Intel Ghost Canyon NUC9i9QNX Review: NUC 9 Extreme Realizes the SFF Dream
by Ganesh T S on April 16, 2020 8:05 AM ESTGPU Performance for Workstations - SPECviewperf 13
The SPECviewperf benchmark from SPEC provides an idea of the capabilities of the GPU in a workstation from the perspective of different CAD, content creation, and visual data analysis tools. It makes more sense to process these benchmarks on workstations with professional GPUs, but, consumer GPUs are often the choice for machines that need to handle both gaming and professional workloads.
SPECviewperf 13 includes nine different workloads representative of graphics content and behavior of actual applications. They make use of the OpenGL 4.0 and DirectX 12 APIs under Windows. SPECviewperf 13's workloads (termed viewsets) can officially be run only at two desktop resolutions (1920 x 1080, and 3840 x 2160), and need the display scaling to be set to 100% (DPI of 96). The available viewsets are listed below.
- 3ds Max (3dsmax-06)
- CATIA (catia-05)
- Creo (creo-02)
- Energy (energy-02)
- Maya (maya-05)
- Medical (medical-02)
- Showcase (showcase-02)
- Siemens NX (snx-03)
- Solidworks (sw-04)
The 3ds Max and Showcase viewsets are available only when processing at 1920 x 1080. The rest are available at both resolutions.
We processed SPECviewperf 13 at both resolutions on the Intel NUC9i9QNX (Ghost Canyon). The benchmark measures the frame rate at which the GPU renders the scenes in a viewset. Each viewset is composed of different scenes and rendering modes, and the composite score for the viewset is a weighted geometric mean of the FPS measured for the different scenes. In this section, we take a look at how its composite scores stack up against other systems targeting this market segment.
3ds Max (3dsmax-06)
The 3dsmax-06 viewset comprises of 11 different scenes. They have been created from traces of the graphics workload generated by Autodesk 3ds Max 2016 using the default Nitrous DX11 driver. Additional details are available here.
The x16 configuration for the RTX 2070 delivers significantly better results compared to the x8 configuration.
CATIA (catia-05)
The catia-05 viewset comprises of 14 different tests created from traces of the graphics workload generated by the CATIA V6 R2012 application from Dassault Systemes. Additional details are available here.
| SPECviewperf 13: CATIA Viewset Composite Scores | |||
The RTX 2070 in the NUC9i9QNX doesn't emerge as a leader in this workload, but its performance is almost as good as the top candidate in the x16 configuration.
Creo (creo-02)
The creo-02 viewset comprises of 16 different tests created from traces of the graphics workload generated by the Creo 3 and Creo 4 applications from PTC. Additional details are available here.
| SPECviewperf 13: Creo Viewset Composite Scores | |||
The significant difference between the x16 mode and x8 mode continues here, with the former putting the NUC9i9QNX within touching distance of the top performers.
Energy (energy-02)
The energy-02 viewset comprises of 6 different tests based on techniques used by the OpendTect seismic visualization application. Additional details are available here.
| SPECviewperf 13: Energy Viewset Composite Scores | |||
The NUC9i9QNX performs well in this workload, emerging as the top candidate. Strangely, the 1080p configuration seems limited by an unknown factor, with the x8 configuration performing better than the x16. At 4K, however, normal service is resumed.
Maya (maya-05)
The maya-05 viewset comprises of 10 different tests based on traces of the graphics workload generated by Autodesk Maya 2017. Additional details are available here.
| SPECviewperf 13: Maya Viewset Composite Scores | |||
The x16 configuration of the RTX 2070 emerges as the clear topper for the Maya workload.
Medical (medical-02)
The medical-02 viewset comprises of 8 different tests derived from 4 distinct datasets. Each test uses the ImageVis3D volume visualization program's Tuvok rendering core for 2D projections of 3D volumetric grids. Additional details are available here.
| SPECviewperf 13: Medical Viewset Composite Scores | |||
The NUC9i9QNX emerges second in this workload, next to the Core i7-7700HQ / GTX 1080 combination in the Zotac EK71080.
Showcase (showcase-02)
The showcase-02 viewset comprises of 4 tests created from traces of the Autodesk Showcase 2013 application rendering a racecar model with 8 million vertices using different modes. Additional details are available here.
The x16 RTX 2070 configuration is the clear winner in this workload.
Siemens NX (snx-03)
The snx-03 viewset comprises of 10 tests created with traces from the graphics workload generated by the NX 8.0 application from Siemens PLM. Additional details are available here.
| SPECviewperf 13: Siemens NX Viewset Composite Scores | |||
The performance of various systems in this workload is poor (as evident from the SPECworkstation ratings for the corresponding workload). There is not much to separate the various configurations in this workload, as evident from the scores in the graphs above.
Solidworks (sw-04)
The sw-04 viewset comprises of 11 tests created from traces of Dassault Systemes’ SolidWorks 2013 SP1 application. Additional details are available here.
| SPECviewperf 13: Solidworks Viewset Composite Scores | |||
Overall, the RTX 2070 in the NUC9i9QNX delivers excellent performance for GPU-intensive workstation workloads. In all cases, the x16 mode provides much better performance compared to the original x8 configuration of our review sample.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
109 Comments
View All Comments
Deicidium369 - Saturday, April 18, 2020 - link
No, Jimmy it's not made to impress you, I could not care less about what you think. The point is that I am not an Intel fanboy - I prefer Intel AFTER taking the best AMD has to offer in consideration. For that year back when the AMD Athlon 2400XP (pretty sure that was the model) I was sure my next PC would be AMD also - then Core dropped ... and the Sun set on that idea.So when Ryzen released - I put together a 1700 system, It was OK but not great - good for budget builds. The 2700X was very good, few issues, good performance, paired that with a Vega VII - and that was just meh. The 3950 is not bad, but nothing special - I do not have any use for a HEDT system - we migrated from LGA2011v3 to Intel Scalable Xeon for our engineering workstations - although the 2nd socket never got populated - still was the solid choice.
You should try to add something other than being a reflexive little troll - all you do, as does qasar is to call people fanboys - but ALL you add to the conversation is calling other people fanboy - when you 2 are the biggest fanboys I have run into. Kiddies you shouldn't be putting so much of your own self worth into what some corporation is doing - maybe when you get older you will get some perspective - back in my day I fought the Mac vs Atari ST vs Amiga wars, and later the Netscape vs IE wars - so I understand the mentality - but that 30 years ago.
Now run along, Jimmy and clean the basement.
Yeah you mean the guy who could not find the slide that said full scene RT in the cloud? Replied with the Slide that he could not find - and he later PM'd me, And still did not refute a single thing I said. So fight your own battles.
Korguz - Sunday, April 19, 2020 - link
" I am not an Intel fanboy " yea right, your post reek of it, even though you keep saying other wise.and in return, all you do is call people names and insult them cause all you have left, you cant give proof of ANYTHING you say, cause it is all your personal opinion and bias. thats funny, seems a of people refuted what you said, even Johan. what the point of calling me jimmy anyway, does it make you feel better about yourself some how ?
Korguz - Sunday, April 19, 2020 - link
and your " facts " are still BS, thats why you havent replied to that thread, or the one on tom's, cause you have nothing."You should try to add something other than being a reflexive little troll " and so should you, try posting some links or sources to back up what you say. " but ALL you add to the conversation is calling other people fanboy " and all you do is instult people and call them names, point is ?
" Kiddies you shouldn't be putting so much of your own self worth into what some corporation is doing " ha, you should talk. looks like you were refuted on tom's so you came here to spread your BS instead.
Korguz - Sunday, April 19, 2020 - link
johan = jarredOperandi - Friday, April 17, 2020 - link
LOL, and you think this is going to sell?If this thing wasn't over priced at least the vast majority of the work of building a SFC system would be done and that would be small win. Still wildly inferior to what you can do with off the shelf iTX hardware (Intel or AMD, dosn't mater) but it would be something. As it is this a over priced cluster fuck disaster of a design that dose nothing you can't do with off the shelf parts. Good job Intel.
Deicidium369 - Friday, April 17, 2020 - link
I honestly have NO CLUE what the exact use case for this system is - Intel calls it a NUC - I DO NOT consider this to be a NUC system... Again, no clue.Korguz - Friday, April 17, 2020 - link
" work on something that would, you know, sell. " that implies you think this would sell.Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 19, 2020 - link
Jimmy - go clean the basement. You seem to be following me - look bud - I don't care what you are into, I am married and your obvious infatuation is starting to creep me out. Seriously - stay away.Korguz - Sunday, April 19, 2020 - link
of frank, when i am done that, i will help you clean out the garage. cause obviously, you are incapable of thatSpunjji - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
Your posts here are the worst. 🤦♂️