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 !Titan X Performance: PCI-E 3.0 x8 vs x16
Written on September 8, 2016 by Matt BachWith video cards getting faster and display resolutions getting larger, it is time to revisit our PCI-E testing to see if there is finally a performance difference between using a GPU in x8 versus x16.
Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2015.3 CPU Comparison
Written on September 6, 2016 by Matt BachChoosing the right CPU for you Premiere Pro workstation can be a difficult task with dozens of different options to choose from. In this article, we will be benchmarking a variety of single and dual CPU options that should give the best performance in Premiere Pro to see exactly how fast each configuration actually performs in the real world.
Adobe After Effects CC 2015.3 Pascal GPU Performance
Written on September 6, 2016 by Matt BachNew video cards often get a lot of press, but unfortunately for content creators (and other professionals), it is almost impossible to find any relevant non-gaming benchmarks to help you decide what card to purcahse. In this article we will be looking at the new GTX 1000 series cards and the Pascal Titan X to see how the perform in After Effects.
Adobe After Effects CC 2015.3 CPU Comparison
Written on September 6, 2016 by Matt BachAfter Effects is often touted as being able to use as many CPU cores as you can throw at it. However, our testing has indicated that AE may actually perform better with a lower core count CPU than one with a higher number of cores. In this article, we will be benchmarking a variety of single and dual CPU configurations to see exactly how fast different CPUs actually perform in After Effects.
Adobe After Effects CC 2015.3 Multi Core Performance
Written on September 6, 2016 by Matt BachHigh-end systems for After Effects are sometimes sold with two high core count CPUs for maximum CPU performance. However, our testing has shown that After Effects actually has some significant performance problems with multiple CPUs which makes those configurations in reality much slower than a system with a single CPU.
Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2015.3 Pascal GPU Performance
Written on August 18, 2016 by Matt BachThe latest video cards often get a lot of press, but unfortunately for content creators (and other professionals), it is almost impossible to find any non-gaming benchmarks. In this article we will be looking at the GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 to see how the perform compared to the previous generation video cards.
AutoDesk 3ds Max 2017 Quadro GPU Performance
Written on August 5, 2016 by Matt BachEven though AutoDesk officially recommends professional-class video cards like the NVIDIA Quadro series, it can be extremely difficult to determine which card withing that series you should use in your workstation. In this article we will be looking at a number of video cards from the NVIDIA Quadro product lines to see how they perform in 3ds Max.
AutoDesk 3ds Max 2017 GeForce GPU Performance
Written on August 5, 2016 by Matt BachVideo cards often get a ton of reviews and benchmarks, but unfortunately for content creators (and other professionals), it is almost impossible to find any non-gaming benchmarks. In this article we will be looking at a number of video cards from the NVIDIA GeForce product line to see how they perform in 3ds Max.
AutoDesk 3ds Max 2017 CPU Performance
Written on August 3, 2016 by Matt BachVideo cards often get a ton of reviews and benchmarks, but unfortunately for content creators (and other professionals), it is almost impossible to find any non-gaming benchmarks. In this article we will be looking at a number of video cards across the NVIDIA GeForce and Quadro product lines to see how they perform in 3ds Max.
GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 Premiere Pro Performance
Written on June 11, 2016 by Matt BachThe latest video cards often get a lot of press, but unfortunately for content creators (and other professionals), it is almost impossible to find any non-gaming benchmarks. In this article we will be looking at the GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 to see how the perform compared to the previous generation video cards.
Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2015 Multi Core Performance (Update1)
Written on June 8, 2016 by Matt BachPremiere Pro is often touted as greatly benefiting from high core count CPUs. In this article we will be benchmarking the multi-threading capabilities of Premiere Pro CC 2015 to determine exactly how well it actually is able to utilize high core count CPUs.
Samsung 950 Pro M.2 Additional Cooling Testing
Written on June 6, 2016 by Matt BachM.2 drives like the Samsung 950 Pro can give incredible performance, but they can sometimes run hot enough that the drive needs to throttle the performance to stay under safe temperatures. For those that need a M.2 drive to run at full speed for longer periods of time, we decided to run some quick tests to compare a number of different M.2 drive cooling methods.
Samsung 950 Pro M.2 Throttling Analysis
Written on June 6, 2016 by Matt BachM.2 drives like the Samsung 950 Pro can give incredible performance, but they can sometimes run hot enough that the drive needs to throttle the performance to stay under safe temperatures. To help you decide if it is something you need to worry about, we decided to benchmark a Samsung 950 Pro in a variety of M.2 slot locations with a range of system configurations to show how much a Samsung 950 Pro might throttle in your system.
Octane Render GPU Performance Comparison
Written on April 28, 2016 by Matt BachOctane Render is a GPU-based rendering engine that is able to utilize multiple video cards to achieve maximum performance. In this article we will be testing to see how well Octane Render is able to use both different models of video cards as well as multiple physical cards in parallel.
Keyshot Multi Core Performance
Written on April 14, 2016 by Matt BachKeyshot is a CPU-based rendering engine that is able to utilize a high number of cores to achieve maximum performance. In this article we will be performing testing to determine just how effective Keyshot is at using multiple cores to determine what CPU models will give you the best rendering performance.
NVIDIA Iray CPU Scaling
Written on April 13, 2016 by Matt BachWhile Iray is primarily a GPU-based rendering engine, there is some interesting performance ramifications from using a high core count CPU. In this article we will be examining in detail how the CPU can affect Iray performance with different video card combinations.
NVIDIA Iray GPU Performance Comparison
Written on April 13, 2016 by Matt BachIray is a GPU-based rendering engine that is able to utilize multiple video cards to achieve maximum performance. In this article we will be testing to see how well Iray is able to use both different models of video cards as well as multiple physical cards in parallel.
Mental Ray Multi Core Performance
Written on March 30, 2016 by Matt BachMental Ray is a CPU-based rendering engine that is able to utilize a high number of cores to achieve maximum performance. In this article we will be performing testing to determine just how effective Mental Ray is at using multiple cores to determine what CPU models will give you the best Mental Ray performance.
Samsung SATA SSD's Amazing Reliability
Written on March 7, 2016 by Matt BachAt Puget Systems, we spend a a lot of effort tracking the failure rates of all our products to make sure that each is living up to our quality standards. Today, we want to publish a short article to specifically call out one line of products for being extremely reliable: Samsung SATA SSDs.
Solidworks 2016 CPU Performance: Skylake-S vs Haswell-E/EP
Written on December 31, 2015 by Matt BachIntel has a number of different CPU product lines available which are currently primarily using one of two different CPU architectures. In this article we will be looking at how much of a difference the architecture makes to help determine if there is a performance advantage to using one line over another.
Network Rendering in Solidworks 2016
Written on December 31, 2015 by Matt BachIf you have a subscription to Solidworks, you have access to a feature called network rendering which allows you to split up a render across multiple machines. In this article we will be examining how effective this is and comparing the performance to a dedicated Dual Xeon workstation that has been optimized for rendering.
Most Reliable PC Hardware of 2015
Written on December 28, 2015 by Matt BachAt Puget Systems, we track a lot of data but one of the most important things we track is the failure rates of individual components. Reliability is of our primary values, so this data is invaluable for tracking both individual component, product line, and overall brand failure rates. With 2015 coming to a close, we thought we make public a bit of this data to let you know what hardware we found to be the most reliable in 2015.
Why you should use a Quadro video card in Solidworks 2016
Written on December 22, 2015 by Matt BachDespite how popular Solidworks is, there is a lot of outdated and simply inaccurate information on the web regarding what video card you should use. In this article we will be looking benchmarking multiple video cards at both 1080p and 4K resolutions to determine exactly what GPU you should use in Solidworks.
Solidworks 2016 NVIDIA Quadro Performance
Written on December 16, 2015 by Matt BachDespite how popular Solidworks is, there is a lot of outdated and simply inaccurate information on the web regarding what video card you should use. In this article we will be looking benchmarking multiple video cards at both 1080p and 4K resolutions to determine exactly what GPU you should use in Solidworks.
Solidworks 2016 Multi Core Performance
Written on December 16, 2015 by Matt BachDespite how popular Solidworks is, there is a lot of outdated and simply inaccurate information on the web regarding how many CPU cores it is able to effectively utilize. In this article we will be looking at the multi-threaded portions of Solidworks to determine whether having a high core count CPU is worth the investment.