video card and the rest of the computer? This interconnect is called PCI Express and comes in a variety of speeds. In this article, we will look at how PhotoScan performance scales across PCI-E 3.0 x4, x8, and x16.
Agisoft PhotoScan 1.4.1 - Testing Introduction
Written on April 20, 2018 by William GeorgePhotoScan is a photogrammetry program: an application that takes a set of images and combines them to create a 3D model. A combination of CPU and GPU processing is used in this process. It has been a couple years (and several version updates) since we last tested PhotoScan, so we are revisiting it to see what has changed and how it performs on modern computer hardware.
Photoshop CC 2018 NVIDIA GeForce GPU Performance
Written on April 19, 2018 by Matt BachAdobe has been leveraging the power of the GPU in their software more and more, but is there any reason to spend money on an expensive video card for Photoshop?
Puget Systems Adobe Photoshop CC Benchmark
Written on April 19, 2018 by Matt BachWant to see how your system stacks up to the latest hardware? Download and run the free public Photoshop benchmark that we use in our internal testing.
After Effects CC 2018 CPU Comparison: AMD Ryzen 2 vs Intel 8th Gen
Written on April 19, 2018 by Matt BachIntel has long been the performance king for After Effects, but AMDs new 2nd generation Ryzen CPUs have shown some great performance gains. Is it enough to let AMD overtake Intel?
Photoshop CC 2018 CPU Performance: AMD Ryzen 2 vs Intel 8th Gen
Written on April 19, 2018 by Matt BachAMD has made great improvements with the new 2nd generation Ryzen CPUs that really closes the gap between AMD and Intel for Photoshop users. But is it enough to put them above Intel's 8th Gen CPUs?
Keyboard and Mouse Considerations
Written on March 19, 2018 by Jeff StubbersLooking for Keyboard and Mouse? These are some things to be aware of before making your choice.