Test System Configuration And Benchmark Settings
Test Machine
The baseline machine remains the same, with the same limitations affecting its performance.
| iBuyPower P500X | HP Z1 | |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Xeon E3 1270 v2, 3.5 GHz, LGA 1155, 8 MB Shared L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Power-savings enabled | Intel Xeon E3 1280 v2, 3.6 GHz, LGA 1155, 8 MB Shared L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Power-savings enabled |
| Cooler | Asetek 550LC | HP air-cooler |
| Motherboard | Asus P8B WS, BIOS 2009, Intel C206 series chipset | HP 3561h, BIOS A08J52 v02.10, Intel C602 series chipset |
| RAM | 2 x Kingston KVR1333D3E9S/4G, ECC DDR3-1333 CAS 9 | 4 x Micron 18JSF51272AZ-1G6M1, ECC DDR3-1600 CAS 11 |
| Graphics | PNY Quadro 2000 1 GB, 625 MHz GPU, 1300 MHz memory, 128-bit GDDR5, 192 CUDA cores | Quadro K4000M 4 GB, 600 MHz GPU, 700 MHz memory, 256-bit GDDR5, 960 CUDA cores, MXM module recognized as PCIe 3.0 x16 |
| RAID Controller | N/A | Intel C206 integrated SATA/RAID controller |
| SSD | Kingston Hyper-X SH100S3/120G, 120 GB MLC NAND SSD | 2 x Intel SSD 320 SSDSA2BW300G3H, 300 GB MLC NAND SSD |
| Hard Drives | HGST HDS732020BLA642 2 TB, 7K3000 7200 RPM | N/A |
| Optical Drive | Lite-On iHAS124-04(C) 24x Dual-layer DVD±RW Writer | HP BD DRV BD-5841H5 6x BD-ROM/8x DVD±RW Writer/24x CD Writer |
| Sound | Echo Digital Audio AudioFire 2 (not included in price) | Echo Digital Audio AudioFire 2 (not included in price) |
| Networking | Integrated Intel 82574L | Integrated Intel 82579LM |
| FireWire | Integrated VIA 6308S | Integrated JMicron JMB 38X |
| Power Supply | Corsair TX650 V2, 80 PLUS Bronze, 650 W | Delta Electronics DPS-400AB-15A, 90% efficient, 400 W |
| Chassis | Cooler Master Silencio 550 | ZP Z1 All-in-One |
| Monitor | LG E2250T-PN, 22”, 1920x1080 (Not included in price or testing) | HP Z1 integrated, 27”, 2560x1440LG E2250T-PN, 22”, 1920x1080 (used as solo monitor for the 1920x1080 benchmarks, not in price) |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Professional x64 | Windows 7 Professional x64 |
| Graphics Driver | Quadro Driver 320.49 | Quadro Driver 307.74 (latest available when testing was done) |
| Audio Driver | 5.8 | 5.8 |
| ASIO Driver | Included in audio driver | Included in audio driver |
| Warranty | Three-year labor; one-year parts | Limited one-, three-, four-, and five-year options. Mon-Fri 8-5 next business day, parts, labor and 24x7 phone support, terms and conditions may vary. |
| Price As Configured | $1999 (2012) | $6601 |
The SSD configuration in our sample is no longer available, so the pricing we're using corresponds to a pair of Micron C400 256 GB drives.
Test Suite
The test suite is also unrevised since last fall, with the minor addition of some tests for the Z1's display.
| Compression/Archiving | |
|---|---|
| 7-Zip | Version 9.28: THG-Workload (1.3 GB) to .7z, command line switches "a -t7z -r -m0=LZMA2 -mx=5" |
| WinRAR | Version 4.2: THG-Workload (1.3 GB) to RAR, command line switches "winrar a -r -m3" |
| WinZip | Version 17.0 Pro: THG-Workload (1.3 GB) to ZIP, command line switches "-a -ez -p -r" |
| Content Creation | |
| NewTek LightWave 3D 11.5 | Custom workload: High-polygon-count Tom’s Hardware logo, Modeler test: Scripted cloning of surface details across a segment of the logo, Render test: 1920x1080 render of logo with photoreal motion blur, ray-traced shadows, global illumination, OpenGL Test: Generate OpenGL preview of animation for real-time playback on screen |
| Blender | Version: 2.68a, Syntax blender -b thg.blend -f 1, Resolution: 1920x1080, Anti-Aliasing: 8x, Render: THG.blend frame 1, Cycles renderer and internal tile renderer (9x9) |
| e-on Software VUE 11 Infinite PLE | Custom workload: Landscape (generated in Vue 8 full version and imported into PLE) |
| Autodesk 3ds Max 2014 | Space Flyby Mentalray, Frame 248, 1440x1080, Tom’s Hardware Logo render in V-Ray 2.4.04, 1920x1080, global illumination, photorealistic motion blur, ray-traced shadows, Create Nitrous preview of logo scene, to Y: RAM drive, Autodesk chair scene in iray, 1920x1080, 250 passes, GPU (CUDA)-only rendering, Car render in V-RayRT, 1920x1080, 256 passes, CUDA-only |
| Autodesk Maya 2014 | Tom’s Hardware Logo render in mental ray, 1920x1080, global illumination, photorealistic motion blur, ray-traced shadows, OpenGL Test: Generate Playblast (OpenGL preview) animation to Y: RAM drive |
| Maxon Cinebench r11.5 | 3D Rendering and OpenGL Benchmarks, built-in benchmarks with default settings |
| Adobe Premiere Pro CC | Custom Workload: Edit of 59.94 FPS 720p DVCProHD footage, with transitions and some color correction, Render To H.264 720p |
| Adobe Photoshop CC | Filter 15.7 MB TIF Image: Radial Blur, Shape Blur, Median, Polar Coordinates filters |
| Adobe After Effects CC | Custom Workload: SD motion graphics sequence with 3 picture-in-picture frames sourced from 720p HD Quicktimes, Same scene rendered using a frame sequence instead of from Quicktime sources, HD redo of the project using frame sequences, to 1080p |
| Reaper v4.402 | DAWBench Universal 2012: Test number of simultaneous copies of ReaXComp that the system can effectively run, Custom Workload: Render and mix down to .wav custom score project, multiple tracks of audio, VST synthesizers and effects |
| Visual Studio 2010 | Compile Chrome project (1/31/2012) with devenv.com /build Release |
| Encoding | |
| HandBrake CLI | Version: 0.9.9Video: Big Buck Bunny (720x480, 23.972 frames) 5 Minutes, Audio: Dolby Digital, 48 000 Hz, Six-Channel, English, to Video: AVC Audio: AC3 Audio2: AAC (High Profile) |
| TotalCode Studio 2.5 | Version: 2.5.0.10677: MPEG-2 to H.264, MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec, 28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG-2), Audio: MPEG-2 (44.1 kHz, 2 Channel, 16-Bit, 224 Kb/s), Codec: H.264 Pro, Mode: PAL 50i (25 FPS), Profile: H.264 BD HDMV |
| LAME MP3 | Version 3.98.3: Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 min, convert WAV to MP3 audio format, Command: -b 160 --nores (160 Kb/s) |
| Synthetics | |
| SPECviewperf 11 | Default GUI options; Workloads: CATIA, EnSight, LightWave, Maya, Pro/E, SolidWorks, Teamcenter Visualization Mockup, Siemens NX |
| LuxMark 2.0 | OpenCL-based rendering benchmark, default settings, “Ball” and “Room” tests |
| CASE Euler3D | CFD simulation over NACA 445.6 aeroelastic test wing at Mach 0.5 |
| Thesycon DPCLat | DPC Latency Checker, run with default settings |
| SiSoftware Sandra | CPU Test=CPU Arithmetic/Multimedia, Memory Test=Bandwidth Benchmark, Cryptography |
| Iometer 1.1.0 | Workers = 1, 16 GB repeating data, 4KB random, 128 KB sequential |
| AS SSD 1.7.4739 | Seq, 4K random, and 4K-64 THRD tests |
| Display | |
| Argyll CMS 1.6.1, DisplCalGUI 1.5.3.1 | Running with a Spyder Elite 4 sensor. |