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 !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.
DaVinci Resolve 14 Performance: Windows vs Linux
Written on March 16, 2018 by Matt BachLinux is often considered the operating system of choice for power users, but does DaVinci Resolve actually perform any better in it than in Windows? Even if it does, is it enough to compensate for Linux's much higher learning curve?
After Effects CC 2018 CPU Comparison: Intel 8th Gen vs X-series vs Ryzen vs Threadripper
Written on March 8, 2018 by Matt BachAfter Effects is a tricky application when it comes to choosing a CPU as there are many factors that come into play. Not only is there raw rendering performance, but the new integration with Cinema4D and even the amount of system RAM you need all play a role in determining what CPU is the ideal choice for your workflow.
SOLIDWORKS 2018 GPU Comparison: Monster (Sized) Model
Written on March 6, 2018 by William GeorgeFollowing up on our previous article about SOLIDWORKS 2018 GPU performance, we have been provided with an extremely complex assembly that finally shows some performance difference between low- and high-end video cards within the same family. Armed with this 4372 part, 40.9 million triangle model we ran through testing on multiple Quadro and Radeon Pro graphics cards to see how they handle such a monstrously large project.
DaVinci Resolve 14 GPU Scaling: Core i9 vs Xeon W vs Dual Xeon SP
Written on March 6, 2018 by Matt BachBlackmagic's DaVinci Resolve is known for how well it utilizes multiple GPUs to improve performance, but is this still true with cards like the new NVIDIA Titan V? And do you really need a Xeon or Dual Xeon setup to get the best performance possible?
SOLIDWORKS 2018 GPU Comparison: What Is the Meaning of This?
Written on February 21, 2018 by William GeorgeDespite how popular SOLIDWORKS is, there is a lot of outdated and simply inaccurate information on the web regarding what video card you should use. For this article I tested multiple graphics cards from the Quadro, GeForce, and Radeon Pro families at both 1080p and 4K resolutions - and quickly found that either things are now a lot simpler than in my past experience, or else something is no longer up to snuff regarding how we have tested SOLIDWORKS GPU performance in the past.
Premiere Pro CC 2018 Workstation GPU Performance
Written on February 16, 2018 by Matt BachIf your workflow depends on having 10-bit color support on your primary display, using a workstation graphics card is typically the only way to do so since most consumer cards do not support displaying 10-bit color. But do you really need a Quadro P6000 or can you use a much less expensive card like the Quadro P4000 or Radeon Pro WX 9100 without sacrificing very much performance?
How to Choose the Right Monitor
Written on February 12, 2018 by Jeff StubbersChoosing a monitor may seem pretty basic, however, there are several things to consider to make sure you get the right monitor for your specific needs.
DaVinci Resolve 14 GPU Performance: NVIDIA Titan V 12GB
Written on February 9, 2018 by Matt BachThe NVIDIA Titan V has many the features that are not useful in DaVinci Resolve, but it's raw power allows it to give the highest single GPU playback performance of any GPU we have every tested.
Lightroom Classic CC Version 7.2 Performance
Written on February 8, 2018 by Matt BachThe initial release of Lightroom Classic CC gave us some great performance gains, but the Lightroom team is not done yet. With the new 7.2 update, we once again get some terrific performance improvements, this time with an emphasis on improved multi-core performance using high core count CPUs in a number of tasks.
Premiere Pro CC 2018 GPU Performance: NVIDIA Titan V 12GB
Written on February 7, 2018 by Matt BachThe NVIDIA Titan V is an interesting and powerful card with a mix of features that should improve performance and features that are completely unused by Premiere Pro. The raw power of this card makes it the fastest GPU we've testing for Exporting, but it unfortunately is not quite as impressive when it comes to Live Playback performance.
SOLIDWORKS 2018 CPU Comparison: Coffee Lake vs Skylake-X vs Threadripper
Written on February 4, 2018 by William GeorgeDassault Systemes launched the initial version of SOLIDWORKS 2018 (SP0.1) late last year, but with the recent release of SP1 we expect that customers will soon be using it in production environments. In preparation for that, we have tested the field of current Intel Core i7 and i9 processors to see how they stack up in SW 2018. We hadn't yet had a chance to test AMD's Threadripper processors in SOLIDWORKS either, so they are also included in this round of benchmarks.
How to Protect Your System from Viruses/Malware
Written on February 2, 2018 by Beth SmasalA helpful overview of the many ways you can protect your system from malware and keep your data safe.
Pix4D GPU Comparison: GeForce, Titan, and Quadro
Written on January 5, 2018 by William GeorgePix4D is an advanced photogrammetry application, suited to wide range of uses, with a focus on handling images captured by drone cameras. Processing of those images into point clouds and 3D meshes / textures utilizes the video card (GPU) in a workstation, but how much impact do different cards make on overall performance?
Pix4D CPU Comparison: Coffee Lake vs Skylake X vs Threadripper
Written on January 2, 2018 by William GeorgePix4D is an advanced photogrammetry application, suited to wide range of uses, with a focus on handling images captured by drone cameras. Processing of those images into point clouds and 3D meshes / textures is time consuming, so we have tested multiple projects across a wide range of CPUs to see what hardware performs the best.
Lightroom Classic CC: is it faster than CC 2015?
Written on October 24, 2017 by Matt BachWith Lightroom Classic CC, Adobe is advertising performance improvements for a number of tasks including importing, generating smart previews, scrolling through images, and much more. In this article we will be running our Lightroom benchmark suite to see if Classic CC is actually faster than CC 2015.
DaVinci Resolve 14 GPU Scaling Analysis (1-4x Titan Xp)
Written on October 13, 2017 by Matt BachDaVinci Resolve has long been known to greatly benefit from multiple GPUs, but is this still true or has the recent launch of Resolve 14 changed things?
DaVinci Resolve 14 CPU Performance: Skylake-X vs Threadripper
Written on October 13, 2017 by Matt BachWhile GPU performance is often the first thing that comes up when configuring a DaVinci Resolve workstation, the CPU is in many ways even more important. Modern CPUs from Intel and AMD can have up to 18 cores, but can DaVinci Resolve actually make use of them all?
SOLIDWORKS 2017: Coffee Lake CPU Comparison (i7 8700K, i5 8600K, i3 8350K)
Written on October 13, 2017 by William GeorgeThe latest Core processors from Intel have launched: the 8th generation of this series, code named "Coffee Lake". This brings with it the first six-core CPUs in Intel's mainstream processor line, so we are taking a look at how they perform in Solidworks 2017. For comparison, we also have results from our previous recommendation for modeling and CAD: the Core i7 7700K "Kaby Lake" chip.