Intel Xeon 5600-Series: Can Your PC Use 24 Processors?

Benchmark Results: SPECviewperf 11 And SPECapc LightWave 9.6

The recently-released SPECviewperf 11 is meant primarily to measure OpenGL graphics performance. It includes new viewsets from up-to-date versions of LightWave, CATIA, EnSight, Maya, Pro/ENGINEER, SolidWorks, Siemens Teamcenter Visualization Mockup, and Siemens NX.

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SPECviewperf 112 x Xeon X56802 x Xeon W55801 x Core i7-980X
catia-0321.3222.322.5
ensight-0411.411.8612.03
lightwave-0140.0640.8741.88
maya-038.9414.5516.02
proe-057.748.099.21
sw-0232.5832.6433.14
tcvis-0216.2416.6616.41
snx-0113.9216.5516.6

We were hoping to see performance in these tests at least impacted by the platform hosting our Nvidia Quadro FX 3800 graphics card. No such luck, it seems. In fact, the opposite seems to be true. Consistently, the highest scores come from the single-CPU Core i7-980X—though it should be noted that the differences here are fairly small.

There are actually three results garnered from the LightWave 9.6 test. However, they’re most easily generated using the Discovery mode. Once you register for a trial version of the software, you get a popup before Layout launches that ends up preventing the Interactive test from completing. The solution seems to be running this SPECapc and our custom workload using a full, registered copy. We’re working with NewTek to make that happen.

Even still, we get some interesting results from the Render and multi-task tests (yes, the LightWave benchmark was developed specifically to take advantage of threaded platforms). The render test, specifically, sees a massive speed-up moving from a single socket to a dual-socket Xeon W5580 and then to a dual Xeon X5680 configuration. Though not as pronounced, the MT test also clearly favors a pair of Xeon X5680s over the W5580s, which in turn best a single Core i7-980X.

Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini is an Editor Emeritus at Tom's Hardware US. He edits hardware reviews and covers high-profile CPU and GPU launches.
  • one-shot
    Or 24 Logical cores, not really Processors.
    Reply
  • Zerk
    24 threads, 12 cores.

    A+ Excellent Review.
    Reply
  • enzo matrix
    one-shotOr 24 Logical CPUs, not really Processors.Misleading title. I was excited because I assumed intel had finally come out with 12-core server CPUs.
    Reply
  • Tamz_msc
    I was expecting an even better performance from these CPUs.The performance is still limited by the software you use.
    Reply
  • shin0bi272
    Enzo MatrixMisleading title. I was excited because I assumed intel had finally come out with 12-core server CPUs.they could have gone 4x 6 core cpus without HT too.
    Reply
  • cangelini
    Enzo MatrixMisleading title. I was excited because I assumed intel had finally come out with 12-core server CPUs.
    The Xeon 5600-series tops out with 6 cores and 12 threads, yielding 24 logical processors between two sockets. =)
    Reply
  • wh3resmycar
    So many cpu's in task manager...do all but 1 go unused running a single threaded app? shame intel had to go this route with more cores instead of making single core with hyper-threading work faster. you should really only need 2 logical cpu's and hyper threading accomplishes it with 1.

    i have a feeling you dont understand what the word "workstation" means.
    Reply
  • Hyper threading was kind of cool back in the P4 days, but now I don't see the point. Virtually nothing that >people actually use< has any benefit to see from it.. It just makes for cool screenshots imo..

    I guess what this review says is that, if you want performance for stuff you do at home you should pretty much just get a Nehalem i7 6c with some fast ram. The xeons seems to be behind on everything multimedia, much as expected.
    Reply
  • Otus
    cangeliniThe Xeon 5600-series tops out with 6 cores and 12 threads, yielding 24 logical processors between two sockets. =)You should have written "logical processors" or "logical cores" and no one would have argued.
    mheagerNot true. Hyper threading makes it so if one app gets stuck in an endless loop it doesn't suck up all the cpu and freeze the computer.The OS can do that even on a single core with no HT. Not to mention the case with many physical cores which non-HT CPUs have nowadays.
    Reply
  • kokin
    mheagerNot true. Hyper threading makes it so if one app gets stuck in an endless loop it doesn't suck up all the cpu and freeze the computer.But why should it get stuck in an endless loop with all that computing power?
    Reply