
First of all, it’s important to note that we’re running viewperf 10 because the newer SPECviewperf 11 isn't properly recognized by the HD Graphics P3000/3000 engine, and several of the benchmark's sub-tests consequently fail to yield scores.
Even the results in viewperf 10, however, show the HD Graphics P3000 and 3000 parts performing similarly. Intel’s contention is that it’s optimizing for real-world scenarios where customers will benefit from improved performance, rather than benchmarks. So, we’ll have to see if any of our other graphics-oriented metrics demonstrate the workstation-specific part distinguishing itself.
Meanwhile, Nvidia’s Quadro FX 580 puts down significantly better numbers in all six sub-tests, absolutely warranting an upgrade to the $150 card in five of them. Intel’s processor graphics hold up admirably well in Maya, even though this isn’t one of the apps that the workstation team says it has optimized for yet.

The latest version of LightWave (10) is a significantly different piece of software than LightWave 3D 9.6, the latest build we can test using SPEC’s canned workload. Much of this has to do with input from Rob Powers, the guy who served as the animation technical director for Avatar and is now vice president of 3D development at NewTek. We’ve discussed custom benchmarking tools with Rob in the past, but don’t have anything to show for those talks as of yet. So, we’re still stuck using this much older version of LightWave to test modern graphics hardware.
The OpenGL render test actually shows our three configurations performing somewhat similarly. It’s in the Interactive and Multi-Task benchmarks where Nvidia’s Quadro FX 580 distances itself from Intel’s HD Graphics P3000/3000 products.
That a $150 discrete solution outperforms integrated graphics really isn’t much of a shocker. What’s more interesting is that HD Graphics P3000 and HD Graphics 3000 return similar results. This seems to be yet another app not yet differentiated by Intel’s workstation-specific part.

Given the similar clock rate and Turbo Boost profile of the Core i7-2600K and Xeon E3-1275, similar CPU Render scores in 3ds Max 9 are expected. The fact that Intel’s HD Graphics implementations outmaneuver the Quadro FX 580 in the Hardware Shaders test, however, is a little more surprising. In the final test, graphics, Nvidia’s card reclaims its position on top.

The sub-category chart breaks the results down further. In just about every category, the Nvidia card outperforms Intel’s best effort (except for the Hardware Shaders test).
There’s actually a bit of good news for Intel, though. While there doesn’t really seem to be any benefit to using HD Graphics P3000 over HD Graphics 3000, there’s also a case for using the processor graphics included for “free,” rather than spending an extra $150 on discrete graphics. Nvidia’s card simply doesn’t have that big of an advantage.
- Intel's Xeon E3 Processors Look Familiar
- Intel’s Xeon E3-1200-Series Family
- Platforms: The C200 Chipsets
- Graphics: Meet HD Graphics P3000
- Test Setup And Benchmarks
- Benchmark Results: SPECapc And SPECopc Testing
- Benchmark Results: Adobe CS5 Suite
- Benchmark Results: Media
- Benchmark Results: Rendering
- Benchmark Results: Productivity
- Power Consumption
- Conclusion
Sandy Bridge-E, LGA 2011 X79, Q4 2011.
I've worked with many small businesses, and every one that used a desktop chip for a server or a discount chip (Celeron, Duron, etc) for their desktop computers all performed very poorly. Some seemed to hang on by the sheer will of the owner, and in a couple cases, when the owner got sick for more than a week, the businesses folded like lawn chairs.
I've also seen an Engineering shop of ~30 engineers invest nicely into a real server and real workstations, and had me set up their entire network with SBS. their business ramped up so fast and well that they had to hire several more engineers and outgrew SBS (limited to 50 users at the time) within the next 2 years, and I had to go back and rebuild their domain with full enterprise level software, and add another server specifically for email. the owner said the investment in that SBS system was the best thing he'd invested in the business since he hired his first engineer.
Business owners who do not invest in their IT infrastructure fail at business. It's pretty plain and simple. While investing in good IT gear and software doesn't mean you'll ramp up your business to unheard of heights, it does give you a major leg up on the competition.
Thats a very bold statement, not all companies require top of the range computer equipment
I think you're wrong. I spend most of my day at work making and compiling code. For me the HD graphics work really well and getting anything more powerful than that, as evidenced from the tests, would be a waste of money. I also don't think I'm in the 10% group.
Are you going to do a follow-up to compare to current Xeons?
how many folks compile codes the size of which require a Xeon? im pretty sure your in the 10% group, IMHO for the majority of cases if your not pairing the Xeon with a discreet GFX card then chances are Xeon would be overkill
Geek,
Intel says the Xeons support Quick Sync (at least that's the case on the ark.intel.com site). However, I suspect that current apps do not recognize the Xeons, and consequently cannot yet take advantage of the hardware. Perhaps it'll be enabled in upcoming app revisions. Until then, I still recommend the desktop CPUs if Quick Sync is important to you.
Chris
Then the market will get more interesting, to be sure! We still need to see them do this on the desktop, though. I'd be surprised if they didn't end up releasing a FirePro-branded integrated solution at some point!
You're very welcome Huron, and thanks for the feedback.
Which Xeons would you like to see compared? And in which workloads? I'm happy to field ideas on this if it's something you can use!
Best,
Chris
LGA1155
LGA1156
LGA1366
LGA2011
LGA1356