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HighEnd3D Benchmarks

Last Change: 05/Feb/2000

An excellent web site for information on various 3D modeling, animation and rendering packages is HighEnd3D. Amongst a wide variety of information, HighEnd3D includes a number of benchmarks results pages for Maya, Chalice and Shake.

However, HighEnd3D's pages are rather graphics-heavy, so this page contains the same performance results in text-only form. Also, the HighEnd3D results pages are split into sections which makes the results somewhat hard to read, eg. dual-PIIs vs. dual-PII/XEONs, etc. By contrast, the format given here is just one complete table for each category, but with full details still given. Thus, each table contains a variety of CPU types and speeds, so make sure you compare like with like when making judgements and that you understand the issues involved, eg. a XEON PII Wintel ought to outperform a non-XEON PII Wintel - if it doesn't, then the latter system must be the better choice. Obviously, I'm saying this because in some cases the non-XEON VW320 outperforms XEON Wintel systems. Me? Biased? Nooo... ;)

Note: there is no mention on the HighEnd3D page as to whether these tests are carried out at the same resolution and settings (colour depth, Z depth, etc.) Please bare this in mind, and remember that some systems offer features which none of the other system even have, eg. Octane can do 48bit RGBA. Also, many tests are only reported to an accuracy of thirds-of-a-second, which is statistically a little odd; as a result, and to give more space for displaying the tables, the results have been rounded or expanded to one decimal place. Because of the stated error margin, this makes no difference with respect to comparing systems.

The result tables have been designed to fit an XGA display, so you may need to widen your browser window. NB: if the tables show anything, it's how completely silly alot of the PC system names are, ie. far too long. :)

Please see the HighEnd3D site for complete descriptions of the various tests, screenshots of the test models, etc. - follow the link(s) above.


Maya Performance Tests

Results are in seconds, ie. lower is better. Error margin: +/- 0.3 seconds. Bold text = fastest result in that column.

Category key:   A:  Dual PIIs with 512MB RAM
                B:  SGI MIPS/IRIX with 512MB RAM
                C:  Dual PII XEONs with 512MB RAM
                D:  PC OpenGL Cards isolated on Core Microsystems PhEnix D420 400

                                                                                Nurbs     Nurbs     Poly
System                                                        Anim      IK       Def       GL       Def     PolyGL

A: 3D Boxx Dual PII/400 (dropped out after round 1):          187.7    394.7     75.0     287.0     73.0     464.0
A: HP Kayak XW PC Workstation fx4 Dual PII/400:               194.5    318.5     69.5     288.5     63.5     463.0
A: IBM Intellistation MPro Intense3D Pro3400 Dual PII/400:    185.0    247.3     83.3     281.0     68.3     471.7
A: Max Vision Symbion Pro 4200 Dual PII/400:                  209.0    421.7     85.3     334.3     86.0     574.0
A: SGI Visual Workstation 320 Dual PII/450:                    88.0    254.3     48.0     308.3     42.0     492.0
B: SGI Octane MXE Dual R10000/250:                            173.0    240.0     64.0     274.0     63.0     412.0
B: SGI O2 R10000/250:                                         485.0    630.0    130.0     793.0    151.0    1125.0
C: Intergraph TDZ2000 GX1 RealiZm II Dual XEON PII/400:       164.3    225.0     65.0     250.0     63.0     437.0
C: Intergraph TDZ2000 GX1 Wildcat 4000 Dual XEON PII/450:     163.0    201.3     55.7     219.0     53.0     366.7
C: IBM Int'station ZPro Intense3D Pro3400 Dual XEON PII/450:  151.3    205.3     57.7     229.3     57.3     393.7
C: Core Microsystems PhEnix X2 Workstation Dual XEON PII/450: 179.3    398.0     67.7     286.3     65.7     432.3
C: HP Kayak XW PC Workstation Visual fx6 Dual XEON PII/450:   183.7    321.7     66.3     231.7     66.0     408.3
D: Evans and Sutherland AccelGMX 2000:                        187.3    381.7     81.3     412.3     81.7     633.7
D: Evans and Sutherland AccelECLIPSE II:                      199.0    379.0    141.0    1392.0    100.0     891.0
D: Evans and Sutherland AccelGALAXY:                          191.0    270.7     92.0     431.7     92.7     654.0
D: 3Dlabs Oxygen GMX:                                         200.0    418.0     80.7     298.0     81.3     474.3
D: 3Dlabs Oxygen RPM:                                         204.7    442.7     89.0     546.3     93.7     772.7


Maya Render Tests

Results are in seconds, ie. lower is better. Error margin: +/- 0.3 seconds. Bold text = fastest result in that column.

Category key:   A:  Dual PIIs with 512MB RAM
                B:  SGI MIPS/IRIX with 512MB RAM
                C:  Dual PII XEONs with 512MB RAM

System                                                       Scene A     Scene B     Scene C     Scene D

A: 3D Boxx Dual PII/400 (dropped out after round 1):          778.0        N/A         N/A         N/A
A: HP Kayak XW PC Workstation fx4 Dual PII/400:               760.0        N/A         N/A         N/A
A: IBM Intellistation MPro Intense3D Pro3400 Dual PII/400:    764.0        N/A         N/A         N/A
A: Max Vision Symbion Pro 4200 Dual PII/400:                  840.0        N/A         N/A         N/A
A: SGI Visual Workstation 320 Dual PII/450:                   697.0       944.7       131.5       339.2
B: SGI Octane MXE Dual R10000/250:                            699.0       864.8       190.2       268.4
B: SGI O2 R10000/250:                                         704.0       870.9       190.2       270.4
C: Intergraph TDZ2000 GX1 RealiZm II Dual XEON PII/400:       758.0        N/A         N/A         N/A
C: Intergraph TDZ2000 GX1 Wildcat 4000 Dual XEON PII/450:     668.0       898.5       126.9       321.7
C: IBM Int'station ZPro Intense3D Pro3400 Dual XEON PII/450:  671.0       899.2       127.2       320.7
C: Core Microsystems PhEnix X2 Workstaion Dual XEON PII/450:  680.0       896.3       127.9       319.8
C: HP Kayak XW PC Workstation Visual fx6 Dual XEON PII/450:   744.0      1011.5       143.4       361.4


Shake Script/Playback Tests (Focus on 2D and I/O Performance)

Script results are in seconds, ie. lower is better, and this time shown to two decimal places. Playback results are in frames-per-second, ie. higher is better (bandwidth equivalent included). Each playback column shows the fps score followed by the bandwidth figure, shown as 'X | Y'. Bold text = fastest result in that column.

Category key:   A:  Dual PIIs with 512MB RAM
                B:  SGI MIPS/IRIX with 512MB RAM
                C:  Dual PII XEONs with 512MB RAM
                D:  PC OpenGL Cards isolated on Core Microsystems PhEnix D420 400

                                                                                        Playback
System                                                        Script     Playback D1     800x600     Playback 1K
                                                             (seconds)    FPS | B/W     FPS | B/W     FPS | B/W

A: SGI Visual Workstation 320 Dual PII/450:                    23.87      191 | 254     143 | 262      90 | 273
B: SGI Octane MXE Dual R10000/250:                             31.98      259 | 260     195 | 268     122 | 278
B: SGI O2 R10000/250:                                          42.42      119 | 160      91 | 167      58 | 177
C: Intergraph TDZ2000 GX1 Wildcat 4000 Dual XEON PII/450:      20.15       89 | 89       66 |  90      40 |  90
C: IBM Int'station ZPro Intense3D Pro3400 Dual XEON PII/450:   21.95       63 | 63       46 |  63      21 |  50
C: Core Microsystems PhEnix X2 Workstaion Dual XEON PII/450:   22.44       86 | 86       63 |  87      38 |  87
C: HP Kayak XW PC Workstation Visual fx6 Dual XEON PII/450:    22.53       30 | 30       22 |  30      13 |  31
D: Evans and Sutherland AccelGALAXY:                            N/A        31 | 41       23 |  41      14 |  41
D: 3Dlabs Oxygen GMX:                                           N/A        86 | 86       63 |  87      38 |  87
D: 3Dlabs Oxygen RPM:                                           N/A        37 | 37        1 |   3       1 |   3


Chalice Tests (2D and I/O test: compositing of 2K elements)

Script results are in minutes and seconds, ie. lower is better.

Category key:   A:  Dual PIIs with 512MB RAM
                B:  SGI MIPS/IRIX with 512MB RAM
                C:  Dual PII XEONs with 512MB RAM

System                                                        Script
                                                             (seconds)

A: SGI Visual Workstation 320 Dual PII/450:                    2:34
A: SGI Visual Workstation 320 Dual PIII/450:                   2:34
B: SGI Octane MXE Dual R10000/250:                             2:04
B: SGI O2 R10000/250:                                          2:33
C: Intergraph TDZ2000 GX1 Wildcat 4000 Dual XEON PII/450:      2:25
C: IBM Int'station ZPro Intense3D Pro3400 Dual XEON PII/450:   2:25
C: Core Microsystems PhEnix X2 Workstaion Dual XEON PII/450:   2:25
C: HP Kayak XW PC Workstation Visual fx6 Dual XEON PII/450:    2:44


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]
[Future Technology Research Index] [SGI Tech/Advice Index] [Nintendo64 Tech Info Index]