Performance

SPECviewperf 10

First of all we decided to check the results in the main professional graphics card test - SPECviewperf benchmark, which has already become a set industry standard. Although SPECViewperf is a synthetic test, it shows very well the performance of graphics accelerators in OpenGL, which is determined by hardware peculiarities as well as driver optimization quality. This benchmark transmits to the graphics card driver a pre-formed succession of OpenGL commands typical of different professional applications. The built-in scripts emulate the user’s work in viewports of the following applications (the names of the corresponding benchmarks are given in brackets): 3ds max (3dsmax-04), CATIA (catia-02), EnSight (ensight-03), Maya (maya-02), Pro/ENGINEER (proe-04), SolidWorks (sw-02), UGS Teamcenter Visualization Mockup (tcvis-01) and UGS NX (ugnx-01).

The obtained results are pretty diverse. You can see that there is no universal professional solution. FireGL cards show best results in 3ds max, EnSight, Maya, Solidworks, VisMockup and UGS NX, while in CATIA and Pro/ENGINEER the winner’s laurels go to Quadro FX family. As for the top gaming solution, GeForce 9800 GTX, its performance is below any possible criticism, since its OpenGL driver is optimize for gaming and not for professional needs.