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SGI Graphics Performance Comparison Tables

Last Change: 26/Oct/2015

Given below are several graphical performance comparison tables. With so many metrics available, the data is presented via four separate tables since a single table would be very large.

Data is given for Personal IRIS, Indy, O2, Crimson, Indigo, Indigo2, Octane, Octane2, VW320, i-Station, Onyx and Onyx2.

Note that the CDRS-03 viewset is now officially out-of-date. The reason is that CDRS consists largely of wireframe modeling which has become increasingly less relevant compared to the typical workload of today; one now observes incredibly skewed results such as the Sun Ultra30 Elite3D which scores 130.18, yet it's individual test results vary between 5.1 and 240! SPEC has given out a press release detailing the situation.

Processor types vary amongst older systems, so be wary of direct comparisons. Older systems using high-end graphics options of the time (eg. Crimson RealityEngine) may appear on paper to be close to newer systems with mid-range graphics options (eg. Octane SI+texture), when in fact the newer systems may be considerably quicker due to a much higher preprocessing ability (ie. R10000/195 vs. R4000/100 or R4400/150), though note that Crimson RE does have features which later desktop systems may not have such as full-scene subsample antialiasing. Indigo figures assume the use of a 100MHz R4000 CPU.

Gaps in the tables below are evident where data could not be found (denoted by '?'); if you are able to supply missing information, please contact me.

You may need to expand the width of your viewing window to see the tables in full, or use your browser's horizontal scrollbars.

Key:

  N/A       = Not Applicable, ie. the system can only do the task in software
  ?         = Could not find this value via any publicly available source
  K         = x1000
  M         = x1000000
  Z         = Hardware Z Buffer
  GZ        = Gouraud shaded with hardware Z buffer
  GF        = Gouraud Fill, ie. Gouraud shaded pixel fill rate, always in pixels/sec
  GFZ       = Same as GF, but using hardware Z buffer due to texturing
  Tri       = Triangle(s)
  Tex       = Textured, ie. texture mapped with mipmapping
  Conv(3x3) = Convolutions 3x3 general (comps/sec)
  Conv(5x5) = Convolutions 5x5 seperable (comps/sec)
  CR        = IRIS Crimson
  I2 xxxIMP = Indigo2 xxxIMPACT
  OCT xx/yy = Octane, where xx = gfx option, yy = CPU type
  EXT       = Extreme graphics
  RE        = RealityEngine
  RE2       = RealityEngine2
  R         = Reality
  IR        = InfiniteReality
  IR2       = InfiniteReality2
  IP        = InfinitePerformance
  Tb        = Turbo (Personal IRIS)
  St        = Standard (Personal IRIS)
  DX        = Data Explorer
  DRV       = Design Review
  ADVS      = Advanced Visualiser
  Light     = Lightscape
                                    3D       Flat    Lit GZ   Lit        Lit  
                              X     Depth    Tri     Tri/sec  Tex        GZ   
                            Lines   Cued GZ  Strips           GZ         Indep
                                    Lines    No Z             Tri/sec    Quads

Personal IRIS St:           ?       ?        ?       ?        ?          5K
Personal IRIS Tb:           ?       ?        ?       ?        ?          20K
Indigo Entry:               ?       380K     100K    26K      N/A        13K
Indigo XS:                  ?       140K     98K     50K      N/A        24K
Indigo XZ:                  ?       280K     196K    100K     N/A        45K
Indigo Elan:                ?       555K     370K    180K     N/A        88K
Indy XL R4K/100PC:          1.4M    ?        ?       33K      N/A        ?
Indy XL R4K/133PC:          1.4M    ?        ?       38K      N/A        ?
Indy XL R4K/133SC:          1.5M    ?        ?       53K      N/A        ?
Indy XL R4K/150SC:          1.6M    ?        ?       64K      N/A        ?
Indy XL R4K/200SC:          1.6M    ?        ?       88K      N/A        ?
Indy XL R5K/150PC:          1.4M    ?        ?       71K      N/A        ?
Indy XL R5K/150SC:          1.5M    ?        ?       81K      N/A        ?
Indy XL R5K/180SC:          1.5M    ?        ?       96K      N/A        ?
Indy XZ:                    ?       460K     402K    180K     M/A        91K
I2 XL:                      1.59M   205K     288K    52K      N/A        25K
I2 XZ:                      441K    452K     408K    181K     N/A        67K
I2 Extreme:                 ?       1.0M     645K    405K     N/A        155K
O2 R5K/180SC:               2.2M    716K     854K    434K     250K       ?
O2 R5K/200SC:               2.5M    799K     958K    485K     279K       ?
O2 R10K/195SC:              2.8M    894K     1.04M   531K     326K       ?
O2 R10K/250SC:              ?       1.08M    1.24M   665K     394K       ?
CR Entry:                   ?       375K     56K     13K      1.7K (*)   9.5K
CR XS/XS24:                 ?       260K     99K     50K      1.3K (*)   17K  
CR Elan:                    ?       1M       370K    180K     1.3K (*)   65K  
CR Extreme:                 ?       1M       635K    415K     1.3K (*)   156K
CR VGXT                     ?       1.2M     1.1M    780K     35K        200K
CR RE                       ?       1.2M     1.1M    820K     210K       300K
I2 SolidIMP:                3.26M   1.88M    1.5M    1.02M    N/A        ?    
I2 HighIMP:                 3.26M   1.88M    1.5M    1.02M    652K       300K 
I2 MaxIMP:                  3.26M   2.23M    ?       1.8M     1.6M       600K 
Octane SI:                  3.78M   1.37M    1.5M    1.02M    N/A        384K 
Octane SE:                  3.80M   ?        ?       1.16M    N/A        480K
Octane SI+T:                3.78M   1.37M    1.5M    1.02M    655K       384K 
Octane SE+T:                3.80M   ?        ?       1.16M    810K       480K
Octane SSI:                 3.88M   2.11M    2.67M   1.82M    N/A        687K
Octane SSE:                 3.88M   2.29     ?       2.19M    N/A        880K
Octane MXI:                 3.88M   2.11M    2.67M   1.82M    1.18M      687K 
Octane MXE:                 3.88M   2.29M    ?       2.19M    1.42M      880K
Octane2 V10/V12 (16):       ?       ?        ?       18.1     ?          ?
VW320 PIII/550 (13):        ?       7.94M    ?       3.5M     1.5M       ?
Onyx Extreme:               ?       210K     600K    370K     2K         180K
Onyx VTX:                   ?       1.0M     1.0M    813K     450K       350K
Onyx RE2 (2):               ?       2.0M     2.0M    1.2M     930K       570K
Onyx2 R:                    ?       ?        ?       ?        5.5M       ?
Onyx2 IR (9):               ?       ?        ?       ?        10.9M      ?
Onyx2 IR2 (9):              ?       ?        ?       ?        13.1M      ?
Onyx2 16 x IR2 (9):         ?       ?        ?       ?        210M       ?
Onyx2 IR2E:                 ?       ?        ?       ?        ?          ?
Onyx2 IR3:                  ?       ?        ?       ?        ?          ?
Onyx2 IR4:                  ?       ?        ?       ?        ?          ?
Onyx3000 IP (14):           ?       ?        ?       ?        17.7M      ?


                            GF        Tex GFZ     Conv(3x3)   Conv(5x5)   Color
                            Pix/sec   pix/sec                             Lookups/sec

O2:                         66M       33M         ?           ?           ?
I2 XL:                      89M       N/A         N/A         N/A         N/A
I2 XZ:                      37M       N/A         N/A         N/A         N/A
CR XS/XS24:                 ?         ?           ?           ?           ?
CR Elan:                    ?         ?           ?           ?           ?
CR Extreme:                 78M       N/A         ?           ?           ?
CR VGXT                     200M      44M         ?           ?           ?
CR RE                       180M (1)  320M        ?           ?           ?
I2 SolidIMP:                120M      N/A         ?           ?           ?
I2 HighIMP:                 120M      68.5M       20M         20M         50M
I2 MaxIMP:                  240M      119M        40M         40M         100M
Octane SI:                  120M      N/A         13.7M       11.5M       38M
Octane SI+T:                120M      60M         13.7M       11.52M      38M
Octane SE:                  120M      N/A         16.88M      14.20M      49.2M
Octane SE+T:                120M      68.4M       16.88M      14.20M      49.2M
Octane SSI:                 240M      N/A         24.4M       20M         64M
Octane SSE:                 240M      N/A         33.76M      27.12M      96.4M
Octane MXI:                 240M      118M        24.4M       20M         64M
Octane MXE:                 240M      138M        33.7M       27.12M      96.4M
Octane2 V10/V12 (16):       ?         448M        ?           ?           ?
VW320 PIII/500 (13):        180M      120M        ?           ?           ?
Onyx EXT (4):               100M      N/A         ?           ?           ?
Onyx VTX (5):               ?         80M         ?           ?           ?
Onyx RE2 (2):               180M (1)  320M        ?           ?           ?
Onyx2 Reality (17):         448M      188M        ?           6.4M        ?
Onyx2 IR, 1RM (9,17):       224M      156M        ?           12.7M       ?
Onyx2 IR, 2RM (9,17):       448M      312M        ?           12.7M       ?
Onyx2 IR, 4RM (9,17):       896M      624M        ?           12.7M       ?
Onyx2 IR2, 1RM (9,17):      224M      192M        ?           15.3M       ?
Onyx2 IR2, 2RM (9,17):      448M      384M        ?           15.3M       ?
Onyx2 IR2, 4RM (9,17):      896M      768M        ?           15.3M       ?
Onyx2 16 x IR2, 4RM (9,17): 7200M     6100M       ?           244M        ?
Onyx2 IR3, 1RM (9,17):      ?         185M        ?           15.3M       ?
Onyx2 IR3, 2RM (9,17):      ?         370M        ?           15.3M       ?
Onyx2 IR3, 4RM (9,17):      ?         740M        ?           15.3M       ?
Onyx2 IR4, 4RM (9,17):      ?         1290M       ?           15.3M       ?
Onyx2 16 x IR4, 4RM (9,17): ?         20600M      ?           244M        ?
Onyx3000 IP (14):           ?         484M        ?           ?           ?
Onyx3000 16 x IP (14):      ?         7700M       ?           ?           ?


                            DX      CDRS     ProCDRS   DRV     ADVS    Light

Indy XZ (8):                1.64    ?                  ?       ?       ?
O2 R5000SC 180MHz:          3.15    16.26              2.45    5.49    0.49
O2 R5000SC 200MHz:          3.47    18.51              2.67    6.20    0.53
O2 R10000SC 195MHz:         3.48    22.50              2.70    7.78    0.55
O2 R5200SC 300MHz:          4.60    ?          3.28    3.67    9.13    0.78
O2 R10000SC 250MHz:         4.74    27.13              3.46    9.58    0.72
O2 R12000SC 300MHz:         ?       ?          4.08    3.99    ?       ?
I2 XZ (7):                  1.64    ?                  ?       ?       ?
I2 SolidIMPACT R4K/200:     7.33    ?                  ?       ?       ?
I2 SolidIMPACT R4K/250:     ?       ?                  ?       ?       0.87
I2 SolidIMPACT R10K/175:    7.38    25.57              3.25    N/A     0.96
I2 SolidIMPACT R10K/195:    7.42    25.98              3.30    N/A     0.97
I2 HighIMPACT R4K/200:      7.32    32.09              ?       ?       ?
I2 HighIMPACT R10K/195:     7.4     32.36              4.62    10.90   0.97
I2 MaxIMPACT R4K/250:       8.97    47.67              ?       ?       ?
I2 MaxIMPACT R10K/195:      9.54    48.39              6.13    17.60   1.02
OCT SI R10K/175:            7.71    26.46              3.46    N/A     1.21
OCT SI+Tex R10K/175:        7.71    32.00              4.87    10.78   1.31
OCT SE R10K/225:            9.45    31.72              4.21    N/A     1.37
OCT SE+Tex R10K/225:        9.56    38.86              5.87    12.75   1.37
OCT SSI R10K/195:           13.66   35.85              5.43    N/A     1.47
OCT SSE R10K/250:           18.30   55.57              7.05    N/A     1.55
OCT MXI R10K/195:           13.74   48.63              8.22    16.57   1.58
OCT MXE R10K/250:           18.37   55.46              10.62   20.09   1.55
OCT MXE R12K/300:                             10.05    10.77   19.98   
VW320 PIII/1GHz:            ?       ?                  ?       ?       2.48
VW320 PIII/550:             36.21   ?         22.04    16.64   36.93   2.65
VW540 PIII/550 XEON:        36.42   ?         22.13    16.76   37.36   2.66
VW320 PIII/600:             37.27   ?         22.39    17.46   39.59   2.84
VW320 PIII/1GHz:            ?       ?                  ?       ?       3.55
i-Station IR R10K/195:      19.89   138.05             ?       ?       1.86
Onyx2 Reality R10K/180:     21.72   91.54              15.83   23.70   2.41
Onyx2 Reality R10K/195:     21.90   92.72              16.27   23.84   2.61
Onyx2 IR R10K/195:          35.65   161.29             20.82   45.43   2.65
Onyx2 IR R10K/250:          41.60   ?                  23.96   ?       3.30


                     Characters    Screen     Max Framebuffer    3D Vectors    Vol-Render
                     Per Second    Clear      Memory Size        Per Second    Voxels/sec

Personal IRIS St:    ?             ?          ?                  90K           ?
Personal IRIS Tb:    ?             ?          ?                  200K          ?
Indy XL/100PC:       ?             3ms        ?                  333K          ?
Indy XL/133PC:       ?             3ms        ?                  563K          ?
Indy XL/133SC:       ?             3ms        ?                  573K          ?
Indy XL/150SC:       ?             3ms        ?                  800K          ?
Indy XL/200SC:       ?             3ms        ?                  912K          ?
Indy XL/150PC:       ?             3ms        ?                  1.2M          ?
Indy XL/150SC:       ?             3ms        ?                  1.2M          ?
Indy XL/180SC:       ?             3ms        ?                  1.2M          ?
Indy XZ (10):        ?             3ms        ?                  912K          ?
Indigo Entry:        ?             19ms       ?                  ?             ?
Indigo XS:           ?             9ms        ?                  ?             ?
Indigo XZ:           ?             9ms        ?                  ?             ?
Indigo Elan:         ?             9ms        8MB                ?             ?
I2 XL (6):           471K          10ms       ?                  ?             ?
I2 XZ:               251K          9ms        8MB                ?             ?
I2 Extreme:          255K          4.5ms      8MB                ?             ?
I2 SolidIMP:         ?             ?          ?                  ?             ?
I2 HighIMP:          ?             ?          13.5MB             ?             ?
I2 MaxIMP:           ?             ?          27MB               ?             ?
O2:                  ?             ?          1GB (3)            ?             ?
CR Entry:            115K          20ms       ?                  ?             ?
CR XS/XS24:          112K          9ms        ?                  ?             ?
CR Elan:             152K          9ms        ?                  ?             ?
CR Extreme:          253K          4.5ms      8MB                ?             ?
CR VGXT              96K           0.78ms     ?                  ?             ?
CR RE                300K          0.75ms     160MB              ?             ?
Octane SI:           ?             ?          13.5MB             ?             ?
Octane SI+T:         ?             ?          13.5MB             ?             ?
Octane SE:           ?             ?          13.5MB             ?             ?
Octane SE+T:         ?             ?          13.5MB             ?             ?
Octane SSI:          ?             ?          27MB               ?             ?
Octane SSE:          ?             ?          27MB               ?             ?
Octane MXI:          ?             ?          27MB               ?             ?
Octane MXE:          ?             ?          27MB               ?             ?
Octane V6/V10:       ?             ?          32MB (15)          ?             ?
Octane V8/V12:       ?             ?          128MB (15)         ?             ?
VW320 PIII/500:      ?             ?          1GB (12)           7M            ?
Onyx EXT (4):        ?             ?          8MB                ?             ?
Onyx VTX (5):        ?             ?          40MB               ?             ?
Onyx RE2:            ?             ?          160MB              ?             ?
Onyx2 Reality:       ?             ?          80MB               ?             200M
Onyx2 IR, 1RM:       ?             ?          320MB              7.1M (AA)     200M
Onyx2 IR, 2RM:       ?             ?          320MB              7.1M (AA)     400M
Onyx2 IR, 4RM:       ?             ?          320MB              7.1M (AA)     800M
Onyx2 IR2, 1RM:      ?             ?          320MB              8.6M (AA)     200M
Onyx2 IR2, 2RM:      ?             ?          320MB              8.6M (AA)     400M
Onyx2 IR2, 4RM:      ?             ?          320MB              8.6M (AA)     800M
Onyx2 16 x IR2, 2RM: ?             ?          320MB per pipe     ?             6400M
Onyx2 IR2E, 4RM:     ?             ?          320MB              ?             800M
Onyx2 IR3, 4RM:      ?             ?          320MB              ?             800M
Onyx2 IR4, 4RM:      ?             ?          10GB               ?             800M
Onyx2 16 x IR4, 4RM: ?             ?          10GB per pipe      ?             12800M
Onyx3000 IP (14):    ?             ?          128MB              ?             ?


Notes:

All performance numbers for IRx graphics systems are for one pipe only unless otherwise stated. Performance can scale up to 16 pipes, eg. textured AA fill rate for IR4 is 10.2Gpixels/sec for a max-spec configuration, while the voxel rate scales to 6.4Gvoxels/sec and the memory scales to 160GB VRAM and 16GB TRAM.

(*) The various data sheets list low texturing numbers for Entry, XS/XS24, XL, XZ, Elan and Extreme graphics because these systems have no texturing hardware, ie. any figures listed are for software texturing. Drawing textures in software is highly pixel-fill bound: the time taken to draw an object increases enormously as the area the object takes up on the screen increases. Today, it is preferable to simply state 'Not Applicable', or 'N/A', for such figures, implying that texturing is a computational area at which certain system configurations are not targeted, eg. Octane/SI. The software texturing figures for various systems are included for reference (not all older data sheets included such figures). Note: this means O2's texturing hardware can make it 100 times better than Extreme for anything involving texturing, while Octane or Indigo2 configurations that have hardware texturing can be 1000 times better than Extreme for texture work (depending on the depth complexity and size of the scene being drawn).

(1) The GF pix/sec figure is for a 2RM system only. The data sheets do not specify what a 4RM system could do.

(2) This is for a 1-pipe 4RM Onyx unless otherwise stated. Remember that Onyx can have up to three pipes.

(3) O2's frame buffer memory is taken from the main RAM pool, so the theoretical limit is 1GB, though in practice one will rarely see much more than 8MB used for the ordinary screen display. More important is that this architectural feature means texture memory and other rendering memory is only limited by main RAM size. Obviously, due to this design, it is critical that O2 users ensure their systems are adequately equipped with sufficient memory for the particular task at hand, otherwise disk swapping will occur. Personally, I would recommend at least 512MB for anyone doing serious work.

(4) Extreme graphics with Onyx was only ever available with the deskside model.

(5) VTX graphics was never available for the Power Onyx line, ie. those Onyx models employing the R8000 chip set.

(6) Indigo2 XL performance measured with 200MHz R4400SC. Bare in mind that XL performance with 250MHz R4400 or R10000 (175MHz or 195MHz) will be faster, perhaps much faster with 195MHz R10000.

(7) The Data Explorer figure comes from the original Indigo2 IMPACT technical specs page - I kept a copy when it was first published. :)

(8) I found this DX result accidentally, buried in the depths of SGI's web site. The Indy was using an R4600PC 133MHz CPU - not exactly the best possible choice. Personally, I'd like to know what a 180MHz R5000SC Indy could do (read the HolliDance Benchmark page to see why an XL model might outperform an XZ model).

(9) Remember that Onyx2 is extremely scalable like Origin, eg. one could have a 64-CPU 8-pipe 32RM Onyx2 RealityMonster if one so desired, with a maximum of 128 CPUs and 16 pipes.

(10) The data sheet doesn't say which CPU this is with, which is really annoying as that is important. See also note (11).

(11) There are no data sheets for XZ being used with R5000 which makes comparing different Indys rather difficult. To understand why such figures were never released, see the HolliDance Benchmark page.

(12) The VW320 has a similar architecture to O2, except it's much faster. Thus, the frame buffer and texture memory limit is again limited only by main RAM size.

(13) These are sustained figures. Peak figures are higher, eg. 174M textured pixels/sec vs. 120M/sec sustained.

(14) This is for a single-pipe InfinitePerformance system. IP is scalable to 16 pipes, giving up to 283 million triangles per second and 7.7 billion pixels per second of sustained performance. IP is the same V12 graphics system as used in Octane2/Fuel/Tezro. The VRAM in IP is combined; 128MB total, up to 116MB of which can be used for texture. A V-Brick contains two V12 pipes.

(15) VPro graphics options use a combined onboard graphics memory pool for all graphics data. Thus, for example, V6 and V10 have 32MB total, up to 20MB of which can be used for textures. V8 and V12 have 128MB total, up to 116MB of which can be used for textures. Note that SGI docs say 8MB/108MB respectively, but the real amount available is higher if one uses 1280x1024 with only 8 bytes per pixel.

(16) This is from the SGI press release, 16th Jan 2001.

(17) The quoted performance figure is for 8X subsample anti-aliased (so much higher quality than the data given for other systems), Z-buffered, textured, lit pixels with 10bits per component colour (or tris/sec). SGI did not publish textured fill rates without AA.

Finally:

There are slight differences between the October 1998 Octane brochure's performance figures and the published Viewperf numbers for Octane. The differences are not significant, but where possible I've used the published Viewperf result first, then the brochure figures where SPEC-reported data is not available.


Ian's SGI Depot: FOR SALE! SGI Systems, Parts, Spares and Upgrades

(check my current auctions!)
[WhatsNew] [P.I.] [Indigo] [Indy] [O2] [Indigo2] [Crimson] [Challenge] [Onyx] [Octane] [Origin] [Onyx2]
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