REVIEW: SPECapc for 3ds Max 2011 Professional Benchmark

Conclusion
Just like SPECviewperf 11 last year, we're seeing that all the new benchmarks from SPEC are becoming more user friendly but still ensures that final outcome is extremely accurate. The new SPECapc for 3ds Max 2011 is a superb upgrade from the previous generation of SPECapc for 3ds Max 2009. Its execution is more smooth, with the data sets loading much quicker and the final result breakdown far more easier to all too readily understand. We firstly must turn to those unsung heroes that have spent many grueling months putting this all together, without doubt kudos to you all.

The SPECapc committees have given a benchmark that completely stretches not only the graphics card but the actual whole system I/O. For those out in the wild who complain that nothing is ever given back, please think again as these guys and girls who make up the SPEC/GWPG and its project groups - SPECapc and SPECgpc; give up much of their free time to attend these committees and oversee the professional benchmarks so many take for granted. There will be a few that will complain of the cost but as we stipulated within the introduction this is a realistic approach now taken by the SPECapc committee. To reiterate, everyone is very comfortable paying 100’s of dollars for professional benchmarks developed by BAPCo and Futuremark Corporation etc, then why should this be no different... This is a realistic professional approach now, and all walks of industry that supply hardware systems utilizing 3ds Max should be supporting the benchmark.

For the more adventurous who wish to see the full remit, try sitting watching a complete professional run that can take up to 3-4 hours professional card dependant of course. It's only after this you will truly understand just how much grueling and demanding effort has gone into this build of the new SPECapc for 3ds Max 2011. Below are a few test render shots grabbed whilst the test is underway.

  

It brings to the fore the question many of the more larger System Integrators, even the smaller System Integrators companies and Value Added Resellers must now be asking "why should we submit a submission, after all, the Tier 1's dominate these sorts of things". It’s just not so the case. Not just a year ago; several companies completed and successfully met the criteria and their rewards where great. It did involve a little bit of extra work behind the scenes, though they did all reap the reward of very successful orders. Many System Integrators have different build plans which are claimed to be fast and reliable, it just takes that courageous judgment to step up to the starters gate and that leap of faith that your product can succeed. It can be done successfully. The systems we have demonstrated within today are what many can easily produce to run 3ds Max. At the end of the day, it can be achieved successfully.

The actual results we have shown today have been most interesting indeed. Starting with the CPU's, without a doubt in certain aspects the Dual Xeon still currently maintains its crown within the actual CPU Rendering and CPU Computing sectors. However the new C204 PCH chipset and E-Series Xeon have made significant impacts as the results within the Large Model CPU test has shown remarkable leaps forward, a full three point gain is a pretty significant leap. There are exciting times ahead with the speculated new Dual Xeon sockets and of course the advent of the new PCI Express 3.0 standard.

Within the professional graphic cards results we saw some amazing sets of results. We have been on about results, therefore below is a screen shot of the combined scores of a completed run.



The young pretender, AMD FirePro V7900 really set the pace for all the cards from AMD and it did show some very interesting results indeed over its older siblings. Its score within the Large Model GPU result and Composite test on both test system platforms took everyone by complete surprise. It's amazing what can be achieved in a year within this industry and how rapidly technology moves from these companies. AMD's driver is still within the beta stages and should be completed soon and therefore - we will revisit in due course.

NVIDIA Quadro cards made a formidable noise which was made right across the board with some very exciting numbers to be seen. Each of the Quadro cards scaled as was to be expected within a test environment. It is without a doubt the Quadro 6000 showed it’s true might in the correct light of day. The Large Model GPU test scores are phenomenally astonishing to say the least and, puts to rest the skeptics and pessimists who claimed that the card was too big with too much memory. The driver team at NVIDIA have been working around the clock to get these optimizations correct and kudos to you all.

The year ahead, it's going to be very interesting indeed. All those wonderful new hardware parts that are speculated upon the horizon will make differences within certain viewsets and render outputs. Of course each new driver and hardware release from both AMD and NVIDIA will bring with it more advancement in the final viewset and CPU results. Therefore we all have to watch these spaces very closely as the going is about to get very tough and exciting indeed.

Ultimately the new SPECapc for 3ds Max 2011 completely stretches the full system I/O. With careful planning of production systems in conjunction with the new benchmark will be pretty spectacular meeting the demands of this ISV software. Those with the fastest and most stable platforms will end up winning outright those lucrative orders.

BSN* Value Award 2011: AMD FirePro V7900 2GB GDDR5



BSN* Editors' Choice 2011: NVIDIA Quadro 6000 6GB GDDR5




BSN* Editors' Choice 2011: SPECapc for 3ds Max 2011