World Exclusive Preview of IWill's ZMAXdp - Systems - HEXUS.net

3D Studio MAX 6 and XviD Video Encoding

3D Studio Max v6 bundles a basic SMP-aware scanline renderer, and we combine that with the commercial VRAY renderer plug-in to create a couple of repeatable benchmarks using a HEXUS scene. The tests are entirely system limited, mostly on the CPU. HyperThreading is a win in 3D Studio Max v6 using both renderers, so the Xeons should do well.

3DSMax v6 - VRAY Renderer

The ZMAXdp is some 30% slower in the CPU-bound VRAY benchmark, indicating we're almost completely CPU bound.

3DSMax v6 - Scanline Renderer

Again, the ZMAXdp is some 30% slower in scanline rendering benchmark, indicating we're almost completely CPU bound with that test too. The scanline rendering process is an inherently parallel process, so executing as many render threads as possible is the basic key to good performance, so the Xeon's are comfortable winners here.

Auto Gordian Knot using XviD

This test uses Auto Gordian Knot to create high quality XviD output of a 10 minute chop of the opening from Star Wars Episode 1 DVD. It's multi-threaded, supporting the multiple processors in each test system.

Just over 32% separates the 244-equipped ZMAXdp from the Opteron 250 system, leaving it last in this particular test, just behind the 3400MHz Xeon system. Again, we're scaling nicely with CPU speed in this media encoding test. Fast FPUs are the key here, so we can see why we scale as we do.

Performance Summary

While I wasn't able to run a massive array of tests, the tests I did manage to run show that performance from the ZMAXdp, using nForce3 250 core logic, is pretty much exactly where you'd expect it. The CPUs hold most of the performance cards with Opteron, since the memory controller is resident on the CPU, so the core logic doesn't have to do that much in terms of performance. Strong performance, given the CPUs, an indication that IWill are ready as far as performance goes.