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 !NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti PCI-Express Lane Scaling in OctaneRender and Redshift
Written on October 15, 2018 by William GeorgeGPU based renderers like OctaneRender and Redshift make use of the video cards in a computer to process ray tracing and other calculations in order to create photo-realistic images and videos. The performance of an individual video card, or GPU, is known to impact rendering speed - as is the number of video cards installed in a single computer. But what about the connection between each video card and the rest of the system? This interconnect is called PCI Express and comes in a variety of speeds. In this article, we will look at how benchmarks for these programs perform across PCI-E 3.0 and 2.0 with x1, x4, x8, and x16 lanes.
GeForce RTX 2080 Multi-GPU Scaling in OctaneRender and Redshift
Written on October 12, 2018 by William GeorgeWe found previously that stacking multiple RTX 2080 video cards next to each other for multi-GPU rendering led to overheating and significant performance throttling, due to the dual-fan cooler NVIDIA has adopted as the standard on this generation of Founders Edition cards. Now that manufacturers like Asus are putting out single-fan, blower-style cards we can repeat our testing to see if the throttling issues are resolved and find out how well these video cards scale when using 1, 2, 3, or even 4 of them for GPU-based rendering in OctaneRender and Redshift.
Intel Z370 vs Z390 Chipset Comparison
Written on October 8, 2018 by William GeorgeWe take a look at the differences between the Intel Z370 chipset, launched in 2017, and the updated Z390 that launched in 2018. What features does the newer version add?
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 & 2080 Ti Do NOT Support Full NVLink in Windows 10
Written on October 5, 2018 by William GeorgeThere was a lot of excitement when it was first announced that GeForce RTX 2080 and 2080 Ti cards would have NVLink connectors, because of the assumption that it would allow them to pool graphics memory when used in pairs. Digging into the functionality of the NVLink connection on these cards, however, it looks like that will not work out as many had hoped.
Lightroom Classic CC 2018: AMD Threadripper 2990WX & 2950X Performance
Written on October 4, 2018 by Matt BachLighroom Classic CC saw dramatic performance improvements with higher core count CPUs, but the 2990WX in particular has a staggering 32 cores. Will Lightroom Classic be able to take advantage of these extremely high core counts, or we have reached the point of diminishing returns?
How to enable 30 bit in Photoshop
Written on October 3, 2018 by Jeff StubbersAfter choosing a 10-bit per channel graphics card (AMD Radeon Pro / Nvidia Quadro), and connecting it to a 10-bit per channel monitor, there is a setting in Photoshop you should enable to create a 30 bit workflow.
Are the NVIDIA RTX video cards good for video editing?
Written on October 1, 2018 by Matt BachThe new RTX series from NVIDIA may not be great for Adobe applications, but they are great for DaVinci Resolve and are very interesting cards for the future due to two major new features: Tensor cores and RT cores.
Premiere Pro CC 2018: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 & 2080 Ti Performance
Written on October 1, 2018 by Matt BachPremiere Pro CC utilizes the GPU to enhance performance for a number of tasks but it is often more important to get the right CPU than it is to get a faster GPU. NVIDIA's new RTX series cards have general performance increases like you would expect, but much of what makes these cards interesting are the addition of two new features: Tensor cores and RT cores.
OctaneRender 3.08: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 & 2080 Ti GPU Rendering Performance
Written on September 28, 2018 by William GeorgeOctaneRender is a GPU-based rendering engine, and as of version 3.08 is compatible with NVIDIA's Turing graphics architecture in the GeForce RTX 2080 and 2080 Ti cards. Let's take a look at how these new GeForce models compare to the previous generation.
Redshift 2.6.22: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 & 2080 Ti GPU Rendering Performance
Written on September 28, 2018 by William GeorgeRedshift is a GPU-based rendering engine, and the latest version 2.6.22 is compatible with NVIDIA's Turing graphics architecture in the GeForce RTX 2080 and 2080 Ti cards. Let's take a look at how these new GeForce models compare to the previous generation.
NVIDIA Dual-Fan GeForce RTX Coolers Ruining Multi-GPU Performance
Written on September 28, 2018 by William GeorgeThe new GeForce RTX series cards perform well in GPU based rendering, as individual cards, and have great potential for the future thanks to their new RT cores. However, when stacking them together to measure multi-GPU scaling we ran into some serious problems.
DaVinci Resolve 15: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 & 2080 Ti Performance
Written on September 28, 2018 by Matt BachDaVinci Resolve heavily leverages the GPU to improve performance which means that the new RTX cards should give excellent performance. What makes these cards even more interesting is the fact that Blackmagic has already stated that they will be using the new turing cores on these cards to "accelerate AI inferencing for graphics enhancement".
After Effects CC 2018: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 & 2080 Ti Performance
Written on September 27, 2018 by Matt BachAfter Effects has had a bit of a rocky relationship with video cards ever since GPU acceleration was added back in 2015 with little reason to use more than a mid-range video card. However, NVIDIA's new RTX series cards are here and they bring to the table two new features that may finally give you a reason to invest in a high-end GPU for After Effects: Tensor cores and RT cores.
Photoshop CC 2018: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 & 2080 Ti Performance
Written on September 27, 2018 by Matt BachPhotoshop does utilize the video card to accelerate a number of tasks, but a high end GPU is rarely necessary to get great performance. Do the RTX cards follow this trend, or do the new RT and tensor cores give them a performance advantage?
Are 2nd Gen AMD Ryzen Threadripper CPUs good for video editing?
Written on September 21, 2018 by Matt BachAMD's new 2nd Gen Ryzen Threadripper processors are absolute monsters, with the 2990WX in particular having 32(!) cores. But are they better than Intel for video editing?
DaVinci Resolve 15: AMD Threadripper 2990WX & 2950X Performance
Written on September 19, 2018 by Matt BachDaVinci Resolve is a very GPU-intensive program, but it can still require a powerful CPU to match the amount of GPU power you may put into your system. We have seen diminishing returns with higher core count CPUs in the past, so the question is whether the 32 cores in the Threadripper 2990WX will increase performance or if you are better off with a lower core count CPU.
Premiere Pro CC 2018: AMD Threadripper 2990WX & 2950X Performance
Written on September 19, 2018 by Matt BachIn the past, AMD's Threadripper CPUs have fared very well in Premiere Pro, but fell behind their Intel counterparts by the slimmest of margins. With the new 32 core Threadripper 2990WX and 16 core 2950X, will AMD finally overtake Intel as the best value for Premiere Pro users?
Photoshop CC 2018: AMD Threadripper 2990WX & 2950X Performance
Written on September 18, 2018 by Matt BachPhotoshop is definitely not the target market for AMD's new Threadripper 2990WX 32 Core or 2950X 16 core CPUs, but even so we wanted to see how it stacks up against the previous generation Threadripper CPUs as well as a number of Intel Core i7/i9 CPUs.
After Effects CC 2018: AMD Threadripper 2990WX & 2950X Performance
Written on September 18, 2018 by Matt BachFor several years, After Effects has not performed very well with high core count CPUs - instead favoring processors that have higher per-core performance. This means that while AMD's new Threadripper CPUs like the 2990WX and 2950X are very impressive in some applications, they shouldn't be terribly great for After Effects compared to their Intel counterparts.
Setting Graphics Card Software to Display 10-bit Output
Written on August 17, 2018 by Jeff StubbersAfter choosing a 10-bit per channel graphics card (AMD Radeon Pro / Nvidia Quadro), and connecting it to a 10-bit monitor, you will want to make sure the graphics card is set to display 10 bit output in its software.
V-Ray CPU Rendering: AMD Threadripper 2990WX Takes the Single CPU Performance Crown
Written on August 13, 2018 by William GeorgeAMD just updated their high-performance Threadripper processor series, and the new top-end model - the 2990WX - is the fastest single CPU we've ever tested in V-Ray. This article will look at how it stacks up to other AMD and Intel chips, as well as Intel's dual Xeon configurations.
Cinema 4D: AMD Threadripper 2990WX Performance
Written on August 13, 2018 by William GeorgeAMD just updated their high-performance Threadripper processor series, and the new top-end model - the 2990WX - has given the highest Cinebench multi-core score we've seen from a single CPU. This article will look at how it stacks up to the older Threadripper 1950X and a selection of Intel chips... and just as importantly, how it performs in single-core mode.
DaVinci Resolve 14: NVIDIA GeForce vs AMD Radeon Vega
Written on August 7, 2018 by Matt BachDaVinci Resolve is able to heavily utilize the GPU (or multiple GPUs) to greatly improve performance, but are you better off using an NVIDIA GeForce card or an AMD Radeon card?.
After Effects CC 2018: NVIDIA GeForce vs AMD Radeon Vega
Written on August 2, 2018 by Matt BachAfter Effects may not be able to take advantage of the GPU as much as other applications, but the question still comes up: AMD Radeon or NVIDIA GeForce? Which performs better in Ae and which will give you more performance for your dollar?
Video: H.264 Hardware Acceleration in Adobe Media Encoder - Good or Bad?
Written on August 2, 2018 by Matt BachAt first glace, the recent addition of "hardware acceleration" when exporting to H.264 and H.265 in Media Encoder and Premiere Pro provides a huge boost in performance for many users. Unfortunately, it is not a perfect technology and result in lower quality video than using the standard "Software only" mode.