The Armari Magnetar V25R-RA750G2 really shows the rejuvenation in AMD's CPU and graphics. Although the Ryzen 7 1800X is pitched in price against Intel's quad-core processors, it actually matches Intel's eight-core offering fairly closely on performance, for half the cost. As a budget workstation option, Ryzen 7 1800X is clearly a brilliant option, and not even much of a budget choice, just a sensible one. Why pay twice as much for not much more performance?
The AMD Radeon Pro Duo isn't quite such an obvious win. NVIDIA's latest Quadros still have the edge when modelling. But this isn't what the Radeon Pro Duo is really for. It's capable enough for modelling, but (like Ryzen 7) it packs a huge amount of grunt for the money, in this case for OpenCL. If you use an application for which a ProRender plugin is available, the rendering performance available makes the choice a no brainer.
All this and we haven't even mentioned the Armari system within which the AMD Ryzen 7 1800X and Radeon Pro Duo arrived. This tiny little box is a highly accomplished piece of engineering too. The fact that you can fit an eight-core processor and dual-GPU graphics inside, plus up to four storage devices, in a box this big, is amazing. Build quality and attention to design detail are exemplary too.
Overall, with a price a little over three grand this still isn't exactly a cheap system. But when you consider how much more you would spend to get similar performance from the Intel / NVIDIA route, it's actually quite wallet-conscious. The AMD options make this a great workstation for the money, and with both Threadripper and Vega just around the corner too, there's even more AMD goodness to come in the near future.
Price: £3,118.80 inc VAT & Delivery (Buy from Armari HERE)
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Pros:
- Amazing CPU rendering for chassis size and price.
- Superb OpenCL / AMD ProRender performance.
- Excellent build quality.
- Tiny, cleverly designed chassis.
- Decent modelling performance.
Cons:
- AMD graphics not quite up to NVIDIA's for pure modelling.
- 32GB limit on system memory.
Kitguru says: The Armari Magnetar V25R-RA-750G2 showcases what AMD's Ryzen 7 1800X and Radeon Pro Duo have to offer. There's great rendering on offer for the money, and amazing performance with AMD ProRender. And all that in a ludicrously small but well designed chassis.
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