Armari AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X versus Intel Core i9 7980XE – Shootout!

The SPECviewperf 12.1 benchmark is the worldwide standard for measuring graphics performance based on professional applications. The benchmark measures the 3D graphics performance of systems running under the OpenGL and Direct X application programming interfaces. The benchmark’s workloads, called viewsets, represent graphics content and behaviour from actual applications.

The latest version is SPECviewperf 12.1, released on August 24, 2016. SPECgpc members at the time of V12.1 release include AMD, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Intel, Lenovo, NVIDIA, and VMware. SPECviewperf 12.1 features a new Autodesk 3ds Max viewset, Microsoft Windows 10 support, and GUI and reporting improvements.

SPECviewperf 12.1 has been tested and is supported under the 64-bit version of Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows 10. Results from SPECviewperf 12.1 remain comparable to those from V12.0.1 and V12.0.2.

Here we see a very similar story to the Maxon Cinebench R15 OpenGL test for the most part. These results bear out NVIDIA's claims of improved professional application performence for the Titan Xp with the latest drivers. The result in 3dsmax-05 beats the Radeon Vega Frontier Edition by 48 per cent, and the latter is no slouch in this test to begin with. The Titan Xp is 35 per cent faster in catia-04, 45 per cent in creo-01, 40 per cent in maya-04, and a whopping 57 per cent in showcase-01.

However, there are a couple of areas where AMD's graphics has the upper hand. It's 4 per cent faster in energy-01, 5 per cent faster in medical-01, over twice as fast in snx-02, and 1 per cent faster in sw-03. However, SolidWorks is very clock-speed sensitive, so the 4GHz of the Threadripper compared to the 3.8GHz of the Core i9 could be partly the reason for this.

Despite the clear performance advantage, it's worth mentioning that the NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan Xp is not officially certified with any of the professional applications represented by SPECviewperf 12.1, so you would not be able to get any support from the software vendors in the event of encountering any issues.

It should also be pointed out that the AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition beat every other card in our comparison systems, including the previous-generation NVIDIA Quadro M6000 in the Scan 3XS GW-HTX35, and the AMD Radeon Pro Duo in the Armari Magnetar V25R-RA750G2. It's a very capable professional card – it's just that the NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan Xp is quicker still, by some margin in many cases.

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