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 1.4.3: Intel Core i7 9700K & i9 9900K Performance
Written on October 19, 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, 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.
V-Ray CPU Rendering: Intel Core i7 9700K & i9 9900K Performance
Written on October 19, 2018 by William GeorgeIntel's mainstream processors are not built specifically for CPU based rendering, and both Intel and AMD offer models with far more cores which will perform better in this application, but it is still worth testing each generation of these chips because they are ideal for 3D design, motion graphics, and animation - which are often used in workflows alongside rendering.
Cinema 4D: Intel Core i7 9700K & i9 9900K Performance
Written on October 19, 2018 by William GeorgeIntel just released their 9th Gen Core Series processors, which have both higher clock speed and more cores than the previous mainstream generation. Cinema 4D uses a blend of CPU factors: clock speed is important for modeling, animation, and physics simulation - but core count is king when it comes to rendering. Let's see how these new chips compare to other options from both Intel and AMD.
Agisoft PhotoScan 1.4.3: GeForce RTX 2080 & 2080 Ti Comparison
Written on October 19, 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 RTX 2000-series - based on NVIDIA's Turing GPU architecture - to see how they compare to each other.
Are the 9th Gen Intel Core Processors good for photo editing?
Written on October 19, 2018 by Matt BachMost photo editing applications prefer a higher clocked CPU over one with more cores, but Intel's new 9th Gen Core Processors feature not only an increase in core count, but also a small bump in frequency. These improvements make these new CPUs some of the fastest currently available for photo editing.
Are the 9th Gen Intel Core Processors good for video editing?
Written on October 19, 2018 by Matt BachIntel's new 9th Gen Core Processors include both a small frequency bump and an increase in core count. Due to these improvements, these CPUs fare extremely well in video editing applications, performing close to 20% faster than the i7 8700K in many Adobe applications.
DaVinci Resolve 15: Core i7 9700K & i9 9900K Performance
Written on October 19, 2018 by Matt BachDaVinci Resolve is a very GPU-intensive program, but that doesn't mean that the CPU doesn't matter. Depending on the amount of GPU power you have, even a mid-range CPU could perform the same as a more expensive CPU which makes the new 9th Gen CPUs from Intel very interesting for Resolve workstations with only a few GPUs.
Photoshop CC 2018: Core i7 9700K & i9 9900K Performance
Written on October 19, 2018 by Matt BachThe new 9th Gen Intel Core Processors have a number of improvements including a small frequency bump and an increase in core count. Photoshop tends to primarily rely on just a handful of cores, so the question is whether these improvements are enough to make a significant difference in performance.
Lightroom Classic CC 2018: Core i7 9700K & i9 9900K Performance
Written on October 19, 2018 by Matt BachSince Lightroom Classic is much better at utilizing multiple CPU cores than the older versions of Lightroom, the new 9th Gen Intel Core Processors are very interesting. Not only do they have a small frequency bump, but they also include an increase in core count.
After Effects CC 2018: Core i7 9700K & i9 9900K Performance
Written on October 19, 2018 by Matt BachAfter Effects may not be quite as well threaded as it used to be, but there is still some performance gains to be had with higher core counts. Since the new 9th Gen CPUs from Intel include both a higher core count and a higher operating frequency, they should perform great in After Effects.
Premiere Pro CC 2018: Core i7 9700K & i9 9900K Performance
Written on October 19, 2018 by Matt BachWe tend to use either Intel's X-series or AMD's Threadripper CPUs for Premiere Pro due to their higher performance, but with Intel's new 9th Gen CPUs sporting up to 8 cores, it will be very interesting to see how they fare in Premiere Pro.
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?
NVLink on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 & 2080 Ti 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, things are not as straightforward as folks may have 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?