AEC Magazine January / February 2024 by X3DMEDIA

Building Information Modelling (BIM) technology for Architecture, Engineering and Construction

The shape of BIMs to come We place our bets on the technologies reshaping AEC

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Building Information Modelling (BIM) technology for Architecture, Engineering and Construction

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MANAGING EDITOR GREG CORKE greg@x3dmedia.com

The shape of BIMs to come 14

CONSULTING EDITOR MARTYN DAY martyn@x3dmedia.com

CONSULTING EDITOR STEPHEN HOLMES

Predicting the future may be a mug’s game, but increasingly, it’s one we all must play as we place our bets on the technologies reshaping AEC

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McNeel Rhino 8 boosts concept modelling 6

Architecture portfolio tips: renderings 30

Flexible CAD tool focuses on rectilinear models for conceptual design

Archmark’s Bryon McCartney explores how 3D renderings can be used to your advantage to showcase your work

Revit schema conflicts 12 Revit 2023 to 2024 migration issues force some firms to opt out of current release

Siemens NX AEC 26 Powerful manufacturing CAD tool focuses on AEC, infrastructure and fabrication

Snaptrude in 2024 28 Cloud-BIM is working quickly to compete with more mature software tools

Productising design 34 What role will architects play in an AEC industry increasingly intrigued by design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA) approaches?

Vectorworks Q & A 36 Following the launch of Vectorworks 2024, we caught up with CEO Dr. Biplab Sarkar to talk subscription, concept design, point clouds, sustainability, AI, and more

Workstation special report: Winter 2024

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Features: Power versus performance • How to choose a workstation – from GPU, CPU, memory and storage, to power, warranty, chassis and bottlenecks • Remote / virtual workstations

Reviews: AMD Threadripper 7000 Series, 14th Gen Intel Core, AMD Radeon Pro and Nvidia RTX GPUs, plus the latest desktop workstations from HP, Lenovo, Armari and more

January / February 2024

02/02/2024 08:14

THE FUTURE OF AEC technology

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News

Rhino 8 boosts architectural modelling with push/pull tools

Codesign expands BIM integration odesign, the architectural-focused concept design tool for the iPad, now has BIM integrations for Revit, Forma Archicad and Vectorworks. With these Codesign Connections, architects can take their initial concept designs into the BIM system of their choice and continue developing and evolving their design. Regular release updates will follow. All subscribers to the app can enjoy the BIM integration feature free for one year. Codesign is a creative tool specifically for the conceptual design part of the architectural process. It allows users to sketch freely, envision concepts, and explore possibilities while incorporating downstream data such as areas, massing, sun studies, carbon, context, and material implications.

hino 8, the latest release of the flexible CAD tool from McNeel, is now available. The new version introduces new modelling tools, a speed boost for Mac, PushPull workflows, SubD Creases and better drafting tools. There’s also a more customisable UI, a faster render engine, new Grasshopper data types, and more. Rhino 8 includes several new modelling tools that can help architects create simple rectilinear models for conceptual design. These include PushPull, which appears to work a bit like SketchUp by allowing users to grab a face and push or pull it, extruding or extending, Auto CPlanes, which is designed to make it easier to draw on the face of an object, and Gumball, a new direct modelling tool. Gumball allows users to quickly move, rotate, scale, copy, cut, and extrude

geometry without typing commands or clicking a toolbar button. McNeel says Gumball can be used for concept modelling interior and exterior architectural forms. Rhino 8 has also introduced a number of clipping and sectioning enhancements to help support various drafting and fabrication workflows. ShrinkWrap creates a watertight mesh around open or closed meshes, NURBS geometry, SubD, and point clouds. According to the developers, it is ideal for creating meshes for 3D printing, but has many other use cases. For more complex forms, SubD Creases allows the user to create a feature between a smooth and a sharp edge, without adding complexity to the SubD control net.

aligning three points on each drawing revision, so users can understand the differences between them faster. With Automatic title block recognition, Bluebeam Cloud will be able to ‘instantly extract’ key drawing information from title blocks as metadata that can be used throughout the project. ■ www.bluebeam.com

■ www.converge.io

■ www.rhino3d.com

automate repetitive tasks.

AI features to its AEC Auto Align is designed to reduce the B new collaboration tools: Auto Align tedious, error-prone steps of manually for drawing overlays and comparisons in Revu 21 and automatic title block recognition when importing drawings to Bluebeam Cloud. These latest tools build on existing AI features like visual search, text recognition and batch processing which are designed to increase productivity, augment creative problem-solving, and 6

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AI to help decarbonise concrete onverge has introduced Mix AI, a new tool that uses predictive AI to assist contractors in reducing concrete overdesign and embodied carbon emissions, promoting low-carbon construction practices. Mix AI complements ConcreteDNA, the Londonbased company’s AI-based concrete monitoring and data management platform. It analyses concrete data to offer AI-based forecasts of concrete strength, temperature, and carbon footprint, considering historical and future environmental conditions.

Bluebeam to expand focus on AI luebeam is to introduce two

■ www.getcodesign.co

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News

Dusty Robotics enhances robotic construction layout

Kolega uses AI for site feasibility olega, a site feasibility software that uses genetic algorithms and machine learning models to generate spatial urban layouts and floor plans, is out soon in beta. The software is available standalone or as a Revit add-on. In terms of workflow, the user provides geometrical data, target site parameters and architectural preferences, then the software performs the ‘time-consuming and detailed analysis’ for architects and site developers. Solutions are generated in realtime, calculating sun access, obscuring results, and creating geometrical output. Results are then analysed and presented. The user can then select the preferred design and export geometry, data and reports to continue work on the project and take informed and data-driven decisions.

usty Robotics, a pioneer of automated site layout, has launched its FieldPrint Platform for an automated ‘BIM-tofield’ workflow. The company has also introduced a 2nd gen layout robot, the FieldPrinter 2, which prints drawings at 1:1 scale on the construction site floor. The FieldPrint Platform provides a suite of tools that enable general contractors and trade partners to streamline their BIM-to-

field workflow by supporting the entire process from design to installation and beyond. This includes a Revit plug-in that is designed to automate most of the manual steps needed to prepare robotready drawings. Dusty Robotics’ FieldPrinter 2 is designed to enhance on-site performance and productivity through a new compact design and extended capabilities. ■ www.dustyrobotics.com

Intel Core Ultra processors launch ntel has launched the Intel Core Ultra, its first laptop processor to include a neural processing unit (NPUs) specifically designed for AI acceleration. Intel Core Ultra comprises two product families: the Core Ultra H-Series and Core Ultra U-Series. Both processors are likely to find their way into ultra-portable mobile workstations in 2024. The H-Series features up to sixteen

cores, comprising Performance cores (P-Cores), Efficient cores (E-Cores) and new Low Power Efficient (LPE) cores, for very lightweight tasks. There’s also a built in Intel Arc GPU and an Intel AI Boost NPU, all within a base power of 28W and a max turbo power of 115W. The top end Intel Core Ultra 7 185H processor features 6P, 8E and 2LP cores, and has a max P-Core frequency of 5.1 GHz.

January / February 2024

Transportation boost for Civil 3D

acquisition of Dutch developer BIMlink BV. BIMcollab Twin is described as an open platform that offers model-based document- and asset-management with workflow automation to store, manage and share any building or civil engineering data for all project phases.

joint effort between Autodesk, Infotech, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), and the Montana Department of Transportation has led to improved interoperability between Autodesk Civil 3D and construction contract solution, AASHTOWare Project. The improved interoperability will support digital project delivery from design and documentation to estimation and asset management. Departments of Transportation (DOT) across the United States and Ministries of Transportation in Canada will soon have access to it.

■ www.bimcollab.com

■ www.autodesk.com

■ www.intel.com

BIMcollab launches ‘digital twin’ platform IMcollab, best known for its BIM issue management platform, has launched a ‘digital twin’ solution, BIMcollab Twin. The new offering largely appears to be a reframing of the Common Data Environment (CDE) technology that BIMcollab bought in August 2023 with the

■ www.kolega.space

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Explore Explore the world of Explore Explorethe the theworld world worldof of of engineering engineering and infrastructure engineering engineeringand and andinfrastructure infrastructure infrastructure

with with Autodesk with withAutodesk Autodesk Autodesk Civil Civil 3D country kits Civil Civil3D 3D 3Dcountry country countrykits kits kits

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News

D5 Render 2.6 ships with AI enhancements 5 Render 2.6, the latest release of the AEC-focused real-time ray trace rendering software, includes several new features that harness the power of AI. AI Atmosphere Match acts like an intuitive filter, allowing users to import an image that captures the desired ambiance for their scene. The software will automatically aim to replicate that atmosphere in terms of lighting and effects in the project, either by matching it with D5 Render’s Geo&Sky system or selecting an appropriate HDRI. Meanwhile, for those struggling to find various texture maps for a detailed material, the new AI-generated material texture maps feature automatically generate normal, roughness and height channel maps according to the base colour texture map of a material. For animations, there’s an optimised video editor that supports camera path display and editing. There are also camera movement templates to make animation rendering easier, replicating camera movements like panning, orbit and dolly in and out. D5 Render has expanded its library of 11,000+ assets, adding 267 fresh items, including new HDRIs, characters, and a curated selection of futuristic assets.

Other new features for D5 Render 2.6 include Multimedia Material Transparency, to simulate the semitransparent dynamic glow effect of transparent LED screens and holograms; a UV Randomizer to rotate and blend textures to avoid repetition on surfaces such as water and grass; Local Exposure, a post processing feature to help improve the dynamic range of an image, with a view to making the scene well balanced and more realistic. There are also flowing water materials for animations of waterfalls, and streams, optimised section tools, and a new human point-of-view walk mode.

There’s also improved interoperability. Building on synchronisation with many of the leading CAD/BIM tools – Revit, Rhino, and Archicad – the software now includes D5 LiveSync for 3ds Max, an updated SketchUp D5 LiveSync which supports grouped import; and camera animation sync for 3ds Max and Cinema4D for synchronising selected camera animations. The D5 Community Edition is free while the D5 Pro Edition, which includes unlimited use of the AI capabilities, VR walkthroughs, an expanded library and lots more, starts at $30 per month. ■ www.d5render.com

Veras brings AI visualisation tool to Autodesk Forma eras, the AI-powered visualisation tool for SketchUp, Revit, Rhino and the web, is now available for Autodesk Forma. The software uses 3D model geometry as a ‘substrate for creativity and inspiration’. Users input prompts or preferences, then the AI engine generates a spectrum of design ideas. Users have the ability to override geometry and materials with simple

sliders. Geometry override, for example, specifies the amount the geometry will change from the original model. Other features include render selection which allows users to render specific regions of their designs; and an Explore Mode, which offers pre-made settings and configurations; and seed-based rendering, to help users generate variations of designs. ■ www.evolvelab.io/veras

Allplan launches Allplan Cloud to improve collaboration IM software provider Allplan has announced Allplan Cloud, a BIM collaboration platform to help teams efficiently manage and distribute drawings and plans. Allplan Cloud includes the functionality of Bimplus, the project

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collaboration platform, and former standalone Allplan products such as Allplan Share, Allplan Exchange and Allplan Workgroup Manager. It also includes additional applications such as Autoconverter for exchange with structural analysis solutions.

The first new additions to the portfolio are the Allplan Cloud Viewer, an IFC file visualisation tool, and new Overlay tool for Bimplus that allows users to combine 2D plans or drawings in PDF, JPG and PNG format with a 3D model. ■ www.allplan.com

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29/01/2024 14:58

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News

Schema conflict issues in the migration to Autodesk Revit 2024 force some firms to opt out of current release ith each new release of Revit, the core .RVT file format changes as new features and functionality are added. In this respect, last year’s release of Revit 2024 was no different. Before deploying at scale, a process that involves a one-way conversion of the previous version of .RVT, most firms carry out some due diligence, to verify that introducing the new version won’t cause any issues for current projects. In the upgrade from Revit 2023 to Revit 2024, some firms unfortunately experienced schema conflicts; in other words, errors leading to the corruption of files being upgraded. In these situations, on attempting to load a file, a Schema Conflict dialogue would pop up, giving the user the choice to either not load the file, or to carry on regardless. If the user chose the latter option, the file could be corrupted and model components erased. This could happen in various situations: when opening a project (.RVT); loading a linked model; opening a template (.RTE); or loading a family (. RFA). The problem affected the four previous releases of 2024 (Revit 2024.0 / 2024.0.1 / 2024.0.2 / 2024.1), but was fixed in 2024.1.1, which was released on 6 September 2023. The current version containing the fix for this issue is 24.2.0.63, which is compatible with previous versions 2024.1.1, 2024.2 and 2024.1.1. The notes for the 2024.2 update state: “This update resolves an issue with the extensible storage schema that impacts add-ons and projects upgraded to Revit 2024. Version 2024.2 is compatible with the previous 2024.1.1 update. 2024.2 and 2024.1.1 can be used concurrently for project work.” This implies that thirdparty applications were also impacted by the change. Those firms starting new projects in 2024 and thus not requiring data migration were not impacted and would have been oblivious to the issue, as well as those firms that stipulate a specific version of Revit for the lifespan of a project.

January / February 2024

Looking at developer blogs, in Revit 2024, the RVT schema was upgraded from 32-bit element addresses to 64-bit. This seemingly gave Revit 2024 the ability to corrupt files created in previous versions of the format (see www.tinyurl.com/ coder-Revit). However, even with the problem fixed in the most recent releases, a potential problem still lurks for firms that workshare their projects with multiple participants/firms that are not on synchronised 2024 releases. Some users have seen corruption of RVT files that were stored in Autodesk BIM 360 and Autodesk Construction Cloud, by external users still using older releases of Revit 2024. While practices are typically able to control which versions are used by their own design teams, it’s impossible to guarantee that collaborating firms that need to access or link to RVT files have upgraded to the latest release. In short, this is quite a liability. One user, explaining the problems they had experienced, compared it to dealing with a virus. It’s probably a good reminder to ensure your firm has a robust file backup strategy. In its Revit 2024 update, released in January 2024, Autodesk states: “The 2024.1.1 and 2024.2 updates are

important for work-sharing users. It is essential that all project team members are using these releases of Revit or newer. This prevents the potential reintroduction of the extensible storage schema problem to models worked on in versions of Revit prior to 2024.1.1.” Now that we are over halfway through Autodesk’s Revit 2024 upgrade cycle, the company has told impacted users that it cannot provide a fix for any damage caused by someone using an older release of 2024 to upgrade legacy RVTs. The fear here is that the fix could create a new RVT hard reset, which might be incompatible with RVTs made from previous point releases of 2024, leading to late Revit 2024 becoming incompatible with earlier versions of itself. Customers have been advised that the fix for this issue will come when Revit 2025 is released. And that, of course, will create a new hard reset of RVT for those opting for migrating projects as new releases come out. In the face of such a significant risk, some users that have been impacted by the schema conflict problem on upgrade have told AEC Magazine that they intend to stick with Revit 2023, and limit Revit 2024 to use on new projects. Others say they will bypass Revit 2024 completely and wait for Revit 2025 to reharmonise RVT. ■ www.autodesk.com

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Cover story

BIMs to come Predicting the future may be a mug’s game, but increasingly, it’s one we all must play as we place our bets on the technologies reshaping AEC by Martyn Day

ith a multitude of both established software companies and ambitious start-ups looking to transform how the AEC industry uses data in its projects, how on earth do users plan for what comes next? It’s a topic I’ve spent many hours contemplating and one I’m regularly forced to re-evaluate with every new start-up that comes along. In this article, it’s my intention to dig down a little into the technology trends I feel will have the most significant impacts on the AEC sector, as well as look at some of the development work currently in progress. And along the way, I’ll be channelling my inner Mystic Meg to make some predictions, based on what I see in the market. But first, let me take a step back to around 2015 or 2016, when I was researching an article on AEC tech stacks. This involved me interviewing industry design managers about the challenges they were facing. What came across loud and clear was their general frustration with the lack of innovation in architectural BIM. Revit development was seemingly flatlining, costs were rising and, for many, establishing good practices when it came to BIM and producing clean, structured data felt out of reach. Solid productivity improvement is a www.AECmag.com

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perennial goal for most firms, of course, along with unlocking value from the gigabytes of data they create. Other challenges include eliminating bottlenecks from BIM workflows, keeping an eye on requirements when it comes to hardware/software/skills, thinking of ways to liberate and integrate data caught up in silos, not to mention staying one step ahead of ISO rules, terms and definitions. But at that time, in the mid-2010s, it seemed as if every vendor was channelling the bulk of its R&D budget into building cloud-based systems to deliver PDF drawings to contractors, rather than fleshing out existing design tools and introducing new ones that might help customers tackle their own pressing challenges head-on. Fast-forward to today, and much has changed. We now have a host of new BIM design tools in open development, many of which have attracted venture capital funding and some that are yet to emerge from stealth mode. And almost everything that is emerging is, first and foremost, cloud-based.

Shifting to cloud The shift to the cloud has been all-encompassing. In response to a 2020 open letter from Revit customers, expressing concern over the product’s future roadmap, January / February 2024

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Cover story

Autodesk confirmed that there will be no Autodesk Fusion in 2013. Fusion was the desktop application, in the sense that it can ground-up rewrite of its industry domi- company’s first pure cloud-based applica- wholly run on a local workstation, without nating BIM modeller, along the lines of tion and part of a wider vision to rewrite an Internet component or connection. its current desktop-based incarnation. all Autodesk common and core software In software palaeontology terms, we are Instead, Autodesk CEO Andrew functions as web services that could form undoubtedly in the early ‘cloudicene’ periAnagnost expressed the view that he the basis of new web-based applications. od. If you are creating a new application for didn’t want to “create a faster horse”. The This vision, initially named Forge and commercial launch within the AEC space, future of all the comit’s almost certainly pany’s solutions, he cloud-centric and only insisted, would be available via subscripIn a cloudy future, ‘sending data around’ will be a last tion. “cloud-first”. Since then, the comAt the same time, resort. Design applications will instead ‘come’ to pany has delivered there are still a lot of where the data is stored and be accessed via APIs that legacy applications the first instalment of grant access to perform tasks on permitted data its AEC cloud-based that have yet to be vision, Autodesk replaced or rewritten Forma, aimed at and customers probarchitectural conceptual design. And, since rebranded as Autodesk Platform ably don’t realise this yet. The process of over time, Autodesk’s other desktop apps Services, was a seriously bold long-term shifting 100% to the cloud could take a will be rewritten as cloud-first applica- move — a colossal bet by the company decade for many firms. So is there a tions, with both data and apps residing in that the next platform would be the cloud. chance that we might have a more hybrid Autodesk’s growing cloud infrastructure. Other vendors seem to agree. In the past desktop / cloud future? While all this seems relatively new, the eighteen months or so, I have not seen a It’s an interesting question. In the company was already working towards single new AEC application from any mechanical CAD (MCAD) industry, we this point a few years prior to launching developer that could be construed as a have seen two new cloud-based applica-

‘‘

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Cover story

tions developed and released at great cost with a view to challenging the supremacy of Dassault Systèmes’ desktop Windows-based Solidworks. Both have failed to achieve their muchstated aim of usurping this market-leading product. The first is Onshape, created by Solidworks founder Jon Hirschtick, which was sold to PTC in 2019 for $470 million, thus joining PTC’s stable of desktop applications. The other contender, as previously mentioned, is Autodesk Fusion. This is still in development but continues to play second fiddle to the company’s desktopbased Autodesk Inventor. Maturity has certainly been an issue when it comes to the feature sets of both contenders — especially in an established market full of power users. The flexibility the cloud offers has so far not been sufficiently compelling to beat the depth of functionality inside many desktop products. In my view, MCAD is different to AEC, and it’s perfectly possible that the same problems won’t thwart the ambitions of cloud-based AEC applications in the same way. However, the risk remains that it will take new cloud apps a lot longer than expected to oust desktop BIM tools. Firms such as Graphisoft are rearchitecting their BIM software to run in a hybrid manner, where data and processing runs either online or locally on the desktop. Ultimately, the deciding factor could be a generational shift in AEC, as younger workers join the industry. I, for one, am not happy renting a computer in the sky when I have a perfectly good one in front of me — and one, I might add, that doesn’t levy micro-charges for access and compute. Less King Canute, more King Compute.

Files to databases One knock-on effect of the shift to the cloud is in the way data is structured. File-based workflows have been the way we have worked forever, but they’re susceptible to loss, corruption and duplication. Users create data stored on a local drive, usually in a proprietary CAD file system such as DWG or RVT. These core design files are used to generate hundreds of document files, like PDFs, which also need managing across projects, networks and users. But as data is increasingly kept in the cloud, we need to have our data structured differently. It needs to be ‘streamable’ for lightweight transmission. It needs to be atomised for better dynamic www.AECmag.com

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sharing, providing users with just the data that’s relevant to the task in hand, rather than sending everything plus the kitchen sink across the Internet. BIM files, in particular, can grow large and unwieldy in a short space of time. Project data needs to expand rather than collecting in individual pools, unique to each application’s schema. Data silos are traps that inhibit collaboration. These pools need to become unified data lakes of spatially-related project data. All this is happening. Autodesk and Bentley Systems are both promoting unified database structures. In the case of Autodesk, it’s Autodesk Docs. For Bentley, it’s iTwin. Autodesk’s approach is proprietary and resides in the company’s cloud. Bentley’s iTwin, by contrast, has been made open and is portable. Other BIM software developers, such as Vectorworks, are integrating database connectivity to augment their file-based workflows. Graphisoft takes a unique hybrid approach, where data can be either local or in the cloud. It looks like BIM file formats as we know them will become either merely transactional, or legacy. As Autodesk’s Anagnost has said: “Files are dead things working.” There are some efforts within the industry to create open data frameworks, so that AEC practices can remain in control of their own data without having to rely on, and possibly get trapped by, a commercial cloud platform (see section right on Openness).

API access In a cloudy future, ‘sending data around’ will be a last resort. Design applications will instead ‘come’ to where the data is stored and be accessed via APIs (application programming interfaces) that grant access to perform tasks on permitted data. Historically, a software developer would write a specific application which sat on top of a desktop Revit to access the BIM data. In the future, and in some cases right now, new start-ups are writing applications that reside in the cloud and simply connect to a customer’s data stores to perform tasks. If the data is in a file on a desktop machine, plug-ins extract the data and send it to the cloud for processing. In a cloud-centred process, seamless connectivity between applications is possible. However, one of the issues with cloudbased anything is that it involves somebody else’s computer. There is often a charge associated with hosting data, as well as micro transaction charges for API

calls and data transmissions between cloud servers. In addition to subscription for tools, there will be some kind of token payment system for usage, possibly per API call. Usage will be metered.

Openness We live in exciting times. For the majority of BIM history, the only open standard was IFC (Industry Foundation Classes), which has been seen as a lowest common denominator outcome. In fairness, it has suffered along the way from some poorly executed export interpretations by software vendors. Now it seems as if we are on the cusp of being spoiled for choice, with 3D formats coming out of our ears. USD (Universal Scene Description) has been taken up by key industry players that are working with the Khronos Group (glTF) to harmonise those models with scene formats. There are many emerging metaverse standards for 3D, such as Cesium’s Open Tiles for 3D geospatial content. Data mobility is set to dramatically increase as the barriers to sharing fall. At its Autodesk University (AU) event last year, the company announced a significant interoperability deal with Trimble, Ansys and Nemetschek, which is soon to be officially ratified. Previously, Autodesk had signed up to use the IFC libraries from the Open Design Alliance (ODA) and build out comprehensive file translation web services for its Forma offering. I now believe that Autodesk is very serious about driving openness and interoperability in the AEC space, which may seem counterintuitive when the company has benefited from DWG and RVT lock-in for decades. But it was reassuring to hear Anagnost say at the AU press briefing: “It’s not our data, it’s the customer’s data.” This is significant. This is a ‘Berlin Wall coming down’ moment for the industry — and there’s no David Hasselhoff around to spoil it by singing. All the key software firms agree that data needs to flow between applications and that proprietary approaches work against everyone’s best interest. I hope the promise of this becomes reality.

Ecosystems versus cloud APIs Autodesk has benefitted from generating its own product ecosystems and bundling them up first as Suites, and then Collections. While its apps might not all work together super well, AutoCAD, Navisworks, 3ds Max, Revit, Forma, January / February 2024

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Cover story

Docs, Civil 3D and Recap are all actively in use by customers. By moving to the cloud, embracing openness and championing APIs over files and applications, customers could decide to de-bundle when moving from the desktop and build a tech stack of best-in-class cloud apps and services from multiple vendors, subscribing to only what they need from the Autodesk tech stack. With proprietary file locks looking like a thing of the past, tools and services will be much more fluid than they are today. Firms will need to think more data-centrically, while managing their tech stack of cloud services. With data fluidity, we should become less concerned about being tied to specific point authoring applications.

Artificial intelligence Yes, AI is deeply overhyped. Yes, it’s a marketing checkbox for any software firm that has integrated ChatGPT or midjourney into its product. That said, AI is going to have a long-lasting impact on the AEC industry. Companies such as SWAPP are attempting to use AI to automate processes such as transforming simple sketches into detailed BIM models or slashing drawing production times from months to minutes. AI is already being used in analysis tools and in generative design. Architects are deploying it to write Python and other code, to extract data from files, to heal models, optimise sketching, assess energy performance and to reverseengineer BIM

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objects out of dumb point clouds. Structural engineers are analysing dams, bridges and tunnels, running AI over videos to identify cracks. Companies like Augmenta are wiring up all electrical components in a BIM model. And this is just the start. The fact is that buildings and infrastructure are recipes, they are patterns. Structures obey physical laws and materials have inherent properties. AI design automation is an inevitability, but this is likely to occur in association with human interaction — albeit the interactions of fewer humans than might have previously been needed to complete a project. While there will be generic AIs for building design, the focus for large practices will be the development of their own in-house design AI, trained on past projects and capturing and reusing the knowledge of generations of employees. Footwear firm Adidas has an in-house AI that contains thousands of photos of every trainer [sneaker] the company has ever made. Designers can use the tool to interact and sketch, with the AI suggesting designs with details from previous generations of footwear. In the long term, the more simple the building type, the more the variation on a theme is possible and the easier it will be for AI to become an expert design and engineering system, bypassing current project phases and going straight to 1:1 digital fabrication.

Automation Taking a step back, before we make the whole industry redundant, one of the current hot topics for development is the creation of truly automated drawings. If firms analysed the hours, software and skills required to create documents, they would see that these collectively represent a considerable slice of operational costs. Even if the first generation of this kind of technology could only automate 50% of the documentation production, the savings would be huge.

There are several firms already working to realise this, namely SWAPP, Bentley Systems, Graphisoft and Graebert. The rules these systems work with might be derived from scans of past layouts, or more manually configured by check box. Graebert already has out an early version of an automated drawings production tool, which could be offered as a generic SaaS service or licensed to developers as an in-application component. As a cloud service, you would simply upload models of any origin, get back drawing sets to your specifications, or use automation with APIs to ensure a constant supply of up-to-date drawings derived from specific project BIM models. The problem here for our current BIM tools is that their key output is coordinated drawing sets. If AI can do a much better job of automating more of that work, it makes half the functionality of BIM packages redundant. Modelling could be done in anything: Rhino, SketchUp, Blender BIM. In the future, will we still need monolithic modelling-to-drawing BIM solutions? The race has already started. Those who want to explore automation now can use Speckle’s impressive new Automation capability to reduce timeintensive tasks. Combining Speckle’s connectors that work inside today’s BIM tools with its APIs and SDK, it’s possible to create automated workflows based on key triggers. For example, that might include running an analysis when a design changes and is then uploaded to Speckle or running QA/clash detection. The Speckle team is also playing with applications of AI, and recently demonstrated the ability to use ChatGPT to ‘talk to’ BIM objects in a model.

BIM tools With mature desktop applications such as Revit having their functionality tagged for transition to the cloud, there is a sense of an opportunity for new players to come to market. In other words, they want to act fast, while Autodesk is distracted with managing the shift. But applications are sticky, and users don’t like to see professional knowledge they worked hard to attain getting devalued. Even if there was no new competition, Autodesk’s new cloud-based tools would still face opposition from ingrained, desktop-centric, file-based Revit users. In competition for the BIM market are Snaptrude, Arcol and Qonic, with at least two others in stealth and still to come to market. These cloud-first applications are now some way into their BIM www.AECmag.com

02/02/2024 08:15

Cover story

development journeys. Qonic focuses that combine CPU, GPU and Neural development, to get ahead of the game somewhere in between architecture and Processing Unit (NPU) on a single piece with Fusion in the MCAD space. The construction BIM but offers no built-in of silicon. These will offer incredible fire- question remains, why did it fail? Was it 2D. Snaptrude is intent on mirroring power, with plenty of options to offload that customers weren’t ready for cloudRevit’s core feature set, from concept to processing to a variety of dedicated based applications? Were feature-rich docs. Arcol is very much targeting cores, using less energy than previous desktop applications still more compelSketchUp and early-stage design. All generations. AMD and Intel have the ling? Even when offered at the crazy aspire to replace incumbent BIM players. technology to do this in-house. Nvidia original subscription price of $50 per Autodesk will be fighting a rear-guard has teamed up with ARM. So far it has month and with $10,000-worth of CNC action, adding a small number of new only delivered integrated CPU/GPU machining functionality thrown in, capabilities to Revit over time, while chips for the datacentre, but there are Fusion still didn’t make a dent in the fleshing out its cloud-first Forma offer- rumours of a forthcoming desktop chip Solidworks installed base. ing. That is, unless it decides to acquire that can run Windows. So why will a cloud transition be difagain, as opposed to build. The big question is where will the ferent in AEC? The first thing I’d point The Autodesk AEC group has form majority of the processing take place? out is that the leading player in AEC is here, having acquired Softdesk in 1996 to With software and data looking likely to actively looking to make that technology build AutoCAD Architectural Desktop, go to the cloud, will firms have to pay to transition itself, rather than passively and then buying Charles River Software, rent hardware, maintaining constant allowing itself to be usurped. Autodesk’s better known as Revit Technology connectivity? To date, GPUs in the cloud Forge (APS) platform for cloud software Corporation, in 2002. have been expensive. Cloud might not development has matured and while I think most of us in the industry were always be the right solution, but for AI, Autodesk has been cutting its teeth with surprised to see Snaptrude exhibiting at the hardcore processing must be done Fusion, it has also spent years developAutodesk University 2023. Was this out where the data resides. ing web services like Autodesk BIM 360 of a deep interest in the younger compaand Autodesk Construction Cloud. ny by Autodesk or a reflection of Extended reality Having delivered Forma, Autodesk can Autodesk’s new openness policy? In the Thanks to gaming and meta, virtual real- work on migrating its customers’ BIM past, long-time trusted third-party devel- ity (VR) headsets have become accessible data to the new unified database, ultiopers have been ‘uninmately alleviating Revit vited’ from AU for of the file burden, with introducing one new an intermediate stage of If AI can do a much better job of automating more Revit becoming a much feature which overlaps Autodesk functionality faster thick client. of the work of drawing production, it makes half — so this was an unexAt the same time, the functionality of BIM packages redundant pected appearance. Covid and working When you consider from home forced many these attempts to autofirms to adopt cloud mate the production of entire drawing for any firm, and they offer plenty of infrastructure and they have come to sets, or enable AI to build detail models, immersive benefits for designers. appreciate the benefits as a result. I think it’s clear that the nature of what Headsets like the Varjo XR-4 offer the Products such as Figma, a collaborative we expect a ‘BIM modeller’ to do is set to current state of the art and are used in tool for interface design, have already change radically in the coming years. lots of product and automotive design demonstrated that collaborative workWe need to become less application-cen- houses, but they don’t come cheap. We flows translate well into web-based tools. tric and more data-centric. For now, the are all waiting for a proper look at the The issue is that Autodesk wasted a lot of applications we use, and the formats Apple Vision Pro, which is currently time trying to come up with a cloud reimthey write, dictate the ecosystem we shipping in the US. While again, it’s not aging of its BIM authoring tools (as seen build and which tools and services we cheap, this first-generation headset looks in Projects Quantum and Plasma) and tend to buy. If we are to achieve true to deliver the wide-angle, high-resolution this has created space for new developers openness and fluidity of data, we must mixed reality experience that we have to try and get there first. shed these historical constraints. With been hoping for. Although the app culThis is the first time in twenty years SaaS cloud apps, API integration, open ture has yet to be established, we expect that there have been new BIM modellers data, more application choice, we have to see AEC use cases for the Apple head- coming to market, mainly based on the the potential to craft best-in-class ‘Mr. set within the first few months of 2024. concept of Figma. The stickiness of Revit, Potato Head’ tech stacks. This is the year that extended reality, or its maturity versus the immaturity of the xR, finally starts to deliver. start-ups and good old user inertia will all Hardware play major roles here. But I believe that The rise of AI is also going to impact our Conclusion open formats, user-controlled data framecomputers. Processors in personal work- In computing history, changes of plat- works, AI tools and other web services stations and cloud servers are starting to form, from Unix to DOS, DOS to such as cloud-based automatic documenfeature dedicated AI neural silicon. Windows, have always been moments in tation pose potential existential threats to AMD, Nvidia and Intel have GPUs with which market-leading applications have the historic BIM workflow that Revit has AI-optimised cores. been at their most vulnerable. This is one defined, regardless of whether it resides in There’ll also be a new generation of of the key reasons why Autodesk jumped the cloud or on the desktop. It’s the most Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) with both feet into cloud application interesting time for AEC tools in decades.

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02/02/2024 08:15

ARCHICAD COLLABORATE: ‘SCARY FAST’ DESIGN POWER

Archicad cameos in the new MacBook Pro ad! www.graphisoft.com/uk

AI visualizer and Scary fast ads 210x297 202312.indd 2

2024. 01. 02. 14:05

The shape of BIMs to come the voice of the software industry Altaf Ganihar CEO and founder Snaptrude

IM has always been a promised land that hasn’t arrived. Today, BIM is treated more as a process of delivery than a process of design implementation/execution, and that’s where the true potential of BIM has failed to deliver. We talk about design to construction being a non-linear

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For sustainability studies, one needs data in a certain format (planar representation); for construction, one needs to create and assign submittals, and all these could be derived from the parent source of data and represented with the relevant amount of detail

Tiemen Strobbe Head of product, co-founder Qonic workflow, and traditional BIM tools enforce a more linear approach to execution. With the transition to cloud-based database models, we might see that changing → moving away from static, proprietary, siloed files to interconnected datasets that make it more fluid, accessible, and updatable in real-time. More importantly, this enables collaboration (synchronous as well as asynchronous) with varied degrees of access control, and if presented in a modern, intuitive user experience (UX), we might see design boards in offices to construction sites collaborate on a stream of data residing on a database that is contextually presented to the right stakeholders with the relevant amount of detail. To explain this further, for sustainability studies, one needs data in a certain format (planar representation); for construction, one needs to create and assign submittals, and all these could be derived from the parent source of data and represented with the relevant amount of detail. And, of course, there is AI. Once we start seeing centralised data pools, we will see what modern machine learning algorithms can transpire. ■ www.snaptrude.com

here’s no one-sizefits-all answer to the question ‘What is the shape of BIM to come?’ The answer will most likely include collaboration. BIM technology should be cloud-first to enhance digital collaboration at scale — leading to more streamlined flows of information, higher mobility (in the field), and access through different platforms (browser, mobile, and desktop). Another part of the answer lies in performance. Regardless of the size and complexity of the BIM, users should not have to adapt themselves to the limitations of the technology. The tools of the future should be comfortable working at scale and remain performant to a construction level of detail. It is likely also related to openness. Technology built on open standards to connect with other tools and workflows already used. Also, technology should be available via powerful APIs, so anyone can contribute new

logic, styles, or approaches. A final part of the answer lies in a user-friendly interface. Nowadays tools should be easy and intuitive enough to use to ensure that all project architects, contractors, and field engineers are able to extract maximum benefit from it. These are all valid answers, and we strongly believe that future BIM technology should be collaborative, scalable, fast, open, and accessible for everyone. That said, we consider these characteristics as the minimum requirements for BIM technology to be viable in the market — so called ‘table stakes’. The real differentiator is enabling a model centric approach where the model drives processes, ranging from concept design, up to the delivery of the building, and facilities management. This kind of modelbased workflow requires next-generation modelling technology, enabling the finest detailing of components. Think of tools to automate modelling of real-life building systems (wall assemblies, manufacturable products, etc.) and details & connections (such as sills, insulation stones, roof caps, etc.). This technology will offer enough depth to enable an AEC process “from cradle to grave” – finally making BIM live up to its promises. ■ www.qonic.com

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www.AECmag.com

31/01/2024 16:54

It wouldn’t be fair if only we gave our predictions for the future of BIM, so we asked some leading startups to share their thoughts too

Richard Harpham Co-founder Skema

oughly 20 years ago in an internal Autodesk meeting, I was presenting a concept for how we would serve a design, construction and operations BIM environment, where the visual ‘model’ entity and context would be handled in a similar way to a web page. We would design in a spatial context, with real-world physics, attached to all the necessary meta-data without the need for single monolithic files to contain all the BIM data. Basically, we would develop a structured spatial protocol, leveraging the internet, that could operate with HTML like communication standards. Then the Web would transcend text and imagebased limitations to become a true context driven decision environment. For me, this has always seemed an inevitability, not a possibility. Now, after the last two or three decades of file-based BIM design solutions, the first sign of an immersive spatial web environment is starting to emerge as HSTP. HSTP is the next logical step in application-level protocols for objects and activities in spaces. With HSTP, we might www.AECmag.com

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serve a web of connected spaces, with spatial domains securely managing access to immersive and temporal context. Some are calling this Web 3.0, some call it the ‘metaverse’. First movers, Meta, Magic-leap and Apple are already investing billions in these ideas. Apple’s $3,500 spatial headset with few apps seems nuts right now, but so did a $500 iphone with no keyboard in 2007. In AEC, we already coined a term for spatial assets called Digital Twins, but this has become a clumsy description for a not yet fully worked out concept. For many, Digital Twin has been seen as a deliverable that emerges from the lifecycle of delivering a built asset that can then be used for efficient operations. But if a Spatial Web 3.0 becomes a reality, then a Digital Twin is no longer a deliverable, it is a real-time reflection of every moment during the building process. More a Digital Mirror, than a Digital Twin. The amount of contextual decision data this would provide would be staggering and probably far too much for an individual to view and parse, which is where AI comes in. An integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) leveraging ‘Games-Theory-Physics’ with Spatial-Temporal Resolution (HSTP) capabilities could offer architects unprecedented tools and insights for conceiving, developing, and managing architectural projects. AI algorithms, coupled with HSTP spatial data, could process vast amounts of

information in real-time, so architects utilising next-gen BIM software could gain deeper insights into site conditions, environmental factors, and user behaviour. This facilitates more informed decision-making during the design phase, optimising building placement, orientation, and overall sustainability. For example, a timber beam placed in a design would know it obeys real-world rules such as mass, inertia, bending moments, lifeexpectancy and relative impact on cost and carbon, and the AI would constantly assess/ offer the optimum solution/ alternatives to the designer. Maybe most importantly, the dynamic nature of HSTP spatial AI introduces the temporal dimension to BIM design, allowing architects to analyse how spaces evolve over time. This temporal understanding enables architects to create designs that not only respond to current conditions but also adapt to changing requirements. BIM models might simulate and visualise how buildings will perform under various scenarios, providing architects with a comprehensive understanding of the long-term implications of their designs. Couple this with the already emerging capabilities of AI BIM solutions to remove the repetitive tasks of modelling and document creation, such as from my current company, Skema Inc., then architects will be able to focus on the more creative and complex aspects of design. This not

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A timber beam placed in a design would know it obeys real-world rules such as mass, inertia, bending moments, lifeexpectancy and relative impact on cost and carbon, and the AI would constantly assess/offer the optimum solution/ alternatives to the designer

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only increases efficiency but also reduces the likelihood of errors, leading to higherquality designs. One of my favorite movies is The Fifth Element, which suggests that after fire, water, wind and air, a transcendent Fifth element from medieval science called æther fills the universe beyond the terrestrial sphere. Maybe the integration of AI with HSTP into BIM software could exemplify an æther for architects to redefine the practice of architecture, with BIM 3.0 solutions that create more intelligent, adaptive, and sustainable built environments. ■ www.skema.ai

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Sponsored content

the full universe of technology and data you use. Outcome-based BIM is not a replacement for model-based BIM; it complements it. That’s why we are building Forma to be open and extensible, with our Forma API already fueling interoperability between Forma and Rhino and Forma and Revit. We’re also working with leading AEC software brands like Trimble and Nemetschek to explore ways to improve collaboration, information sharing, and efficiency across Autodesk solutions. We’re embracing openness because it offers so many advantages. You can customise the workflows you need for your business. You can make the most of every piece of data you create– no matter where it originates–by making it accessible to the team members who will benefit from it–no matter what tools they use. This single source of truth can use data to carry learnings from one school, bridge, or tunnel to the next. Having an open platform also means we can connect our existing tools, like Revit, and new tools like Autodesk Workshop XR and Autodesk Tandem to expand the ecosystem from design to build through ownership. Autodesk Workshop XR is a new immersive design review workspace that connects directly to Autodesk Docs so you can load models with no prep, enabling teams to track and resolve issues and catch errors before they make it to construction. Workshop XR’s breakthrough capabilities enable your teams to review 3D models and data together in a real-time extended reality experience. Whether you’re in the dynamic virtual workshop or a BIM model, you can collaborate at 1:1 scale to see how design decisions will translate to human feel in the built environment. For owners and facility managers, we will soon integrate bi-directional connections into Autodesk Tandem, our digital twin solution. We’re calling this future capability Tandem Connect. With Tandem Connect, you can easily create integrations, even if you don’t know how to code, because there’s a rich library of plug-ins for existing systems. Once connected, you can quickly identify problematic building components and run simulations of potential solutions. Imagine being able to run your project reviews within a full immersive experience bringing together the real-world context data with your project. Or creating a digital twin of a metro station that uses

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IoT data to send maintenance alerts. These kinds of capabilities are only possible when data is free from files and broken down into logical granular elements. We live in a complex world that requires nuanced solutions. At Autodesk, we’re drawing on our 40 years of experience working with you to reimagine how you plan, design, build, and operate buildings and infrastructure. And we’re challenging our peers to work in new ways, too, through an open ecosystem and partnerships that put you—our customers— at the centre. We’ll only succeed by joining our expertise with your years of experience delivering projects, creating designs, and solving problems. We’ll lead the way with data and AI. And we invite everyone to come along with us, as we enable innovators everywhere to design and make a better world for all.

(Above) Autodesk Forma will provide a centralised workspace to connect all teams that design, build and operate the built environment.

(Below) The process of physical and digital automation for The Phoenix will result in a set of buildings that are both efficient and loved by residents. (Bottom) In Autodesk Workshop XR, users can review their 3D models together at a 1:1 scale to understand how their project will translate to the real world.

29/01/2024 14:55

Software

Siemens NX AEC Siemens continues to flesh out AEC features for its flagship NX modelling tool. Building on its foundation in product design and manufacturing, the company is now identifying key use cases in infrastructure and fabrication, writes Martyn Day

oftware vendors more typically building BIM concepts and features into the AEC space. NX is a highly flexible associated with the world of NX that, over time, could make it a real solid modelling tool, capable of handling product design and manufactur- contender as an infrastructure platform. very large data sets, both in terms of ing are increasingly eyeing up This is not to say that Siemens is on a complexity and detail. It offers capabilithe AEC sector — and with good reason. journey to create a Revit rival. So far, its ties in areas such as CNC, piping, weldExperiments in factory fabrication of development team in this area remains ing, steel structures, P&ID, human ergobuilding components mean that the gap small. But I do get the definite feeling that nomics, VR and fly-throughs, as well as between architecture and manufacturing the company is sounding out the market - complex analytics. is shrinking all the time. However, the and if sufficient demand is identified, or a By adding a BIM module to NX, AEC software tools most commonly in promising technology emerges from its Siemens is just extending this already use today simply can’t match their man- R&D work, Siemens certainly has the wide-ranging product even further, taiufacturing counterparts when it comes to deep pockets to develop or acquire any loring the file system to understand and raw modelling capabilities and rich fab- technology it might need to take on more support BIM schemas and component rication features. of a ‘market challenger’ role. logic, terrain maps, AEC drawing standTake, for example, Dassault Systèmes ards, and in its December 2023 release, and Siemens, developers of Catia and Testing the market reinforced concrete design. NX, respectively. Their products are con- Behind the scenes at Siemens, developers AEC Magazine recently got the chance sidered the Ferrari and Lamborghini of have been analysing AEC workflows, to talk with the team behind these the CAD design enhancements and world, so it’s no surget their take on the prise that these AEC market. As Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this release is the mentioned, one of companies have been keenly watchtheir key takeaways evident potential for JT in data flows. It really is an ing the AEC indusexcellent wrapper for complex geometry and large files, has been the sheer try grapple with number of tools problems that they although it could arguably be better tailored for BIM use required in this solved years ago for market to get work clients in complex done, not to mention manufacturing sectors such as aerospace software, licensing and lifecycles. The the copious data flows between applicaand automotive. company recognises that the software tions that can come with significant interDassault Systèmes, in particular, first tools that architects use today are poorly operability issues. As a result, this is signalled its intent to get involved in suited for construction, having primarily something they are looking to address. AEC over a decade ago. Today, it offers been designed for documentation and NX Render is a case in point. Siemens 2D drafting tools (Draftsight), some BIM drawings. Not only that, but it views the has carried out extensive testing to see capabilities (in Catia Building Designer), high number of tools that are needed to how well the materials and ray tracing along with solutions for building fabrica- support a typical AEC project as being rendering quality can be used to deliver tion and generative design. rather wasteful. 3ds Max-quality images. NX ships with Siemens, by contrast, is a relative lateBy direct comparison, complex prod- over 1,000 materials, and the team has comer, but has had a division for some ucts such as cars and aeroplanes are pri- been looking to expand this total to supyears now that works alongside Bentley marily designed and then fabricated port the various AEC focus areas it is Systems in addressing factory design. using one CAD system (with the excep- looking to address. NX Immersive And, over the last two years, the company tion, perhaps, of aspects of their concep- Explorer takes this further and can be has established a small team that focuses tual phases). In short, the mess of design used to deliver VR experiences that share specifically on augmenting its core model- data and tools that tends to pile up in the same materials library. ling product Siemens NX with AEC fea- AEC at the general contractor and supSiemens already has on its customer roll tures. These features are primarily plier level would never be tolerated in call many companies that design and fabintended for companies that are already many manufacturing sectors. ricate infrastructure, such as concrete NX customers and would prefer to do all At the same time, Siemens NX is bridges, for example. They typically use their modelling in that package. At the already used in the manufacturing world NX to design such structures, but when it same time, this team is also working on to do many things which are replicated in comes to the rebar detailing, they’re forced

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31/01/2024 16:24

(Above) Siemens NX now has a focus on rebar and precast elements for construction (Below) Siemens NX can be used to estimate material quantities of paint, carpet, varnish or epoxy

to export work out to Tekla, and then export out of Tekla to feed the manufacturing process. With this in mind, Siemens has built an associative design feature, which is highly configurable to support zones, different spacing options, alignment, angles and hook options. Siemens sees great potential for this functionality when applied to modular construction. NX is already certified for IFC 2x3 import and export, a process that required a lot of testing and involved a steep learning curve when it came to supporting IFC capabilities, but which taught the team a great deal.

JT’s time to shine Elsewhere in the sprawling Siemens empire is a real estate arm, which goes by the unsurprising name of Siemens Real Estate, or SRE. This part of the business is responsible for running and maintaining the company’s own buildings and factories and has historically been a Revit user, despite calls from the shop floor to move to NX. An attempt to migrate between the two systems got messy, so a Revit-to-JT translator was built. For those who don’t know, JT is a super powerful engineering equivalent of the PDF file format and an ISO standard. While PDF remains document-centric (notwithstanding its failed shift in the direction of 3D capabilities), JT is all about 3D models. More importantly, it enables NX designs to be stored in an open, lightweight file that supports multiple resolutions. For example, it can hold little more than facet data, or it can be far richer, holding associations to original CAD information, assemblies, metadata and PMI. In other words, it can be rich enough to provide production facilities with everything they need to start manufacturing. Basically, this means that a design in Revit can be saved as a JT file, and then saved as an NX part file, and subsequently edited in NX. It was this thinking that led the development team at Siemens to settle on JT as an ‘NX glue’ in multi-CAD www.AECmag.com

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BIM workflows. For example, Siemens’ own PLM solution Teamcenter uses JT as the 3D visualisation format when handling data from Catia, Solidworks or Inventor in high-end engineering organisations, so the concept is certainly industry tried-and-tested. (For more on this see www.tinyurl.com/Siemens-JT). Another target for the team was rather an unusual one. Its members wanted to demonstrate the ability to apply coatings to BIM geometry to estimate material quantities when it came to the paint, carpet, varnish or epoxy applied to areas of a model. Storing information on thickness, volume, area and so on enables room-byroom costings for materials, made easily available in a spreadsheet and a boon for quality assurance. When it comes to the cloud, meanwhile, Siemens is the last of the major MCAD developers to embrace this platform. However, NX X is the new cloudbased version of Siemens’ flagship app, making it easier for newcomers to deploy NX via an off-premise cloud subscription (although it can also be run behind a firm’s own firewall, if required). Siemens is currently working on a whole new suite of apps that will be connected to this cloud platform.

Concrete progress Obviously, the major AEC-relevant addition in the December 2023 release of Siemens NX is the work on rebar and the focus on precast elements for construction. These efforts will put Siemens in a good position, if it continues to covet a place at the modular, offsite fabrication table. The fact that it already handles steel, piping and electrical is another major point in its favour. But perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this release is the evident potential for JT in data flows. It really is an excellent wrapper for complex geometry and large files, although it could arguably be better tailored for BIM use. While the AEC world is excited about USD right now, JT was designed back in 2007 for sharing accurate complex solids and NURBSbased engineering data and docs at various levels of detail. As discussed, JT can support assembly/ part/instance, facets, lighting, textures, precise topology, B-rep, PMI, 3D annotations and properties. In many ways, it’s a mature engineering equivalent of USD. What’s more, it’s open. All this makes it extremely likely that Siemens could do something very interesting with JT in AEC and fabrication. ■ www.tinyurl.com/NX-BIM

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Snaptrude in 2024 Cloud-BIM start-up Snaptrude has so far raised $21.8 million in VC funding, enough to last six years of development. Unexpectedly allowed to exhibit at Autodesk University in Las Vegas in late 2023, the company is working quickly to compete with more mature software tools, writes Martyn Day

t seems like yesterday that Snaptrude CEO Altaf Ganihar was demonstrating a sketchy proof of concept parametric modelling tool for rectangles with no identifiable interface. Roll forward three years, and Snaptrude is now one of the most highly funded start-ups in AEC, with VCs and leading BIM developers vying to invest in each funding round. Snaptrude is a cloud-based BIM tool, covering conceptual design, detail design and 2D documentation. Since the software follows the ‘Figma’ concept, real-time collaboration on common data is built in at the core. The focus was initially on supporting import and export of RVT/Revit formats, but this has since expanded to encompass SketchUp, Rhino and PDFs. Because the RVT format is constantly changing, Snaptrude has had to handle each change with each yearly release. While Revit versions are not back28

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wards-compatible, forever up-grading old RVTs forward, Snaptrude can be used to read in the latest RVT and then save back to a previous release. This alone might be worth the $499 charge for an annual licence. Cloud software doesn’t really have ‘versions’ since it’s constantly being developed and updated. But throughout the year, there are typically key points in development where it’s worth summarising the features and capabilities that have been added. In the past, Snaptrude’s developers were painting with a broad brush, trying to introduce at least a little new functionality across all applications. This has come at the cost of feature depth. With growing traction, however, the development focus has changed and is now directed at fleshing out tools that are used in the most frequent user workflows. This means Snaptrude continually becomes better at completing com-

monly carried out tasks. As with all these new BIM tools, it will take years of development to achieve a feature-by-feature replication of a mature product such as Revit. For now, Snaptrude serves as an RVT-based addon, best used for performing the tasks it does better, such as conceptual modelling, handling large models and collaborative group work. Up until last winter, the company encouraged downloads of the application by providing them with no need for contact. Changing this to asking users to request a demo has helped the company better understand who is downloading, what they hope to achieve and what kind of features they seek. The Snaptrude team now runs regular monthly web sessions where its members walk users through new features and capabilities. Developing cool software alone is not going to cut it. It’s now about engagement and building a community. www.AECmag.com

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Software Key new features

vidual users. Libraries can be used to Conclusion The Snaptrude team is not only introduc- manage expenses, product or material Until Snaptrude can replace desktop BIM ing fresh functionality, but also reviewing specifications and vendor information, so seats, there will always be doubts about and refining existing capabilities. In terms that users achieve a ‘single version of the whether new cloud BIM tools will make a of sketching and detailed design, it has truth’. These properties can be tailored to serious impact on the vast installed base completely re-vamped the BIM object specific needs, ensuring they are accessi- these products currently occupy. classification system. From the draw tab, ble worldwide for automated bill of quanAs it is, development of Snaptrude conline and arc tools can now be used to draw tities (BOQ) calculations. tinues at an impressive pace and the team spaces, walls, slabs, beams, floors and has plenty of runway to build up equivaceilings. Object types can be generated Coming soon lent functionality. The new focus on using centreline, internal and external ref- Snaptrude uses the Graebert DWG workflows is enabling more joined-up erence lines, with a preview available dur- engine to generate drawings, based on its development, as groups of related feaing the drawing process. Users can now Ares Commander technology. While it’s tures get further refined. By combining modify BIM properties before automating experimental for now, Graebert is also that with a new approach to customer the creation of buildings, resulting in a developing an automated drawing capa- outreach and engagement, the developmore efficient workflow. The new arc tool bility, which is a script-based approach to ment team is better positioned to respond offers impressive smart guides and snaps creating floor plans, sections and eleva- to the needs and wants of those testing and takes a novel approach to handling tions, including automatic dimensioning, the software or buying licences. parallel offsets, adjusting the curvature of labelling, material mapper and more. Forthcoming support for Rhino is a subsequent arcs. While there is some way to go in its great addition, fuelled by customer There’s also a new plug-in for Revit, implementation in Snaptrude, demon- requests, and tells us that there are some which supports export for Snaptrude strations are very promising. high-end users exploring Snaptrude. After models to Revit between 60 and 100 Another feature coming to Snaptrude all, Rhino BIM workflows are essential for times faster than was high-end, geometrypreviously possible. first practices. Snaptrude’s parametIf you are looking for ric capabilities have like-for-like, drawings Development of Snaptrude continues at an come in for some love are still an essential impressive pace and the team has plenty of runway part of a BIM tool. and can be seen in a new parametric wall Here, Snaptrude is to build up equivalent functionality type, the all-essential fleshing out its use of curtain wall. This can Graebert’s technology. be generated complete The new automated with mullions, transoms and glazing. soon is support for importing Rhino mod- drawings capability is still some way off, Object properties can be edited to alter els. This suggests that, in future, but could prove a unique selling point, wall height, or to generate different panel Snaptrude could perhaps automatically given none of the other emerging BIM widths and element sizing. create DWGs from Rhino models, or have tools have bothered to include documenStaircases have been revamped and can them mixed with BIM elements and then tation engines yet. If this technology can be designed or modified by utilising their exported to Revit. be made to work reliably and demonstraparametric characteristics. The software There’s also a CSV import capability for bly saves firms time, it could also be now includes built-in options for various area requirements, from which another differentiator for Snaptrude. types of staircases, such as open well Snaptrude can create all the masses in ■ www.snaptrude.com staircases, mezzanine staircases, amphi- one go, aiding early-stage design. This, theatres and plinth-level steps. too, came about in direct response to a At a larger scale, ‘spaces’ can be desig- customer request. nated with attributes such as function, type, height, material and label. Buildings, on the other hand, can be assigned typology, total height and number of storeys. When creating walls, a 2D curve or 3D profile can be used along with wall type, thickness and/or material. For fast interior layouts and design, furniture can be aligned and arranged with a single click, as well as rotated using the spacebar. To replace a piece of furniture, simply click on it and you get the option to replace it with similar choices from the library. Additionally on the library front, the concept of the team library has been introduced, spanning projects and indi-

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Feature

Architecture portfolio tips Bryon McCartney, CEO & co-founder of Archmark explores how 3D renderings can be used to your advantage to showcase your work

t would be much easier to win future clients over if they could experience your design work in person. But, as a professional architect, this is rarely possible. Your architecture portfolio needs to capture your prospects’ attention and help them understand how you can help them. Some architects may be hesitant about using 3D renders in their architectural portfolio. They may feel that professional photographic images of built projects are more compelling to potential clients. But sometimes, it’s not possible to photograph your projects for your architect portfolio. As a result, in many cases, this means excluding important projects and details of your design solutions. Fortunately, 3D rendering tools like Enscape make it easy to showcase your work when photography is not available or practical. This article will highlight when and how you can (and should) use 3D renderings in your digital portfolio.You’ll discover expert tips to elevate your architectural portfolio and showcase your expertise and design skills while leaving a great impression on prospective clients.

Why are some architects hesitant to use 3D renderings in their portfolios? Archmark has extensive experience advising hundreds of architecture firms about their online portfolios. One question we frequently address is whether architects should incorporate 3D renderings into their websites. The simple answer is yes, especially if the renderings are of the quality that can be achieved using tools like Enscape. But some architects are still hesitant to use renderings, and many believe that it’s better to exclude a project if professional photography is not available. There are several reasons for this: • 30

Client perception and expectation: Some architects, and clients, feel that January / February 2024

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photographs of built projects are more authentic and real, as they represent the final, tangible result of their work. Renderings, on the other hand, may be perceived as representations of ideas or concepts which have not yet been realised. Quality concerns: While technology has advanced significantly, not all renderings are of high quality. Poorly-executed renderings can detract from the overall impression of an architecture portfolio. Personal preference: Portfolio curation is a subjective process, and individual architects may have different preferences or beliefs about what best represents their work and style. Tradition: The architecture field has a long history of using photography to document and showcase completed work. Some architects certainly prefer this traditional method over newer technologies like rendering.

However, it’s important to note that these hesitations do not negate the value that renderings can bring to an architecture portfolio. When used alongside professional photography, renderings can provide a more comprehensive view of an architect’s skills and vision. They can showcase projects that are still in progress or haven’t been built yet, and they can illustrate design concepts in ways that photographs cannot.

How 3D renderings are better than traditional photography While photographs of finished projects are essential in an architecture portfolio, 3D renderings offer several unique advantages that can enhance the way architectural designs are showcased. Visualising unbuilt projects Renderings allow architects to showcase designs for projects that are still in progress or haven’t been built yet. This can be particularly useful for architects who

are early in their careers or for firms that handle large projects with long construction timelines. Showing different perspectives With 3D renderings, architects can create views from any angle, including perspectives that might be impossible to capture with a camera. This allows them to highlight specific design elements or show a building in relation to its environment. Illustrating complicated design concepts Renderings can be used to illustrate design concepts and ideas that are difficult to convey through photographs. Architects can utilise renderings to demonstrate the captivating interplay between natural light and a space as it evolves throughout the day. Furthermore, these renderings can effectively communicate the dynamic relationship between a building’s design and its surroundings, exemplifying how the structure adapts to the varying conditions of each season. Creating ideal conditions Unlike photographs, which are subject to real-world conditions like weather and lighting, renderings can depict a project under ideal conditions. Architects can control every aspect of the scene, from the lighting and weather to the landscaping and surrounding environment. www.AECmag.com

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Communicating technical details 3D renderings can also be used to communicate technical details and construction methods. For example, architects can create exploded views or cutaways to show how different parts of a building come together. Customisability Renderings are highly customisable. Architects can easily make changes to the design, materials, or colour scheme, allowing them to test different design options or tailor the visuals to a specific audience. Interactivity Some rendering software allows for the creation of interactive 3D models that clients can explore on their own. This can provide a more engaging and immersive experience than static photographs. While photographs provide a valuable record of finished projects, 3D renderings offer a versatile tool for visual communication, allowing architects to showcase their designs in ways that photographs can’t. The best architecture portfolios often include a mix of both.

Five guidelines for crafting an effective architecture portfolio Creating effective architecture portfolios involves more than just gathering images www.AECmag.com

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of your work. Here are five guidelines to help you craft a portfolio that stands out:

Guideline 4: Keep it concise While it’s essential to showcase your best work, it’s equally important to keep your architecture portfolio concise. Avoid overwhelming prospective clients with too much information. Be very selective; if they want to see more of a particular project, they will ask.

Enscape rendering: Residential property with exterior vegetation

Guideline 1: Define your target audience The first step to crafting an effective architecture portfolio is to identify your target audience. Who are you trying to appeal to? What are their needs, preferences, and expectations? Once you have a clear understanding of your target audi- Guideline 5: Think digital first ence, you can tailor your portfolio website It’s crucial to have an online presence. to suit their interests. Your website and social media profiles will often be your future client’s first introducGuideline 2: Curate your work tion to your work. Ensure that your archiInclude only your very best work and tecture portfolio is available online, easy to most relevant projects. You may think it’s access, and mobile-friendly. best to demonstrate a wide range of projects to showcase your skills, expertise, What is the purpose of and professional experience, however cli- your architectural portfolio? ents are more likely to hire you if they see A top way to curate an effective portfolio that you have specific experience working website is by understanding the purpose on projects similar to theirs. of your portfolio. When you understand the “why” of the architecture portfolio, Guideline 3: Showcase you can create a portfolio that speaks to your design methodology that “why” with every project. It’s not enough to simply showcase your The primary purpose of an architecture past projects. Clients want to know how portfolio is to help you attract and win you approach your work, your thought ideal clients and projects. process, and your problem-solving abiliIn an ideal world, everyone would be ties. Including sketches, diagrams, tech- able to experience your architectural nical drawings, renderings, and research design style in person, but that is not often notes can give clients a better under- practical or even possible. That’s where standing of how you work. your portfolio can rise to the challenge. January / February 2024

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Feature

An architecture portfolio plays a crucial role in attracting and acquiring clients in several ways: •

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By creating a compelling and comprehensive architecture portfolio online, you can effectively attract and acquire clients who appreciate and seek your specific skills and design approach. Your portfolio can represent the breadth and depth of your work and provide a glimpse into your design process and methodology. It plays a crucial role in communicating your capabilities as an architect and can be the difference between landing your dream project or losing it to a competitor.

Showcases your work: The most direct function of your portfolio is to showcase your best projects, and provide a visual representation of your capabilities. This allows prospective clients to see what you can do and demonstrates the breadth and depth of your skills and experience. Communicates your design philosophy: Your architecture portfolio is a reflection of your design philos- Specific recommendations ophy and approach. Through the for architecture portfolio images design projects you choose to include Creating a compelling visual narrative and the way you present them, you can for your architecture portfolio involves communicate your unique perspective more than just selecting your best archiand style. This can help attract clients tectural work. It’s also about presenting who align with your approach. your projects in a way that’s visually Demonstrates your problem-solving appealing and easy to understand. skills: Architecture is about solving Here are some specific recommendaproblems using your design skills. By tions for choosing and preparing images including sketches, diagrams, techni- for your portfolio website: cal drawings, and notes that show your thought process, you can dem- When choosing portfolio images onstrate your problem-solving skills. • Choose variety over repetition: Builds trust: A well-crafted architecInclude a variety of images to show ture portfolio can help build trust with different aspects of your projects. prospects. It shows that you have the Avoid using repetitive images that experience and skills to deliver on show slightly different angles of the their project. Including testimonials, same view. Consider the various clients’ quotes, or case studies can furways magazine articles explore archither enhance this trust. tectural visuals. They include a varieDifferentiates you from competity of wide-angle shots, close-ups of tors: Your architecture portfolio is details, and images showing the prounique to you. It difject in context. ferentiates you from • Keep it relevant: other architects and Choose images that are 3D renders are can help you stand relevant to the work you out in a competitive want to attract. If you not a sign of market. By showcasto do more residenincomplete work; want ing your unique tial projects, for example, they’re a strengths and specialmake sure your online testament to your portfolio includes plenty ties, you can attract clients who are lookof images from your resicreativity and ing for what you offer. dential work. technical skills Facilitates client • Choose high-quality engagement: An images: Only include architecture portfolio high-quality images. website can also serve as a conversaBlurry or pixelated images can give a tion starter with potential clients. It poor impression and sow doubt about can spark discussions about specific your capabilities. projects, your design process, or • Tell the story: Choose images that potential ideas for future and similar tell a story about your project. This projects. could include before-and-after shots, Acts as a marketing tool: In the digiimages showing the construction protal age, an online portfolio can act as a cess, or diagrammatic images that powerful marketing tool. It can be explain your design concept. shared on social media, featured in newsletters, or used in other marketWhen preparing portfolio images ing efforts to attract prospects. • Choose ideal image dimensions: The

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size of your images can affect both the visual impact of your online portfolio and the load time of your website. As a general rule, the width of an image should be around 1,500-1,800 pixels for full-width images on a website. However, the ideal image size can vary depending on the layout and design of your website. Select high image resolution: The resolution of your architecture portfolio images should be high enough to look crisp and clear on all devices. A resolution of 72 dpi (dots per inch) is standard for web images. However, if you also plan to create a physical portfolio, you’ll need higher-resolution images (300 dpi). Pick the right file type: JPEG is the most commonly used file type for portfolio website images because it provides good quality with relatively small file sizes. However, if your images include text or sharp lines, PNG might be a better choice because it can provide clearer lines and text. Compress your image: To help your website load faster, it’s a good idea to compress your images before uploading them to your digital portfolio. There are many free online tools that can do this without noticeably affecting the quality of your images. Include alt text: Don’t forget to add alt text to your images. This is a brief description of the image that can be read by search engines and screen readers, helping to improve your website’s SEO and accessibility.

Remember, your architecture portfolio is often the first impression prospects get of your work, so it’s worth taking the time to choose and prepare your images carefully.

Five common mistakes architects make with their portfolios Even experienced architects can make mistakes when creating an online portfolio. Here are five common pitfalls to avoid: Mistake 1: Not choosing the right projects to showcase Including projects that are not relevant to the work you want to attract can confuse prospects about your expertise and focus. Be selective and only include projects that align with your target audience’s interests and needs. Mistake 2: Adding too many images per project While it’s important to provide a comwww.AECmag.com

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prehensive view of your pro- Enscape rendering: Online portfolio website Underwater jects, adding too many images restaurant interior Incorporate renderings into can overwhelm the viewer. Be your online portfolio alongside selective with the images you include and photographs of completed projects. This avoid using repetitive images or multiple can provide a more comprehensive view images of similar views. of your work, including projects that are still in progress or haven’t been built yet. Mistake 3: Using low-quality images The quality of the images on your portfolio Blog posts website reflects the quality of your work. Use renderings in blog posts to illustrate Avoid using low-resolution images that design concepts, explain your design procan’t be properly viewed at the display size. cess, or showcase upcoming projects. This can provide valuable content for your Mistake 4: Not showing design details audience and help establish you as an Relying too heavily on wide-angle views expert in your field. can prevent clients from appreciating the finer details of your design. Include Social media close-ups and detail shots to fully show- Share renderings on social media platcase your work. forms like Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook. This can help engage your Mistake 5: Including audience, generate interest in your work, images without enough context and attract clients. Remember to use releImages without context can leave viewers vant hashtags to increase visibility. confused about what they’re seeing. Always provide enough context to help Virtual tours viewers understand the project and your Use 3D renderings to create virtual tours role in it. of your projects. This can provide an immersive experience for clients, allowIntegrating 3D renders ing them to explore your designs in detail.

into your web presence

At Archmark, we specialise in helping architects improve their web presence, and there are a variety of ways that architectural renderings can and should be integrated into your web presence to provide a more comprehensive representation of your work. Integrating 3D renderings into your architecture firm’s online presence can help you showcase your capabilities and engage prospects. Here are some strategies for better integration: www.AECmag.com

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Online publications Submit your renderings to online architecture publications or blogs. This can help increase your visibility in the architecture community and attract ideal clients. Online competitions Enter your renderings in online competitions. Winning or even just participating in these competitions can help raise your profile and showcase your skills. Remember, the goal is to use renderings to enhance your online presence and showcase your capabilities. Be creative, and don’t be afraid to experiment with different ways to integrate 3D renderings into your online presence.

When done right, 3D renders add authority and credibility to your architectural portfolio

3D renders are not a sign of incomplete work; they’re a testament to your creativity and technical skills. By incorporating renders into your architectural portfolios, you can provide a more comprehensive view of your work, impress potential clients, and stand out from the competition. The trick is to take Client presentations advantage of the benefits of renders and Use 3D renderings in client presenta- follow our guidelines when adding porttions to help them visualise and better folio images to your website. understand your design solutions. This can be particularly useful in the early Bryon McCartney is the CEO & co-founder of stages of a project when the design is still Archmark, the branding & marketing agency being finalised. for Architects. Archmark has helped more than

2,000 architects increase their firm’s visibility Email newsletters and influence so they can win better projects. Include renderings in your email news- Bryon has written articles for ArchDaily, letters to keep clients and potential clients Archipreneur, Monograph, and many others. updated on your latest projects. ■ www.archmark.co January / February 2024

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Feature

Productising

design

What role will architects play in an AEC industry increasingly intrigued by design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA) approaches? AEC Magazine puts the question to ‘Prefab Queen’ Amy Marks, EVP of Symetri USA

t should come as no surprise to anyone that the woman whose ‘Queen of Prefab’ channel on YouTube has attracted over 9 million views and 9.8k subscribers is a big believer that productisation holds the key to a more efficient and sustainable construction industry. Amy Marks is now flying the flag for industrialised construction as executive vice president of global strategy at Symetri, a major provider of technology and consultancy services in the US and Europe, which she joined in September 2023. She moved there after some threeplus years at Autodesk, first heading up the software giant’s industrialised construction strategy and later taking on an enterprise transformation role. Attending her first Autodesk University since leaving the firm, AEC Magazine caught up with Amy Marks and got the opportunity to discuss with her a question that we know preys on the minds of many of our readers. How can architects get on board with productisation? It’s a tricky question, Marks agrees - but it’s not one without answers, she adds, pointing to her experience of helping architecture clients to think in new ways about what they might otherwise be inclined to consider an existential threat. The issue, she continues, is that architects are inclined to see prefabrication in 34

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construction as a trend that will limit their involvement in design, rather than freeing them from more mundane work and allowing them to focus on big creative challenges that really test their talents.

Data-driven design decisions But to achieve that kind of freedom, architects looking to succeed in an AEC world increasingly moving towards design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA) will need to make some fundamental shifts in the way they think about data. Right now, according to Marks, architects are highly dependent on the data of other companies in the AEC sector. “If you think about it, architects don’t make anything. They’re representing what needs to be made, but they don’t actually have what I call ‘the data of make’,” she says. What they need is to work with tools that automatically provide them with the ‘make’ information for specialised areas of a building - a medical headwall in a hospital, for example, or the hot aisle containment system in a data centre.

It’s simply not reasonable to expect every architect to master the complexities of such structures. Nor is it desirable that firms should rely heavily on the expertise of a member of staff who has mastered the complexities of just one of those structures. “So what I’m interested in is getting product decision information into the hands of architects - and for that to happen, architects need to be open to the fact that they’ve got to consume this make information in its most efficient form and utilise it so that they can stick to necessary rules and constraints,” she says. She likens this to how product lifecycle management (PLM) software is used by product designers in the manufacturing world. “This is standard in manufacturing, but there we see metadata and configurators, things we don’t really have in the AEC space.” In other words, productisation in construction isn’t just about productising a physical object, but also the metadata and rules associated with that physical object, “almost like it lives in a www.AECmag.com

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little data backpack all the time, along today, but that ability to set typically bring a specialist curFor higher order with a reference to its LCA entry.” parameters is where a lot of the prefabrication, such tain wall manufacturer in from as facade panels, This information, in turn, would enable value will lie in the future state.” architects retain their day one, right? You bring in the architects to search for the right physical And when it comes to higher role as lead designers guys that specialise in complipart, available for on-time delivery and at order prefabrication, such as cated equipment or elements. the right cost, and with the appropriate facade panels, architects retain their role In the productisation world, the architect environmental credentials and carbon as lead designers, bringing flair to the job will have a wealth of make information footprint, she reasons. And when an of conceiving and procuring modular com- about ‘known’ elements to help them in architectural design was delivered to a ponents that fit the needs of the project. their design work,” she says. contractor, they would be alerted if a parIn the meantime, most buildings are ticular component was no longer availa- Think different still majority made up of ‘unknown’ eleble, requiring respecification on the part It’s a message that many architects may not ments that architects will continue to of the architect. be ready to hear. In fact, it’s one with which define from scratch. “So my message to The technology that architects is, ‘Don’t could underpin this kind worry.’ There’s still plenty of process already exists of ‘unknowns’ that need to For the architect, they become the designer of be designed and there today, says Marks, but it hasn’t typically been used the parameters of physical parts of a building. probably always will be,” this way. But it could enasays Marks. They might not be drawing a fire escape ble an evolution of the “But at the same time, anymore, but who wants to do that anyway? architect’s way of workarchitects need to recognise ing, without any signifithat productisation through cant detour from the funprefabrication is happening damentals of good design. many might actively disagree. Either way, now. Either they can control their destiny “For the architect, they become the says Marks, we are a long way off from any and figure out how best to use their time designer of the parameters of physical building being totally designed along these and how to charge for the things that matparts of a building, right? They might not principles. The elements that can be pro- ter - their ingenuity, their creativity in be drawing a fire escape anymore, but who ductised in many buildings account for designing bespoke areas, the real artistry. wants to do that anyway? Instead, they maybe 5% of their totality. But to do that, they’ve got to let go of some will use data from makers to set the Marks refers to these as ‘known’ ele- of the stuff that isn’t art, the stuff that’s parameters of what’s needed, based on ments. “And we already see in architec- mundane, the stuff that’s boring.” their interpretation of the needs of a build- ture today how we work with ‘known’ And what creative mind wouldn’t want ing’s owner and end user. Now, that’s a elements. For example, in the case of a that as their end goal? different job from the one they perform complicated curtain wall, an architect will ■ www.symetrigroup.com

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Interview

Q & A with Vectorworks Following the launch of Vectorworks 2024, AEC Magazine caught up with CEO Dr. Biplab Sarkar to talk subscription, concept design, point clouds, sustainability, AI, and lots more

EC Magazine: Since moving to subscription, how have things changed and what have you developed for subsequent releases of Vectorworks? There seem to be more ‘bread and butter’ features and less brand-new capabilities. Dr. Biplab Sarkar: Going to subscription has changed a few things for us. First, we have more updates for our customers throughout the year. Second, quality and performance have become the main features of every release and update. Lastly, more and more of the updates consist of new functionality in addition to quality improvements of the existing features. So, this latest release, Vectorworks 2024, represents a significant move forward in integrating our tools into specific design workflows. We are taking a holistic and high-level approach, working hard to ensure that our software aligns seamlessly with the natural processes of designers. From ideation to final execution, this latest version has been carefully crafted to provide both new tools and existing features, working together harmoniously to diminish disruptions and enhance productivity. Thus, in many cases, the new capabilities are related to the existing workflows. AEC Magazine: In the BIM market in general, despite applications being mature, there is a lot of concentration around the development of conceptual capabilities. Why do you think conceptual is getting focused on now and what kinds of capabilities are you adding to Vectorworks in that area? Dr. Biplab Sarkar: We think the reason why conceptual modelling is getting more focus now is because, for a while, all that the BIM applications provided was design coordination and drawing production. In 36

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many ways, these applications were documentation tools. With the advent of technologies like AI/ML, drawing production could become automated so that the designers and architects can then focus more on the ideation and therefore, you need conceptual modelling capabilities. Vectorworks strives to be the design tool for designers by providing maximum freedom to model anything they want. Many of the firms use Vectorworks in the competition phase of the design process just because of its modelling, rendering, and presentation capabilities. In addition to parametric modelling (which is where the focus of other BIM software has been), we have Parasolid-based NURBS and a solid modelling engine; we also support Sub-Division and mesh modelling — and they all add up to a highly flexible approach to modelling. AEC Magazine: Your support for photogrammetry and handheld point clouds from iPhones is really impressive. As point clouds can be huge, what kinds of changes have you had to make to display them. And do iPhone scans offer high enough accuracy for real world use? Dr. Biplab Sarkar: Given that we are one of the few BIM software solutions that supports Windows and Mac, we take advantage of the unique performance benefits of each platform. Mac offers superior performance relating to its adoption of photogrammetry and point clouds. It’s a technology that we are committed to because it offers a lowcost entry point and is fast developing. In terms of tolerance, it’s all about the user’s level of information need. iPhone and iPad-based scanning provides a quick, easily accessible method for capturing site data with devices that many people already have. The accuracy of these lidars is about 2-3cm (about 1.2 in), which is fine for scanning a site or a

room for interior renovations. The display of the point clouds is handled by the graphics engine developed over the last several years called the Vectorworks Graphics Module (VGM). VGM provides a very fast and fluid experience if used on capable hardware. AEC Magazine: Sustainability and retrofit are two areas we hear are becoming increasingly important to users. What capabilities have you recently added to assist this and what do you think you need to add to Vectorworks to help your customers? Dr. Biplab Sarkar: The Vectorworks Embodied Carbon Calculator (VECC) is our most recent addition that can aid the sustainable architecture design workflow. This is in addition to our existing Energos tool, which helps assess a building’s operational emissions through primary energy consumption (kWh/m2/ year). The VECC is a custom worksheet that’s pre-formatted to help calculate the embodied carbon levels of a project and combines accurate material volumes from our BIM models with industrystandard methodology and calculations to provide a comprehensive set of values. Plus, it’s applicable during the early as well as later stages of BIM development. We can help our customers in several different ways: (a) by adding more data to our Material resources that would help in calculating operational carbon calculations, (b) by creating connections to other carbon calculators that provide a real-time dashboard, etc. AEC Magazine: Collaboration is also a hot topic. Vectorworks is file-based, but this latest release, with cloud-services and file linking/synchronising seems to point in a direction which could lead to database-driven sessions. How do you envision a database-centric workflow www.AECmag.com

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With the advent of technologies like AI/ML, drawing production could become automated so that the designers and architects can then focus more on the ideation and therefore, you need conceptual modelling capabilities Dr. Biplab Sarkar, CEO Vectorworks

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would be enabled? It seems Vectorworks can now be everywhere. Dr. Biplab Sarkar: It can be argued that Vectorworks has always been databasecentric. It is built on capturing data from the model and drawings, reporting said data, and making it accessible for collaboration. The data difference we bring to our architecture customers is vast in how data can be accessed and managed. Our next steps will be to look at ways to leverage this part of our DNA and the strides we are making with what we can offer with Vectorworks Cloud Services. While we are conscious of an end goal of a holistic, cloud-based, common data-sharing environment, we also have short-term goals that customers can use immediately. For example, we are working on leveraging Cloud Services to process Revit file export. This offloads a memory-intensive task from a local machine to the cloud, allowing us to support multiple .rvt file formats for more open collaboration. Additionally, we are working towards a viewer that will not only show the 3D geometry of the model but also allow for access and viewing of the data associated with the model. This will lay the foundation needed for more cloud-based sharing among project stakeholders. AEC Magazine: Digital Twins has become increasingly name-checked by BIM software developers and Nemetschek has recently launched its own standalone brand. How does Vectorworks fit into this picture, and will you integrate/leverage Nemetschek’s new product? Dr. Biplab Sarkar: Nemetschek’s dTwin product was developed in collaboration with a number of the brands within the Group, including Vectorworks. We can send data/information to dTwin both with the IFC file format and any reality capture that Vectorworks supwww.AECmag.com

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Interview

ports, such as point cloud data. There is continued development planned to begin supporting native file formats of the three main BIM authoring tools in the Group — Vectorworks, Archicad, and Allplan — this will create a direct integration with dTwin. It’s also important to note that as a digital asset management tool, dTwin supports GIS information, which is also important for landscape architecture and urban planning customers working with technology partners such as Esri, which Vectorworks also supports. This makes integration with a tool like dTwin even more valuable for those working on large-scale projects that will benefit from access to this type of Building Lifecycle Intelligence. AEC Magazine: With the port to Mac Silicon how have customers reacted? Has it made any Wintel users switch? What are your thoughts on browser-based applications vs desktop – they seem to be merging now with desktops expanding to the cloud!

Dr. Biplab Sarkar: It’s a mixture of things, both improved hardware and more intelligent handling of the sectioning code. We’ve shifted some of it to the background thread for calculations and reduced the amount of memory required, which puts less pressure on the hardware. We do think that with the advent of real-time rendering engines making their marks in the AEC market, the days when BIM tools will run a rendered view are not too far off. CAD users are already working in the rendered environment, and we think AEC users will experience this soon. AEC Magazine: With a bespoke application for landscapes and with some GISlike capabilities for sites, how do you see BIM and GIS playing out? How far into GIS will Vectorworks go? How has your partnership with Esri gone? Dr. Biplab Sarkar: Creating an outdoor environment requires many stages. First, a thorough analysis of the site and its surroundings from many angles, such as biodiversity, light, water management, infrastructure, and protection of valuable natural resources, to mention a few, must be completed. At this stage, GIS is invaluable, and our Landmark users are already taking full advantage of our capabilities by adding Esri base maps and linking feature layers with this type

asset’s lifespan. We aim to directly integrate as many GIS capabilities as possible into the Vectorworks environment. The work we’ve done with Esri is valuable, and seeing the improvements in integrating GIS with CAD-based models is exciting. As BIM is based on collaboration, it’s essential to have a GIS environment where every project participant can interact. Esri’s ArcGIS Online platform has been a game changer for this. As IFC is the preferred format (schema) for BIM, a lot of effort is made from Esri’s side to ensure the exchange runs smoothly for files from various sources. AEC Magazine: We can’t leave without mentioning AI. How do you see AI being developed within Vectorworks? Having good data to train on is key. Would you train on customers’ data or make that an opt in? Are customers more nervous thinking firms will steal design IP when it’s more about process and defining industry recipes?

Dr. Biplab Sarkar: The reaction to Dr. Biplab Sarkar: We still see AI being Apple Silicon has been overwhelmingly full of potential, creating new opportunipositive. We saw the superior perforties to explore design and construction mance it offered from the very beginthat we’ve never imagined. The most ning. Vectorworks is the first major BIM prominent place of impact we’ll see is in application to run natively on Apple design discovery and exploration. At Silicon processors, and we were able to Vectorworks, we’re doing active research optimise our software performance by to deliver AI visualisation and image creating proper generation features support for Metal at point of use. This in our graphics would allow users We are working towards a viewer that will not only pipeline (VGM). to visualise their show the 3D geometry of the model but also allow for Regarding browsearly Vectorworks er-based applica- access and viewing of the data associated with the model. designs using texttions, we think prompts This will lay the foundation needed for more cloud-based based these will be suitaquickly and simply sharing among project stakeholders ble for certain operon their early 3D ations like collabomassing and conration using cocept models. viewing and co-markup or moderate edit- of information to their Vectorworks docThis will also allow the user to produce ing of models and drawings. But in the uments. It is an integral part of an analy- a compelling image of their design very short term, most of our users would still sis-driven workflow. early in the design process and without use desktop-based products for most of It’s a natural step to connect this to additional work or time spent on traditheir design processes and use the cloud BIM — placing your project in its correct tional rendering overheads of lighting, services to supplement their design pro- environment to analyse the impact is textures, backgrounds, finely detailed cess with rendering or presentation oper- excellent for the architect but even more modelling, or render settings. ations. beneficial for the broader group of stakeThe customer data collected from the holders. It is an exceptional, interactive Vectorworks application is on an opt-in AEC Magazine: Rendering in tool for communicating ideas and intent, basis. The granularity of the data, as well Vectorworks has really stepped up in the and we’re working closely with some of as the quality of the data, determines last few releases. The section viewport our users to develop even more intimate whether it can be used for training prespeed is impressive. Has this been made workflows between the GIS expert and dictive models. Also, the composition of possible with advances in GPU or gener- the landscape architect. This runs the data is such that it is impossible to al CPU speeds? In the future do you through the whole project, from the anal- reconstitute and determine the design think BIM tools will always run in ren- ysis and stakeholder buy-in to the audit processes or recipes. dered views, like games? of the finished project and through the ■ www.vectorworks.net

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Workstation special report Winter 2024

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 Series Breathtaking performance and, with Pro and ‘prosumer’ versions, AMD now has all bases covered

Workstation GPUs

Buying advice

Remote possibilities

We push the latest AMD Radeon Pro and Nvidia RTX workstation GPUs to their limits

From CPU and GPU to power and serviceability, we share our top tips for buying a workstation

Two fresh approaches to remote workstations with high frequency processors at their heart

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workstation special report

Power to the people When choosing a laptop, we all compare specs, but just because two machines have the same processor it doesn’t mean you’ll get the same performance. Power plays a critical role, but without transparency from the vendors it’s hard to make an informed decision, writes Greg Corke The ThinkPad P16 is a We’ve all been there. very powerful laptop, but You’re choosing your there’s always a bigger next laptop: one is super fish. In the world of mobile sleek, the other a brick, in workstations, it’s the comparison. Both have the MSI CreatorPro X17 HX. same high-performance Both machines can be GPU. Which one do you configured with the topchoose? I’m sure we all end Intel Core i9-13980HX know how this story ends. processor, but you’ll The problem is, you probably get significantly may not realise that more multi -threaded both machines will performance out of the probably give you quite MSI machine. You only different performance. For the average need to look at the massive Specifications are one thing, but in order to get person comparing cooling unit that hangs off the best out of a processor laptop specs, few the back to understand why, or the 330W power it needs power. And when would think to supply unit (PSU), which it comes to slimline mobile search out a delivers 100W more than workstations, this can be processor’s TGP the ThinkPad P16. in short supply. Power gaps aren’t Take the Lenovo or TDP for a limited to laptops. ThinkPad P1 mobile specific machine, Desktop workstations workstation, for example. It’s significantly thinner which may or may also suffer from the same and lighter than the not be hidden in thermal challenges when you shrink them down. Lenovo ThinkPad P16. the depths of a Take the HP Z2 Mini Both 16-inch laptops can technical G9, for example. With be configured with the document an extremely compact powerful Nvidia RTX chassis, it simply can’t 5000 Ada Generation compete with larger GPU, but the ThinkPad P16 would almost certainly win out in a towers when it comes to power and cooling. With a 280W external adapter to GPU rendering race. The reason is, both machines have a power everything inside, it doesn’t take different TGP (Total Graphics Power), a genius to work out that an Intel Core the maximum amount of power a GPU i 9 - 1 3 9 0 0 K processor won’t go all the way up to its max turbo can consume under load. In the ThinkPad power of 253W. P1 it’s 80W, but in the ThinkPad Compared to a well P16 it goes up to 115W. specified tower, you The smaller the chassis, probably won’t notice a the harder it is to cool, performance difference in so less power can be single threaded or lightly pumped in. threaded CAD workflows, but when all CPU cores kick in, it’ll drop quickly off the pace.

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The Lenovo ThinkPad P1 is a beautiful slimline laptop, but with the same highend components, you’ll get more performance out of the bulkier ThinkPad P16

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when it’s fed more watts? As we discovered in our AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 Series review (see page WS8), there can be diminishing returns. Returning to our Nvidia RTX 5000 Ada Generation laptop GPU example, don’t expect to get 44% more graphics performance out of the ThinkPad P16 simply because the GPU has access to 44% more power. The performance curve will always flatten out.

A call for transparency I understand that I may be preaching to the converted. Many of you love workstations even more than me, and a lot of this information is out there in the public domain. But for the average person comparing laptop specs, few would think to search out a processor’s TGP or TDP for a specific machine, which may or may not be hidden in the depths of a technical document somewhere. It would be great to see more transparency from the workstation OEMs. A simple bracketed power consumption figure right next to each processor would be a good start. Power consumption in relation to performance is not always straightforward (read our Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada Generation review on page WS36 to find out why), but it would at least show potential buyers a difference between two machines. Let’s just get the conversation started. Of course, publishing power consumption up front would also draw attention to just how much energy some of these processors consume, which is another conversation entirely. At the end of the day, it’s all about giving people the data they need to make informed decisions, and that’s got to be good for everyone, right?

To find out more about power consumption in workstations and how to save power, read our ‘We need to talk about energy’ article in The power curve AEC Magazine’s January / February 2023 Power is important, workstation report, available here, along with but how much faster all of our back issues. does a processor go ■ www.aecmag.com/magazines January / February 2024

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workstation special report

Know your workstation Greg Corke breaks down the desktop workstation, and explores what key components mean for Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) workflows

Processor (CPU) Always aim for a CPU with a high turbo or boost frequency (GHz). This is important for the performance of the system and of the applications, as many operations are single threaded or lightly threaded. i.e. they use only one CPU core or a handful of cores. Highly multi-threaded operations can take good advantage of multiple CPU cores. Ray trace rendering is the best example, as performance scales very well. Simulation software also tends to be multi-threaded, especially Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). With Finite Element Analysis (FEA) there can sometimes be diminishing returns as you use more cores, and performance can even go down. It is sometimes possible to run multiple simulations in parallel on a single machine, providing you have sufficient memory and memory bandwidth, storage bandwidth and software licences. CPUs that have lots of cores typically run at lower frequencies, so it’s important to strike a balance. In saying that, the new AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 Series processors are bucking that trend. Another strategy is to optimise your workstation for modelling workflows and send your multi-threaded calcs to a server or the cloud. Intel used to dominate the workstation CPU market, but this has changed. For highend multi-threaded workflows, AMD Ryzen Threadripper or AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro processors have a clear lead over the Intel Xeon W-Series. However, mainstream Intel Core processors still have the edge over AMD Ryzen in single threaded or lightly threaded workflows, such as CAD and BIM.

Graphics (GPU) The professional 3D graphics card or graphics processing unit (GPU) is one of the key components that defines a professional 3D workstation. Pro GPUs come with pro graphics drivers, which are specifically designed to work with professional 3D software (especially CAD and BIM software). Pro GPUs are often given an official stamp of approval for individual applications through a process called ‘certification’, which comes with the promise of full support from the software developer. Pro graphics drivers can mean better performance, better stability and access to specific features, such as RealView in Solidworks, and Order Independent Transparency (OIT) in several 3D CAD applications. If there are any display or stability issues in your CAD or BIM software, they are more likely to be fixed in a subsequent driver release. Modern GPUs comprise different types of processor cores. Many have hardware ray tracing built in, which is essential for modern visualisation software, for offline rendering and to bring ray tracing effects into viewport. Meanwhile, AI cores can be used to ‘denoise’ renders, or to boost 3D performance in real time applications. Nvidia has the lion’s share of the add-in GPU market with its Nvidia RTX family and older Quadro GPUs. AMD Radeon Pro also plays an important role, especially in terms of price/ performance. Intel is also looking to get in on the action with Arc Pro, which launched last year. Some Intel and AMD CPUs include integrated graphics, but these are currently mainly for entry-level mobile workstations. Professional GPUs are facing increased competition from their consumer counterparts — Nvidia GeForce, AMD Radeon, and Intel Arc. Some of the major workstation OEMs now offer consumer GPUs in their workstations. High-end professional GPUs tend to feature more memory than high-end consumer GPUs, which is a big consideration. However, they can easily compete on raw processing power. For CAD and BIM workflows we recommend sub-£500 entry-level to mid-range pro GPUs with 8 GB or more, but when you get into the high end, an area where you need more 3D performance for real-time visualisation, offline rendering or virtual reality (VR), the difference in price is greater and pro graphics cards are often a harder sell for those on a budget, especially for applications that support multiple GPUs. Nvidia even has a GeForce ‘Studio’ driver for applications including Enscape, Unreal Engine and V-Ray. GPUs are not just for 3D graphics or rendering. They can also be used to solve other parallel processing tasks such as simulation and reality modelling. Some simulation software requires good double precision performance, which is available in specialist GPUs like the Nvidia A800.

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workstation special report

Memory (RAM) It’s important that your workstation has enough system memory. If is becomes full, performance can significantly slow down as your workstation has to page data to your Solid State Drive (SSD). Every application you load up uses up memory, so you will need to be able to cover all the applications and datasets you typically have open at the same time — think CAD, visualisation, data management, simulation, email client, web browser, and others. 32 GB is a good starting point for CAD-centric workflows, with 64 GB or more recommended for more demanding workflows such as visualisation, simulation and reality modelling. Memory bandwidth is important, but only to certain workflows. It is governed by the frequency of the memory and the number of memory channels supported by the workstation platform. Mainstream processors like Intel Core and AMD Ryzen generally support dual channel memory, which is fine for CAD, while Intel Xeon W-Series and AMD Ryzen Threadripper (Pro) processors offer 4 or 8 channel memory, which can benefit memory intensive applications like simulation. In order to benefit from the full memory bandwidth, the number of memory modules should match the number of memory channels. Don’t forget that memory requirements will always change over time. Your datasets will get bigger and the memory footprint of your operating system and applications will increase with new releases. With this in mind, it’s good to buy a workstation with spare memory slots for easier upgrades, though this needs to be balanced against memory bandwidth. ECC memory can protect against crashes, which becomes important for lengthy calculations, as you can lose hours of work.

Storage M.2 NVMe Solid State Drives (SSDs) have quickly become the standard in workstations. Now you must choose between PCIe Gen 5.0 SSDs and PCIe Gen 4.0 SSDs. With PCIe Gen 5.0, sequential read/write speeds are superior. Those working with very large datasets, such as point cloud, simulation or video editing, should benefit most. The cost of NVMe SSDs has come down a lot and it’s now feasible to cover all your workstation storage requirements with one or more SSDs. Most tower workstations support multiple SSDs directly on the motherboard. Some workstations provide front-accessible SSDs, while others offer add-in boards that support multiple SSDs. For the fastest performance or protection against data loss, multiple SSDs can be configured in various RAID arrays. For example, RAID 0 (striped, for performance) or RAID 1 (mirrored, for redundancy so, if one drive fails, your data is safe). SSD endurance is another important consideration, particularly if your workflows involve writing huge amounts of data. Simulation and point cloud processing, for example, can produce huge temporary files. Endurance is often defined by TBW or terabytes written, the total amount of data that could be written to the SSD during its life span. Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) still continue to offer the best price per GB, but should absolutely not be used as a primary drive for operating system and applications. They are good for secondary storage, however, and do not impact load / save times of CAD models that much. However, if you need to process large point cloud or simulation datasets, especially if you don’t have enough RAM to hold the dataset entirely in system memory, then NVMe SSDs are always best.

Operating System Microsoft Windows 11 Professional is pretty standard these days in new workstations, but there are many firms that still rely on Windows 10 Professional. There are many reasons why Windows 11 is better, but one of the most important is when you have an Intel Core processor with a hybrid P-Core / E-Core architecture. Windows 10 sometimes assigns processes to the slower Efficient-cores (E-cores), instead of the faster Performance-cores (P-cores), as one would typically desire. In the past, we have observed simulation in Solidworks, recompiling shaders in Unreal Engine and drawing production in Autodesk Inventor to run notably slower because of this. This can be easily ‘fixed’ by changing CPU priority in the excellent third party tool, Process Lasso, but of course, you must first know that the problem exists. You don’t have this issue when running Windows 11. Everything appears to be assigned correctly.

station

5 work

HP Z4 G

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Beyond performance: c Choosing the right specs are important, but that is not the be all and end all of buying a workstation. Greg Corke looks at some other critical points to consider

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Power usage

Bottlenecks

Power usage has become an even more critical consideration in recent years. Firms have long been aware of their obligation to protect the environment. Now with rising energy costs they are feeling the pinch. The fact is that energy consumption of processors has been rising steadily. Today we have mainstream workstation processors that draw over 250W at peak and high-end GPUs that hit 450W. There are many ways to save power, but choosing the right hardware is arguably the most important. First, consider a power efficient CPU with fewer cores. Intel Core i5 processors, for example, use significantly less power than Intel Core i9 processors, and won’t be that much slower in single threaded or lightly threaded workflows, such as CAD or BIM. Super compact workstations like the Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Tiny offer T suffix Intel Core i5 processors that consume even less power. There are also AMD Ryzen processors which, overall, offer better performance per watt than Intel Core, though they are not as widely available. Second, buy GPUs that are matched precisely to your workflows. If your viz datasets aren’t that complex and you can smoothly navigate your scene with a 70W GPU like the Nvidia RTX A2000, do you really need the 130W Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada Generation? More powerful GPUs might be able to render your scene with more frames per second, but you probably won’t notice a difference. Of course, offline renders will come back faster.

Understanding how your software works and where your bottlenecks occur can help you make informed decisions on workstation purchases. Don’t presume that software developers know how their software performs with different processors. Recommended specs are not always accurate or up to date. Many of the major workstation OEMs offer free workstation tuning software that can monitor resources in real time and over a set period. Other good tools include GPU-Z for monitoring GPU usage, CPU-Z for CPU, HWinfo and Windows Performance Monitor. If you are experiencing slow 3D performance, for example, check to see how much of your GPU is being used. If it’s 100%, then investing in a more powerful GPU would probably help. However, if usage is significantly lower, you could be wasting your money and would be better off buying a CPU with a higher boost frequency. Once you understand where your bottlenecks occur, it can help you assign budget to the correct areas and tailor a workstation for your specific workflows. Read this AEC Magazine article to find out more (www.tinyurl.com/WS-bottlenecks).

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workstation special report

e: choosing a workstation OEM

Warranty

The maker

The chassis

Virtually all workstations come with a three-year warranty, but the level of cover can vary considerably between manufacturers. This isn’t just about protecting your investment. In the event of a failure, you need to get your workstation back up and running as quickly as possible and with minimal hassle. A next business day (NBD) on-site warranty is common with workstations from major OEMs. Some custom manufacturers only offer ‘return to base’ as standard or NBD on site for the first year. Having to send away your workstation to be repaired could mean days without its use, which could be catastrophic when on a tight project deadline. Many minor repairs can be done by yourself. Some manufacturers specifically make their workstations easy to service, so customers can be guided over the phone or video call and get themselves back up and running the same day (or the next day if a part needs to be sent out). Other manufacturers state that any repairs or alterations that are carried out by the customer invalidate the warranty, so check with your supplier first. When comparing prices of workstations, make sure you are looking at details of the warranty and not just the specifications of the machine. Warranties can be extended and negotiated, so also bear that in mind.

A common question is whether to buy your workstation from a specialist system builder or a major OEM like Dell, HP or Lenovo. There’s no simple answer, but there are a number of things to consider. Custom manufacturers are more flexible in how machines can be configured and are generally quicker at introducing new technologies. Many such firms overclock their CPUs, which can boost performance. OEMs, on the other hand, spend much more time on R&D to make sure that components work well together and do extensive studies into acoustics, electromagnetic interference and thermodynamics. OEM workstations tend to be more solid and easier to service, particularly as some custom manufacturers try to cut costs by using budget PC chassis. They also have long term availability, so if you find a system / spec that works for your project team, you will probably be able to buy it for several years. Major OEM workstations also go through extensive testing and certification to ensure they work well. Some software developers will not provide full support if you don’t have certified hardware. With custom manufacturers, you are usually just getting the certification of the GPU. Of course, many large architecture or engineering firms will only buy from major OEMs for reasons of support, management or global availability, so the decision is already made.

Workstations are about so much more than just their constituent parts. The chassis can be incredibly important. There are four main points to consider: size, noise, cooling and serviceability. But easy access to things like USB ports, USB charging ports, hot swappable storage or headphone sockets can also make a big difference. Ask yourself the following questions:

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•

• • • • • • • •

• •

Will the machine fit on your desk, or will it have to be kept down by your feet? Could it be attached to the back of a monitor? Can it fit in a rack? How many can you fit in a rack? If you need to move it, is it heavy and does it have built-in handles? Are the fans so noisy that they are distracting? Do the fans do their job or will they make the processor throttle? Will the chassis serve you well into the future? Can you expand the system with GPUs, storage or memory (are there free memory slots)? Is it easy to service internal components? If your power supply unit or fans fail, how easy are they to change?

Of course, if you are the type of person that would never dream of getting inside a computer then serviceability is a moot point. Think about the things that matter to you. For some, aesthetics are very important. January / February 2024

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workstation special report

In-depth review AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 Series AMD does it again with a phenomenal new workstation processor that combines high frequencies with buckets of cores. And with nine models spanning Pro and high-end desktop (HEDT) families, there’s something for everyone, writes Greg Corke

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workstation special report

he AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 Series processors, based on AMD’s ‘Zen 4’ architecture, launched in October 2023 with specifications that were nothing short of breath-taking. The combination of high core counts (up to 96), high clock speeds (up to 5.3 GHz), support for multiple GPUs and lots of high-bandwidth memory, makes them extremely well suited to a variety of demanding pro workflows including visualisation, simulation, reality modelling, AI, and lots more. Workstations based on these powerful multi-core processors are now starting to come to market. And there are plenty to choose from. The big news is that all the major OEMs now offer a Threadripper workstation. Following the lead of Lenovo in 2020 and Dell in 2022, HP is finally on board. Considering that AMD had virtually no presence in the OEM workstation market three years ago, this is a major breakthrough. There are also workstations from specialist system builders like Armari, BOXX, Puget Systems, Scan, and Workstation Specialists, some of which are overclocked to squeeze even more performance out of the multi-core chip. The other big development is that the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 Series comes in two variants: the ‘Pro’ range

(AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7000 WXSeries) and ‘High-End Desktop (HEDT)’ range (AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 Series). This is a change from the previous generation ‘Zen 3’ Threadripper 5000 Series processors which were ‘Pro’ only and marks a return to the dual product family approach of ‘Zen 2’. Splitting out Threadripper into two product families gives users more choice and makes the Threadripper platform more accessible in terms of price. While the Pro and HEDT versions are very similar in terms of clock speed and cache, Pro offers more cores (up to 96 versus up to 64), more memory bandwidth (8-channels versus 4-channels of DDR5), more PCIe lanes, and comes with AMD Pro Security and Manageability. Management and security are critical for enterprises, which is why the major OEMs only offer workstations with Threadripper Pro. Meanwhile, specialist systems builders can offer both, although we suspect most of their workstations will be sold with HEDT processors. The platform is not only cheaper, but there are only select workflows that will benefit from the additional memory bandwidth of Pro. Some engineering simulation solvers, including computational fluid dynamics (CFD), will. Many visualisation workflows, including rendering, will not.

The ‘Zen 4’ generation AMD hasn’t released an HEDT Threadripper since 2020, so it’s fair to say that both new ‘Zen 4’ Threadrippers are the natural successors to the ‘Zen 3’ Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5000 WXSeries, which launched in 2022. Let’s look at where things have improved. Core count: Threadripper Pro 5000 WXSeries maxed out at 64-cores, but the new Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-Series goes all the way up to 96-cores. This alone will deliver a substantial performance improvement in highly multi-threaded workflows such as ray trace rendering and engineering simulation. Meanwhile, the ‘HEDT’ Threadripper 7000 Series peaks at 64-cores. Higher frequencies: Base and boost frequencies on all Threadripper 7000 Series chips are significantly higher than the Threadripper 5000 WX-Series. This benefits everyone – those with highly multi-threaded workflows such as rendering and those with single threaded workflows such as CAD. Both the 64-core Threadripper Pro 7985WX and Threadripper 7980X processors, for example, deliver 3.2 GHz base and 5.1 GHz boost, which is 0.5 GHz and 0.6 GHz faster than their ‘Zen 3’ equivalent, the Threadripper Pro 5995WX.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7960X

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7970X

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X

AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7945WX

AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7955WX

AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7965WX

AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7975WX

AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7985WX

AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7995WX

# of CPU Cores

# of CPU Threads

128

192

Base Frequency

4.2 GHz

4.0 GHz

3.2 GHz

4.7 GHz

4.5 GHz

4.2 GHz

4.0 GHz

3.2 GHz

2.5 GHz

Max Boost Frequency

Up to 5.3 GHz

Up to 5.1 GHz

Up to 5.3 GHz

Up to 5.1 GHz

Memory type

DDR5 RDIMM up to 5200MT/s

Memory channels

Cache

L1 cache - 1.5 MB L2 cache - 24 MB L3 cache - 128 MB

L1 cache - 2 MB L2 cache - 32 MB L3 cache - 128 MB

L1 cache - 4 MB L2 cache - 64 MB L3 cache - 256 MB

L1 cache - 768 K L2 cache - 12 MB L3 cache - 64 MB

L1 cache - 1 MB L2 cache - 16 MB L3 cache - 64 MB

L1 cache - 1.5 MB L2 cache - 24 MB L3 cache - 128 MB

L1 cache - 2 MB L2 cache - 32 MB L3 cache - 128 MB

L1 cache - 4 MB L2 cache - 64 MB L3 cache - 256 MB

L1 cache - 6 MB L2 cache - 96 MB L3 cache - 384 MB

Default TDP

350 W

AMD Pro Security & Manageability

Yes

Price (Ex VAT)

£1,242

£2,083

£4,125

N/A (only available through OEMs)

£2,208

£3,208

£6,083

£8,250

(from scan.co.uk 7/12/23)

www.AECmag.com

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January / February 2024

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workstation special report

KeyShot 11.3.1 benchmark

Cinebench R23 benchmark (single core)

Cinebench R23 benchmark (multi core)

Ray trace rendering

1.23 Benchmark score (bigger is better)

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (16 C)

5.70

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D (16 C)

5.37

Intel Core i9-14900KF (8+16C)

5.32

Intel Xeon W9-3495X (56 C)

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (16 C) Intel Core i9-14900KF (8+16C)

2 x Intel Xeon 8490H (60C)

16.65

AMD TR Pro 5995WX (64 C)

2,304

Intel Xeon W9-3495X (56 C)

9.15 12.36

AMD TR Pro 7975WX (32 C)

2,022

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D (16 C) N/A

9.72

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (no PBO)

15.19

Ryzen 9 7950X (16 C)

37,601

Ryzen 9 7950X3D (16 C)

35,490

Core i9-14900KF (8 + 16C)

37,421

Xeon W9-3495X (56 C)

1,670

2 x Intel Xeon 8490H (60C)

1,279

2 x Xeon 8490H (2 x 60C)

AMD TR Pro 5995WX (64 C)

1,368

TR Pro 5995WX (64 C)

AMD TR Pro 7975WX (32 C)

1,875

TR Pro 7975WX (32 C)

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (no PBO)

1,897

TR 7980X (64 C) (PBO off)

58,796 84,920 70,286 60,960 92,903

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (70° C)

18.65

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (70° C)

1,895

TR 7980X (64 C) (PBO 70° C)

107,578

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (80° C)

19.07

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (80° C)

1,878

TR 7980X (64 C) (PBO 80° C)

113,755

19.44

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (90° C)

1,890

TR 7980X (64 C) (PBO 90° C)

115,495

AMD TR Pro 7995WX (96 C)

1,825

TR Pro 7995WX (96 C)

112,946

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (90° C)

AMD TR Pro 7995WX (96 C)

17.50

V-Ray 5.0 benchmark

500

1000

1500

2000

Cinebench 2024 benchmark (single core)

2500

20000 40000 60000 80000 100000 120000

Cinebench 2024 benchmark (multi core)

Ray trace rendering

1.23 Benchmark score (bigger is better)

Ryzen 9 7950X (16 C)

29,458

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (16 C) N/A

Ryzen 9 7950X3D (16 C)

28,392

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D (16 C) N/A

Core i9-14900KF (8 + 16C)

25,544

Xeon W9-3495X (56 C)

Intel Core i9-14900KF (8+16C)

2 x Xeon 8490H (2 x 60C)

95,937

TR Pro 5995WX (64 C)

59,982

TR Pro 7975WX (32 C)

82,914

Intel Core i9-14900KF (8+16C)

2,137

Intel Xeon W9-3495X (56 C) N/A

2 x Intel Xeon 8490H (60C) N/A

AMD TR Pro 5995WX (64 C) N/A

AMD TR Pro 7975WX (32 C)

50,802

TR 7980X (64 C) (PBO off)

136

Intel Xeon W9-3495X (56 C) N/A

47,056

AMD TR Pro 7975WX (32 C)

109

3,509

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (no PBO)

114

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (no PBO)

5,557

TR 7980X (64 C) (PBO 70° C)

99,882

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (70° C)

114

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (70° C)

TR 7980X (64 C) (PBO 80° C)

102,294

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (80° C)

113.5

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (80° C)

6,449

TR 7980X (64 C) (PBO 90° C)

105,932

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (90° C)

114

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (90° C)

6,368

TR Pro 7995WX (96 C)

102,566

20000 40000 60000 80000 100000 120000

Even the top-end 96-core Threadripper Pro 7995WX delivers a whopping 5.1 GHz boost, which is only 0.6 GHz behind AMD’s top-end consumer processor, the 16-core AMD Ryzen 9 7950X. These significant frequency gains are in part down to an increase in Thermal Design Power (TDP), going from 280W in the previous generation to 350W for all new Threadripper 7000 Series chips.

AMD TR Pro 7995WX (96 C)

106

120

150

6,343

5,889

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000

Higher IPC: All Threadripper 7000 Series chips get a significant boost simply because they are built on AMD’s newer Zen 4 architecture. Compared to Zen 3, AMD quotes a 13% uplift in Instructions Per Clock (IPC), the number of instructions a CPU can execute in a single clock cycle. This should benefit all multicore and single core workflows.

on the number of memory channels. Here the Threadripper Pro 7000 WXSeries has an advantage over the ‘HEDT’ Threadripper 7000 Series as it supports eight channels versus four, although all RDIMM slots need to be populated in order to benefit. The previous gen Threadripper Pro 5000 WX-Series also supports 8-channels, but consumer processors including the AMD Ryzen 7000 Series and 14th Gen Intel Core, support dualchannel DDR5. Incidentally, AMD decided not to go for 12-channel memory, a hallmark of its Zen 4 EPYC server processors. According to AMD, this is partly to tailor the platform to a workstation audience and partly because there is simply no room for more RDIMM slots in a standard workstation chassis.

With 148 PCIe lanes (128 of which are PCIe Gen 5.0), the Threadripper Pro 7000 WX Series platform can, in theory, support eight double slot GPUs. In reality, this number is less, as it’s decided by the motherboard manufacturers. Most of the major workstation OEMs support two or three double slot GPUs on their new Threadripper Pro machines, but we could see boards from specialist manufacturers that support more. This could be an interesting proposition for manufacturers of virtual workstations who want to assign a powerful dedicated GPU to each virtual machine. Meanwhile, the ‘HEDT’ Threadripper 7000 Series supports 92 PCIe lanes (48 PCIe of which are 5.0). PCIe lanes can also be used for high-performance storage and network cards.

DDR5 memory: Both Threadripper 7000 Series chips support 5,200 MHz server-class DDR5 RDIMM memory, compared to 3,200 MHz DDR4 with the 5000 WX-Series. DDR5 memory delivers significantly more bandwidth, which will benefit some memory intensive workflows such as engineering simulation. Memory bandwidth is also dependent

PCIe Gen 5: The new Threadripper 7000 Series supports PCIe Gen 5, which doubles the PCI bandwidth to any slot on the board compared to the previous generation with PCIe Gen 4. According to AMD, this should deliver real benefits to multi-GPU AI workflows. But this is more for the future, as current pro GPUs, including the Nvidia RTX 6000 Ada and AMD Radeon Pro W7900, are still on PCIe Gen 4.

AVX-512 instructions: The new ‘Zen 4’ Threadrippers support AVX-512, a set of extensions to the x86 instruction set that are used to boost performance in a variety of software tools. AVX-512 is especially prevalent in simulation software, with supported applications including Altair Radioss, Simulia Abaqus and Ansys Mechanical. AVX-512 was originally developed by Intel and is supported on

WS10

January / February 2024

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27/01/2024 15:32

workstation special report

Xeon processors, so this is a big step up for AMD. It is not supported on Intel Core processors with a hybrid P-Core / E-Core architecture.

The new chips The new ‘Zen 4’ Threadrippers present users with more choice than ever. There are six models in the Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-Series chips with 12, 16, 24, 32, 64 or 96 cores, and three models in the ‘HEDT’ Threadripper 7000 Series with 24, 36 or 64 cores. All eyes are on the flagship AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7995WX. With 96-cores and a boost frequency up to 5.1 GHz this monster chip is head and shoulders above AMD’s previous flagship workstation processor, the 64core Threadripper Pro 5995WX, and indeed the competition. Intel’s top-end workstation chip, the 56-core Intel Xeon w9-3495X, lags behind in both single threaded and multi-threaded workflows. Of course, for unrivalled performance, AMD can charge a big premium, and many firms will find the 96-core chip’s price tag of £8,250+VAT hard to swallow, especially considering the performance uplift over the 64-core model is not always that big (see later). Better value can be found with the lower core-count models, especially with the HEDT Threadrippers. At £4,125+VAT, for example, the 64-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X costs around 50% less than the 64-core Threadripper Pro 7985WX. In terms of price per core, the 24-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7960X looks best value. And at £1,242+VAT it’s nearly half the price of its Pro equivalent, the AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7965WX. The challenge for these lower end Threadripper 7000 Series processors is demonstrating enough value when compared to the AMD Ryzen 9 7000 Series. These consumer-focused processors, which peak at 16-cores with the Ryzen 9 7950X and Ryzen 9 7950X3D, are significantly cheaper, as are the motherboards that support them. While the jump from 16 to 24 cores is not that big, the Threadripper 7000 Series offers much more than just more cores. There’s more memory capacity, more memory bandwidth, and more PCIe lanes, which will be important for some customers.

All about the power All AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 Series processors are rated at 350W Thermal Design Power (TDP). TDP is www.AECmag.com

WS08_09_10_11_12_13_14_16_AEC_JANFEB24_AMDTR.indd 11

a measure of the maximum power a chip will consume under the maximum theoretical load. This is 70W higher than the previous generation Threadripper Pro 5000 WX-Series, so presents some significant thermal challenges for workstation manufacturers. To keep the processor within its thermal limits and stop it from overheating (and therefore throttling) workstation manufacturers have two options: air cooling or liquid cooling. Air cooling uses fans to blow cool air over a heatsink that is attached directly to the CPU via a conductive baseplate and heat pipes. This method is preferred by the major workstation OEMs as it’s considered to be the most reliable. Liquid cooling uses a liquid coolant, which flows from the baseplate through a tube to a large heat exchanger cooled by fans. It’s a more efficient way of removing heat from the CPU, but because there are more points of failure (and liquid involved), it’s considered to be more of a specialist solution. It is not offered by the major OEMs. Liquid cooling has two potential benefits: first, the workstations can sometimes be quieter as fans don’t have to work as hard, and second, the best liquid coolers allow more power to be pumped into the CPU so boost clock speeds can remain higher for longer. With the AMD Threadripper 7000 Series processors (HEDT and Pro) more power can be applied through a technology called Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO). It isn’t the same as traditional overclocking, where specialists manually tweak CPU frequency and voltage. With PBO, the boost is essentially automated without losing stability. By simply changing a setting in the motherboard BIOS or AMD Ryzen Master software, the CPU can be fed more power as long as the cooler can handle it. PBO is not enabled on any workstation from the major OEMs, so 350W is the maximum power that is ever pumped into the CPU, regardless of the number of cores. As all Threadripper 7000 Series processors have the same TDP, it means the higher core count CPUs have lower all core frequencies. This presents an opportunity for specialist system builders like Armari to take power and performance beyond the standard levels. Using a custom All-In-One (AIO) cooler, Armari raises the sustained PBO to around 700W, delivering higher clock speeds over a longer period of time to get significantly

Solidworks 2022 SPECapc benchmark (CAD) 1.23 Benchmark score (bigger is better)

Rebuild test AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (16 C)

2.32

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D (16 C)

2.32

Intel Core i9-14900KF (8+16C)

2.50

Intel Xeon W9-3495X (56 C)

1.62

2 x Intel Xeon 8490H (60C)

1.35

AMD TR Pro 5995WX (64 C)

1.53

AMD TR Pro 7975WX (32 C)

2.14

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (no PBO)

2.12

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (70° C)

2.10

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (80° C)

2.14

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (90° C)

2.13

AMD TR Pro 7995WX (96 C) 2.03

Convert test

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (16 C)

2.17

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D (16 C)

2.25

Intel Core i9-14900KF (8+16C)

2.33

Intel Xeon W9-3495X (56 C)

1.56

2 x Intel Xeon 8490H (60C)

1.11

AMD TR Pro 5995WX (64 C)

1.41

AMD TR Pro 7975WX (32 C)

2.07

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (no PBO)

2.12

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (70° C)

2.14

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (80° C)

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (90° C)

2.17 2.17

AMD TR Pro 7995WX (96 C)

1.87

Simulate test 0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (16 C) AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D (16 C) Intel Core i9-14900KF (8+16C)

2.5 1.99

1.95

2.26

Intel Xeon W9-3495X (56 C)

1.60

2 x Intel Xeon 8490H (60C)

1.40

AMD TR Pro 5995WX (64 C)

1.55

AMD TR Pro 7975WX (32 C)

1.75

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (no PBO)

1.89

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (70° C)

1.82

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (80° C)

1.88

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (90° C)

1.88

AMD TR Pro 7995WX (96 C)

Mass properties test 0.0

1.17

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (16 C)

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D (16 C)

Intel Core i9-14900KF (8+16C)

2.47

Intel Xeon W9-3495X (56 C)

1.19

2 x Intel Xeon 8490H (60C)

1.17

AMD TR Pro 5995WX (64 C)

2.57 2.70

1.67

AMD TR Pro 7975WX (32 C)

2.19

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (no PBO)

1.66

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (70° C)

1.78

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (80° C)

2.20

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (90° C)

1.78

AMD TR Pro 7995WX (96 C)

2.05

Boolean test 0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (16 C)

3.0

2.06

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D (16 C)

2.29

Intel Core i9-14900KF (8+16C)

2.32

Intel Xeon W9-3495X (56 C)

1.12

2 x Intel Xeon 8490H (60C)

1.05

AMD TR Pro 5995WX (64 C)

1.35

AMD TR Pro 7975WX (32 C)

1.84

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (no PBO)

1.98

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (70° C)

1.79

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (80° C)

1.88

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (90° C)

1.82

AMD TR Pro 7995WX (96 C)

0.0

1.68

0.5

January / February 2024

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

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workstation special report

more performance out of the same silicon, all while keeping within thermal limits so the processor is not throttled. The conundrum for specialist system builders is that of warranty. While AMD makes overclocking easy and safe with PBO, and actively promotes the practice with a crack team that uses liquid nitrogen to break world records, the official stance is that AMD’s product warranty does not cover damages caused by overclocking. When you are talking about processors that costs thousands of pounds this is a big exposure for a specialist system builder. In the case of Armari, it has a tonne of experience in boosting workstations while keeping machines running within safe limits. It has stated that PBO tuning will be a ‘supported and fully warrantied feature’ of its flagship Magnetar M64T7 workstation.

drop in frequency which would reduce performance in workflows that do not benefit from additional cache.

A lot of what we see in the Threadripper 7000 Series is inherited from AMD’s ‘Zen 4’ EPYC server processors. Some of the more recent models from the EPYC 9004 Series come with 3D V-Cache, a special type of L3 cache that is stacked vertically instead of horizontally, so more cache

can be placed on the CPU. The 96-core AMD EPYC 9684X, for example, boasts a whopping 1,152 MB compared to its non 3D V-Cache equivalent, the AMD EPYC 9654 which has 384 MB. The benefit of having more cache is that the CPU has a greater chance of being able to fetch the data it needs from faster cache instead of from slower system memory (RAM). And in some memory intensive workflows, such as CFD, where large amounts of data need to be fetched regularly, this can deliver a performance benefit, as demonstrated in AEC Magazine’s review of the consumerfocused AMD Ryzen 7000 X3D processor, and in this blog post about CFD software Siemens Simcenter STAR-CCM+ (www.tinyurl.com/Epyc-siemens). None of the new Threadripper 7000 Series processors support 3D V-Cache. Instead, chips come with standard L3 cache, up to 384 MB on the 96-core model. On a core-to-core basis this is the same as the previous generation. AMD said that it experimented with 3D V-Cache on Threadripper but found that there are ‘very few applications that show a material performance uplift’. Enabling 3D V-Cache also means a small

Unreal Engine 4.26

Agisoft MetaShape Professional 1.73

SPECWorkstation 3.1

Recompile shaders (Audi Car Configurator model)

Puget Systems benchmark (photogrammetry)

Simulation tests (CFD and FEA)

1.23 Time secs (smaller is better)

1.23 Benchmark score (bigger is better)

What about AMD 3D V-Cache?

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (16 C)

Rock Model

165.72

Intel Core i9-14900KF (8+16C)

202.31

Intel Xeon W9-3495X (56 C)

Intel Core i9-14900KF (8+16C)

85.93

AMD TR Pro 7975WX (32 C)

72.40

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (no PBO)

66.31

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (70° C)

65.04

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (80° C)

64.06

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (90° C)

64.67

AMD TR Pro 7995WX (96 C)

SiSoft Sandra benchmark

83.30

Intel Xeon W9-3495X (56 C)

215.45

AMD TR Pro 5995WX (64 C)

100

150

200

250

AMD TR Pro 7975WX (32 C)

116.65

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (no PBO)

15.81

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (70° C)

121.55

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (70° C)

15.51

115.63

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (80° C)

15.77

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (90° C)

117.80

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (90° C)

AMD TR Pro 7995WX (96 C)

100

150

15.53

AMD TR Pro 7995WX (96 C)

152.30

200

250

11.72

Calculix (FEA) workset

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (16 C)

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (16 C) N/A

405.33

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D (16 C) N/A

Intel Core i9-14900KF (8+16C)

68.0 (2-channel / 2 x DDR5-6000)

Intel Core i9-14900KF (8+16C)

206.1 (8-channel / 8 x DDR5-5200)

18.10

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (80° C)

52.0 (2-channel / 2 x DDR5-6000)

139.3 (8-channel / 8 x DDR4-3200)

24.96 13.11

105.80

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D (16 C)

325.6 (16-channel / 16 x DDR5-4800)

14.80

2 x Intel Xeon 8490H (60C)

AMD TR Pro 7975WX (32 C)

School Map

184.6 (8-channel / 8 x DDR5-4800)

6.28

AMD TR Pro 5995WX (64 C)

157.30

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (16 C) N/A

5.65

Intel Core i9-14900KF (8+16C)

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (no PBO)

Memory bandwidth 1.23 Memory bandwidth GB/sec (bigger is better)

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D (16 C) Intel Xeon W9-3495X (56 C)

159.40

2 x Intel Xeon 8490H (60C)

81.04

AMD TR Pro 7975WX (32 C)

Lenovo ThinkStation P8 • AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7995WX (96-core Pro) • 512 GB (4 x 128 GB) 4,800MT/sec DDR5 RDIMM memory • Lenovo motherboard (WRX50) • 1 TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 5.0 SSD • Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 22621 (Read our full review on page WS22)

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (16 C) N/A

134.53

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D (16 C) N/A

78.52

AMD TR Pro 5995WX (64 C)

HP Z6 G5A • AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7975WX (32-core Pro) • 128 GB (8 x 16 GB) DDR5-5600 MHz RDIMM memory • HP motherboard (WRX50) • 1 TB HP Z Turbo G2 2280 PCle x2 SSD • Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 22621 (Read our full review on page WS18)

WPCcfd workset

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (16 C)

102.63

2 x Intel Xeon 8490H (60C)

For our AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 Series review, we tested three different Threadripper 7000 Series processors (two from the Pro range and one HEDT) in three different workstations.

189.71

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D (16 C)

Intel Xeon W9-3495X (56 C)

The performance

324.10

Intel Xeon W9-3495X (56 C) AMD TR Pro 5995WX (64 C)

1230.80

3.85 5.47

2 x Intel Xeon 8490H (60C)

6.77

AMD TR Pro 5995WX (64 C)

617.40

AMD TR Pro 7975WX (32 C)

3.79

Intel Core i9-14900KF (8+16C) Intel Xeon W9-3495X (56 C)

706.40

2 x Intel Xeon 8490H (60C)

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D (16 C)

8.79

AMD TR Pro 7975WX (32 C)

442.35

6.12

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (no PBO)

153.6 (4-channel / 4 x DDR5-6400)

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (no PBO)

568.75

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (no PBO)

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (70° C)

153.2 (4-channel / 4 x DDR5-6400)

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (70° C)

570.55

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (70° C)

10.66

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (80° C)

152.1 (4-channel / 4 x DDR5-6400)

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (80° C)

564.63

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (80° C)

10.51

153.1 (4-channel / 4 x DDR5-6400)

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (90° C)

566.90

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (90° C)

10.73

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (90° C) AMD TR Pro 7995WX (96 C)

113.9 (8-channel / 4 x DDR5-4800)

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350

WS12

January / February 2024

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AMD TR Pro 7995WX (96 C)

651.90

300

600

900

10.39

1200

1500

12.18

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27/01/2024 15:32

workstation special report

HWinfo - CPU Package Power

Max single core frequency

Max multi core frequency

Total power consumed during Cinebench 23 multi-core test

Max frequency after 10 min Cinebench 23 single core test

Max frequency after 10 min Cinebench 23 multi core test

1.23 Measured in Watts

1.23 Measured in GHz

AMD TR Pro 7975WX (32 C)

350W

AMD TR Pro 7975WX (32 C)

5.03 GHz

AMD TR Pro 7975WX (32 C)

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (no PBO)

350W

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (no PBO)

4.99 GHz

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (no PBO)

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (70° C)

500W (approx)

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (80° C)

600W (approx)

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (90° C)

700W (approx)

AMD TR Pro 7995WX (96 C) 100

200

300

400

500

5.05 GHz

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (70° C)

5.08 GHz

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (80° C)

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (90° C)

5.05 GHz

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (90° C)

AMD TR Pro 7995WX (96 C)

350W 0

AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (70° C) AMD TR 7980X (64 C) (80° C)

600

700

800

Armari Magnetar M64T7 • AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X (64-core HEDT) • 128GB (4 x 32GB) G.SKILL Z5 Neo DDR5 RDIMM 6,400MT/sec memory • ASUS Pro WS TRX50-SAFE WIFI motherboard (TRX50) • 2TB Crucial T700 PCIe Gen 5 SSD • Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 22631 (Read our full review on page WS24)

4.70 GHz 0

we also tested with ‘Level 3’ (70°C – around 500W), ‘Level 1’ 90°C (around 700W) and with PBO off (350W). To put these temperatures into perspective, AMD considers 95°C to be safe ‘with no detriment to longevity or reliability’. For reference, when rendering in Cinebench 23 for one hour, the HP Z6 G5A hit 95°C and the Lenovo ThinkStation P8 hit 83°C, although it mostly hovered around 75°C. There are also some differences in memory. For the ‘Zen 4’ Threadrippers, memory officially goes up to 5,200MT/ sec. The HP Z6 G5A uses eight 16 GB RDIMMs of 5,200MT/sec memory, making full use of Threadripper Pro’s eight memory channels. It topped the charts in the SiSoft Sandra benchmark with a score of 206.1 GB/sec.

4.39 GHz 3.56 GHz 4.10 GHz 4.47 GHz 4.56 GHz

AMD TR Pro 7995WX (96 C)

3.13 GHz 0

‘Sapphire Rapids’ processors, the Intel Xeon w9-3495X (56-cores) (Lenovo ThinkStation P7) and dual Intel Xeon Platinum 8490H (60-cores) (Lenovo ThinkStation PX), plus three of the best consumer desktop processors, the Intel Core i9-14900K (8 P-Cores + 16 E-Cores) (Workstation Specialists WS IC-Z7900), AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (16-cores) (Scan 3XS GWP-ME A132R) and AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D (16-cores) (Armari).

Each machine is different, so there Rendering performance are many other variables, including motherboard, memory, storage and For processors with an exceptionally cooling. Furthermore, as tested, the HP high number of cores, ray trace rendering Z6 G5A was the only workstation that’s is always a good place to start for testing, a full shipping product. The Lenovo simply because performance tends to ThinkStation P8 is a pre-production unit scale very well. and the Armari Magnetar M64T7 is a We first tested with PBO off on the pre-production Armari machine unit / technology and a strict TDP demonstration. of 350W. The 96Overclocking with PBO uses significantly more power. core Threadripper With this in mind, our benchmark Pro 7995WX This means a larger carbon footprint and higher results should topped all our electricity bills. Performance is one metric, but firms not be treated as benchmark charts. also need to assess new technologies in different ways However, despite gospel. This is not a definitive having 50% more comparison of cores than the 64Threadripper 7000 Series processors, Meanwhile, the Lenovo ThinkStation core Threadripper 7980X, the chip although it should give a good idea of P8 only came with four 128 GB RDIMMs did not deliver anywhere near 50% relative performance. of 4,800MT/s memory, so the memory more performance. This can largely There are some other caveats. Both bandwidth was much lower – 113.9 GB/sec. be attributed to the sustained all-core the HP and Lenovo machines run their HEDT Threadripper only has four frequencies. Threadripper Pro processors within memory channels but the Armari In Cinebench 23, the 96-core 7995WX a strict power limit of 350W, which is Magnetar M64T7 got the very best out maintained 3.13 GHz for the duration standard on all Threadripper Pro 7000 of it with 128 GB (4 x 32 GB) of G.SKILL of the ten-minute test, while the 64WX-Series OEM systems. Both machines Z5 Neo DDR5 memory that runs at core 7980X sustained 3.56 GHz, only are air cooled. 6,400MT/sec, delivering a score of 152.1 resulting in a 22% performance uplift. Meanwhile, Armari shipped its HEDT GB/sec. Compared to standard 5,200MT/ In V-Ray the uplift was bigger (24%). Threadripper workstation with Precision sec memory, this may give a boost in In KeyShot it was smaller (15%). In Boost Overdrive (PBO) enabled and a certain memory intensive applications Cinebench 2024 it was only single custom All-In-One (AIO) liquid cooler with like CFD, but memory this fast currently digit (6%). As Cinebench 2024 is a a contact plate that covers the entire chip. comes at a huge premium. Armari knows new benchmark, we have very little In the BIOS of the ASUS Pro WS this isn’t for everyone, so will typically experience of using it, but we guess the TRX50-SAFE WIFI motherboard ship machines with more cost effective smaller gap could be down to the superior there are three PBO settings which the 5,200MT/sec DDR5 memory. memory bandwidth of the 64-core customer can choose from. The machine For comparison, we also included Armari workstation. Memory bandwidth came with ‘Level 2’ enabled, which results from workstations featuring is almost certainly the reason why the limits the temperature of the processor AMD’s previous generation Threadripper 96-core 7995WX loses out to the 64-core to 80°C and raises the sustained PBO Pro 5995WX (64-cores) (Scan 3XS GWP- 7980X in our Unreal Engine test for to around 600W. For comparison, ME A1128T), Intel’s closest competitive recompiling shaders.

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AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro processors feature up to 96-cores

For pure rendering, the performance uplift from the 32-core 7970WX to 64core 7980X was larger: V-Ray (63%), KeyShot (56%), Cinebench 23 (52%), Cinebench 2024 (58%). Despite having 100% more cores, you don’t get double the performance, as the 32-core 7970WX can sustain a higher all-core frequency (4.39 GHz vs 3.56 GHz in Cinebench 23). Interestingly, the 32-core 7970WX edges out the 56-core Intel Xeon w93495X and the 96-core 7995WX edges out the dual 60-core Intel Xeon Platinum 8490H. It looks like Intel will find it very hard to compete with AMD, although Intel could go hard on price/performance. Next, we brought PBO into mix with the Armari Magnetar M64T7. This massively upped the power consumed by the 64-core 7980X processor but yielded some very fast results. The maximum ‘Level 1’ 90°C profile pushed peak power consumption to around 700W but saw performance rise by as much as 28% with both V-Ray and KeyShot. Remarkably, when drawing up to 700W, the 64-core 7980X even outpaced the 96-core 7995WX with the standard 350W TDP. It’s important to note that there are diminishing returns as you pump more power into the processor. With this in mind, it looks like the 70°C profile, which ‘only’ raises the power draw by 150W, might deliver the best balance.

CAD / BIM CAD and BIM software is largely single threaded or lightly threaded so is wasted on a multi-core behemoth like Threadripper. However, it still forms WS14

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an important part of many design, engineering and architecture workflows. In years gone by the trade-off of having lots of cores, meant low frequencies and limited performance in tools like Revit, Solidworks and Inventor, when compared to mainstream desktop processors with far fewer cores. This started to change with first generation Threadripper and now the Threadripper 7000 Series takes single threaded performance to new levels. The 32-core 7970WX and 64-core 7980X hit 5.0 to 5.1GHz, while the 96core 7995WX reached 4.7 GHz, delivering impressive scores in the SPECapc for Solidworks 2022 benchmark. This is a fair bit ahead of the previous generation AMD Threadripper Pro 5995WX (64 C) and not that far behind the best consumer processors – 14th Gen Intel Core and AMD Ryzen 7950X. PBO made no difference to performance.

Simulation performance Engineering simulation includes Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). FEA can help predict how a product reacts to real-world forces or temperatures. CFD can be used to optimise aerodynamics in cars or predict the impact of wind on buildings. Both types of software are extremely demanding computationally. There are many different types of ‘solvers’ used in FEA and CFD and each behaves differently, as does each dataset. In general, CFD scales very well and studies should solve much quicker with more CPU cores. Importantly, CFD can also benefit greatly from memory bandwidth, as each CPU core can be fed

data quicker. This is one area in which Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-Series has a potential advantage over the ‘HEDT’ Threadripper 7000 Series as it supports 8-channel memory compared to 4-channel. For testing we used three select workloads from the SPECworkstation 3.1 benchmark. These included two CFD benchmarks (Rodinia, which represents compressible flow, and WPCcfd, which models combustion and turbulence) and one FEA benchmark (CalculiX, which models a jet engine turbine’s internal temperature). We decided not to publish any results from Rodinia benchmark as they were very inconsistent with the 64-core and 96-core Threadripper processors. However, one thing that remained clear is that the dual Intel Xeon Platinum 8490H (2 x 60 cores) had a considerable lead. As we’ve seen before, the WPCcfd benchmark is very sensitive to memory bandwidth. With the 32-core HP workstation having almost double the memory bandwidth of the 96-core 7995WX Lenovo workstation, it came out top in this test. Lenovo shared some internal lab results from the WPCcfd benchmark which put the 96-core 7995WX with 8 x 32 GB RDIMMs in at 22.43. While this would give it top spot, it’s not a convincing argument for spending so much more on a 96-core processor. On the flip side, memory bandwidth has very little impact in the Calculix (FEA) benchmark, so the 96-core Threadripper won out. The 32-core 7970WX beat the 56-core Intel Xeon w9-3495X in both tests. Surprisingly, any benefit from PBO was negligible. This is because the benchmarks don’t appear to stress the CPU anywhere near as much as ray trace rendering, which takes full advantage of AMD’s Simultaneous Multi-threading (SMT), allowing each CPU core to handle two tasks (threads) at the same time - CPU resources that would otherwise be idle. In the WPCcfd test for example, even with the maximum ‘Level 1’ 90 C profile and all 64-cores running flat out, the temperature of the CPU never went above 81 C, drawing 447 Watts at peak, and maintaining a phenomenal 4.73 GHz on all 64 cores for the duration of the 48-minute test. When PBO was disabled and power draw went down to 350W, frequency fluctuated between 4.32 GHz and 4.52 GHz. However, this drop in clock speed appears to have little impact on performance. In short, when overclocking in these simulation workloads, you could simply be wasting power. www.AECmag.com

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Conclusion

expect Armari will also apply PBO to the to maximise memory bandwidth. Here, High core counts historically meant 96-core chip, pushing multi-threaded the 12, 16, or 24 core Pro chips could have a huge drop in frequency. But when performance to entirely new levels. an important role to play, particularly AMD first introduced Threadripper, Of course, enabling PBO uses in CAD-centric simulation workflows, workstation users could finally have their significantly more power. This means where the software is often limited to cake and it too. At least in small portions. a larger carbon footprint and higher a certain number of cores. For others, First gen Threadripper is to blueberry electricity bills. Performance is one memory bandwidth is not that critical, muffins, as the Threadripper 7000 metric, but firms also need to assess new giving the HEDT Threadrippers a clear Series is to black forest gateaux. With technologies in different ways. Putting price/performance advantage. up to 96-cores and extremely high boost more power into the chip also means Users also need to consider the wider frequencies the new processors take more heat is produced and more cooling cost of software. Some simulation workstation performance to phenomenal is required - both inside the computer software providers charge extra to new levels. On a performance-per-core and in the general office environment. run their solvers on more cores, so any basis, Intel simply can’t compete with its Running the CPU at 700W was a potential performance increases need single socket workstation equivalents, welcome heat source this winter, not so to be weighed up against increased the Intel Xeon W-2400 Series and much in summer. licensing costs. Of course, with so W-3400 Series. Beyond visualisation, the Threadripper much variance between applications, But the new chips bring some tough 7000 Series is ideal for simulation solvers and datasets, we would always choices. Users must now decide between thanks to high core counts, high-memory recommend in-house benchmarking to HEDT and Pro variants. For some, this will bandwidth, and high memory capacity. get the most out of your budget. be an easy decision. Many large engineering This gives both HEDT and Pro variants a Furthermore, beyond the desktop, and architecture firms the Threadripper 7000 only buy from Dell, HP or Series could have an Lenovo, because of global important role to play When you need lots of cores or lots of highavailability, global support, in virtual workstations. certification, single source bandwidth memory in a personal workstation, With high clock speeds IT, and many other reasons. there’s nothing else out there that comes close and a dedicated single slot For others, there’s a complex or dual slot GPU for each matrix of cores, memory virtual machine, there’s bandwidth, PBO, and of huge potential here. course value for money. distinct advantage over consumer Intel In summary, the AMD Ryzen From a performance perspective alone, Core and AMD Ryzen CPUs. What’s Threadripper 7000 Series is a phenomenal the HEDT series looks to offer best value more, the new Threadrippers will also workstation processor. With nine models for design visualisation. Most workflows outperform the Intel Xeon W-2400 and spanning Pro and HEDT variants, it covers that centre on ray trace rendering are not W-3400 Series on a core-by-core basis. many different workflows, and now with that memory bandwidth intensive, so Against the Threadripper 5000 WX- the all the major OEMs on board, many Pro’s 8-channel architecture should not Series, Intel had an advantage. Now, with different routes to market. deliver a major benefit. the Threadripper 7000 Series, and its Users of CAD and BIM software are What’s more, with appropriate liquid higher IPC and faster DDR5 memory, this still best served by the consumer-focused cooling, specialist system builders like lead has gone. AMD Ryzen or Intel Core processors, Armari are pushing these chips way But users of FEA and CFD software but when you need lots of cores or lots of beyond their stock settings and with need to spend their money wisely. In some high-bandwidth memory in a personal PBO enabled the 64-core 7980X can even workflows, instead of throwing more workstation, there’s nothing else out there outpace the 96-core Pro 7995WX. We cores at a problem, it’s more important that comes close.

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AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 Series workstations

Dell Precision 7875

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Lenovo ThinkStation P8 see page WS22 for review

HP Z6 G5A see page WS18 for review

Armari Magnetar M64T7 see page WS24 for review

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workstation special report

the HP Z8 Fury G5 with Review: HP Z6 G5 A while Intel Xeon W-3400 processors

Product spec

Pro and Quad Pro PCIe add in boards support up to two or four NVMe SSDs in various RAID configurations. Meanwhile, for easy access, the front accessible QX448 storage module can support up to four hot-swappable and lockable NVMe SSDs, the largest number of front accessible SSDs out of all the OEM Threadripper Pro workstations. This is particularly useful when the HP Z6 G5 A is rack mounted, which we’ll get onto later.

(up to 56 cores) supports more ■ AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro GPUs (four vs three). 7975WX processor That’s not to say the HP Z6 G5 (4.0 GHz, 5.3 GHz boost) (32-cores, A is light on options. It offers the 64 threads) entire Threadripper Pro 7000 ■ 128 GB (8 x 16 GB) WX-Series CPU stack from 12 to DDR5-5600 MHz RDIMM memory 96 cores, so the workstation can ■ 1 TB HP Z Turbo G2 be matched to a huge range of 2280 PCle x2 SSD workflows. ■ HP motherboard t’s incredible that HP took so long to The HP Z6 G5 A can pack in (WRX50) adopt AMD Ryzen Threadripper three double height GPUs, but ■ 169 x 465 x 445mm chassis Pro. Since the powerful multi-core there is a trade-off here. With ■ Microsoft workstation processor launched in three super high-end graphics Windows 11 Pro 2020, AMD has consistently delivered cards like the Nvidia RTX ■ Warranty on System thermals application industry-leading performance with each 6000 Ada Generation, you’re new generation. restricted to the entry-level With so much powerful ■ £on application It must have been hard for HP to 12-core Threadripper Pro hardware packed into a ■ www.hp.com compete with Lenovo and Dell in the 7955WX processor. relatively compact chassis, high-end workstation market. Prior to This isn’t really an issue for HP’s engineers certainly the launch of the ‘Sapphire Rapids’ Intel those with GPU-centric workflows such had their work cut out for thermal Xeon-based HP Z6, Z8 and Z8 Fury G5 GPU rendering. Also, as the 12-core model management. In addition to the 350W Edition workstations in mid 2023, all of is dramatically cheaper than the higher core processor, there’s potentially multiple HP’s high-end workstations relied on count Threadripper Pros, it makes the HP 300W GPUs, NVMe SSDs and lots of ageing Intel Xeon processors that dated Z6 G5 A attractive for an entirely different high-frequency memory to cool. back to 2019. reason. Threadripper Pro becomes the Everything is handled by a multitude of Now, with the launch of the ‘Zen 4’ enabler rather than the star of the show. fans, controlled in real-time by algorithms Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-Series, HP is Moreover, while having 96 cores taking data from over 20 sensors that finally on board. And with the brand-new and 1 TB of RAM is great for simulation continuously monitor system and HP Z6 G5 A, the company has done a great and AI, some workflows in this space component temperatures. job of delivering an exceedingly powerful lend themselves to GPU acceleration. One large fan at the rear pulls air from workstation in a remarkably compact 4U The HP Z6 G5 A can also support up the processor’s sizeable heat sink, while (169 x 465 x 445mm) chassis. to two Nvidia A800 GPUs (40 GB) two fans at the front push cool air over The HP Z6 G5 A shares a similar name which are tuned for compute and offer the GPUs and on-board SSDs. Air moves to the Intel Xeon W-3400far better double precision from front to back in the traditional way based HP Z6 G5 but — you performance than the Nvidia and is also drawn in through the side guessed it — the A suffix RTX cards. panel’s grill using dedicated fans for each Considering refers to ‘AMD’. Both chassis The HP Z6 G5 A comes memory bank, and for each GPU. One are the same size, but the its size, the with DDR5 5,600 MHz might question how this design impacts Threadripper Pro version has but this runs at thermals in the datacentre when multiple HP Z6 G5 A is memory, a different industrial design, 5,200 MHz speeds. All machines are packed together tightly in a remarkably eight DIMM slots need to be a rack. Considering HP’s intense focus better airflow, and more memory channels. populated to benefit from on HP Z workstations in the datacentre, powerful Considering the workstation. Threadripper Pro’s 8-channel we can’t imagine it hasn’t done its Threadripper Pro 7000 WXmemory architecture, for thermodynamics homework here. It’s solid, Series shatters performance the maximum memory extremely records and offers more bandwidth. This isn’t The chassis cores, higher frequencies and well built and important for all workflows. Build quality is good and the machine feels better Instructions Per Clock for those where it is — very solid throughout. In contrast to the the smallest But (IPC) than all Intel ‘Sapphire some types of engineering Lenovo ThinkStation P8 (see page WS22), Rapids’ Xeon processors, one Threadripper simulation for example — it where the handles are part of the aesthetic, Pro OEM might be surprised that the effectively makes 128 GB built into all four corners of the chassis, the HP Z6 G5 A sits in the middle workstation a practical minimum (8 x HP Z6 G5 A’s two top handles are more of HP’s ‘performance desktop’ 16 GB), while 1 TB is the understated. Despite the rear handle being out there workstation product stack maximum (8 x 128 GB). hidden and smaller in size, it’s still easy (which covers everything With support for up to 12 enough to lift the machine, but there are no other than its Intel CoreNVMe SSDs and two 3.5- bottom handles for maximum mobility. based machines). inch SATA HDDs, there’s a tonne of Inside, it’s a very neat modular design. This is more about expandability than storage options. For standard configs, up To get to the memory and GPU, the side the performance of the processor. The top to four SSDs can be placed directly on the fans can be removed effortlessly, guiding of the range HP Z8 G5 with dual 4th Gen motherboard (2 x PCIe 4.0 and 2 x PCIe the user with blue touch points. With Intel Xeon Scalable processors (up to 60 5.0) with capacities up to 4 TB. blind mate connectors there’s no need to cores) supports more memory (2 TB vs 1 There are two optional extras. For detach or re-attach power cables. TB) and more memory channels (16 vs 8) performance, the HP Z Turbo Dual HP calls the HP Z6 G5 A whisper quiet. This Threadripper Pro workstation is the smallest from the major OEMs. Considering its huge potential for cutting edge performance, that’s remarkable, although some compromises may need to be made when it comes to expandability, writes Greg Corke

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We wouldn’t describe it that way, but fan noise was perfectly acceptable, with both the Threadripper Pro 7975WX processor and Nvidia RTX A6000 GPU in our test machine running flat out. Temperature on the 7975WX hit 95°C when rendering on all 32 cores. This is significantly higher than the other Threadripper 7000 Series workstations we’ve tested, and right on the CPU’s maximum recommended operating temperature. It might be the case that not all Threadripper Pro processors hit this temperature limit inside the HP Z6 G5 A. Although it sounds counter-intuitive, the 32-core model is reportedly harder to cool than the 64-core and 96-core models as it has fewer chiplets, so the power (and therefore heat) is concentrated in smaller areas. N.B. Instead of being made from a single large piece of silicon, Threadripper 7000 Series processors are made up of multiple 8-core chiplets (also called CCDs), which are then stitched together. With such a compact chassis, HP has worked hard on customisation. Rather than using up an additional PCIe slot, a proprietary Flex-IO interface at the rear enables the user to expand connectivity, adding 10GbE RJ45 LAN (in addition to the standard 1GbE Ethernet built in), Wi-Fi6, which hooks into the internal integrated antenna, or more USB ports. As standard, the machine has no USB Type-C ports, so you’ll either need to use up the Flex-IO expansion at the rear or go for the premium front I/O option of (1) www.AECmag.com

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USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C and (2) USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A. The basic configuration gives you (4) USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A and (2) USB3.2 Gen1 Type-A at the rear and (4) USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A at the front. In this day and age, and considering that workstations typically remain in service for years, it seems strange not to make USB Type-C standard, especially as using up the Flex-IO expansion can restrict other customisation options. Finally, there’s also an optional HP Dual Port Thunderbolt 4 Low Profile PCIe add-in card, offering data transfer rates of up to 40Gb/s.

HP Z in the datacentre In recent years, HP has made a big play for its desktop workstations to be deployed in datacentres and server rooms as a centralised, remote resource. The HP Z6 G5 A is 4U in size and comes with an optional rack mount kit, and optional HP Anyware Remote System Controller. This PCIe add-in card is designed to give the workstation ‘server level’ management capabilities. The idea is to help IT managers better manage fleets of workstations, allowing them to remote in, power workstations on and off remotely, perform bare metal imaging (with multiple Operating Systems), manage inventory, and get hardware alerts and diagnostics info. Then, of course, there’s HP Anyware, the remote access and collaboration software which evolved from HP’s

acquisition of Teradici in 2021. Altogether, it gives HP a joined-up solution to support the growing shift towards hybrid working.

Performance Our HP Z6 G5 A test workstation came with the mid-range 32 core AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7975WX processor. While this only gave the machine one third of its potential maximum number of cores, it offered a good insight into how performance scales within the family of processors and of the broader benefits of the Threadripper Pro platform. The first thing to note is that compared to the top end consumer AMD Ryzen 9 7950X processor with sixteen ‘Zen 4’ cores it delivered around 60% to 70% more performance in our ray trace rendering benchmarks. This is nothing to be sniffed at, but it’s in memory bandwidth intensive workflows, such as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), that the HP Z6 G5 A and its Threadripper Pro processor truly shines. With the 8-channel memory architecture fully harnessed with 8 x 16 GB DIMMs, it outperformed the dual channel AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D processor in the SPEC Workstation 3.1 WPCcfd workset benchmark by more than a factor of three. In the WPCcfd test, superior memory bandwidth even gave it the edge over the Lenovo ThinkStation P8 with a 96core Threadripper Pro 7995WX Series processor. The ThinkStation P8 we tested January / February 2024

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only had four RDIMMs fitted, so the HP Z6 G5 A made the most of having almost double the memory bandwidth (113.86 GB/sec vs 206.1 GB/sec). In ray trace rendering, more cores means more performance, and here the ThinkStation P8 with 96 core 7995WX has a clear lead. But as the number of cores goes up, the all-core frequency goes down, so you get closer to double the performance when going from 32 to 96 cores, despite having three times as many. And then there’s Intel’s single socket workstation processor, the Intel Xeon W-3400. Amazingly, the HP Z6 G5 A with a 32 core Threadripper Pro 7970WX, edged out a Lenovo ThinkStation P7 configured with the top-end 56 core Intel Xeon w9-3495X in all our benchmarks — multi-threaded and single threaded. With this in mind, it’s hard to see where the original Intel-based HP Z6 G5 workstation fits in unless it wins out at certain levels of price/performance.

The verdict Considering its size, the HP Z6 G5 A is a remarkably powerful workstation. It’s solid, extremely well built and the smallest Threadripper Pro OEM workstation out there, edging out the Lenovo ThinkStation P8 and Dell Precision 7875 Tower. But in its drive to keep things compact, it feels like HP has made some tradeoffs. If connectivity or multi-GPUs are important, then it’s prudent to fully explore if this chassis will work for you — now and in the future. These small points shouldn’t detract from an otherwise excellent workstation. With support for Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-Series processors from 12 to 96 cores, it can hit so many different workflows. It’s hard to see how HP’s Intel Xeonbased workstations — the HP Z6, Z8 and Z8 Fury G5 — will now get a look in, in anything other than edge case scenarios. A final mention should go to the datacentre. While the HP Z6 G5 A looks like a desktop workstation and performs like a desktop workstation, HP is putting all the pieces in place — hardware and software — to make it an important part of a cohesive remote workstation solution. With the Threadripper Pro 7000 WX Series offering high frequencies and high IPC for good single threaded and multi-threaded performance it shouldn’t have the performance trade-off which many virtualised / cloud workstations suffer from. WS20

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(Above) Considering the processing power inside, the HP Z6 G5 A is an extremely compact workstation (Left) The front accessible QX448 storage module can support up to four hot-swappable and lockable NVMe SSDs (Below) The HP Z6 G5 A can support up to three dual slot GPUs, but this limits the choice of CPUs

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27/01/2024 15:43

High performance virtual desktops for the most demanding graphical industries Dedicated Nvidia GPU accelerated resource for every vdesk Threadripper Pro CPUs for high clock speed High density for server rooms/data centres Much lower power draw than physical workstations Super efficient administration and deployment Accessible for organisations of all sizes

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Now scale your hosted VDI by the individual vdesk on a monthly or annual commitment. The latest chapter in Inevidesk’s continuing evolution. www.inevidesk.uk info@inevidesk.uk

workstation special report

Review: Lenovo ThinkStation P8 The striking chassis from this Aston Martin-inspired workstation made its debut last year with the Intel Xeonbased ThinkStation P7. Now with the new AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7000 Series processor at its heart, the ThinkStation P8 takes performance to exciting new levels, writes Greg Corke

P7 in May 2023 it had the edge datacentre with a rack optimised Product spec over the ‘Zen 3’ Threadripper ‘4U’ design. Bolt holes are hidden Pro Lenovo ThinkStation P620 under a removable top cover, ■ AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro in workflows that were single making it easy to deploy with the 7995WX CPU threaded or memory-bandwidth optional sliding rack rail kit. (2.5 GHz, 5.1 GHz boost) (96-cores, intensive. Now with the ‘Zen 4’ The machine can be 192 threads) Threadripper delivering configured with a Baseboard ■ Nvidia RTX A5500 enhanced Instructions Per Clock Management Controller (BMC) GPU (24 GB GDDR6 memory) (IPC), DDR5 memory across card, similar to those found ■ 512 GB (4 x 128 GB) 8-channels and even more cores, in rack servers. It offers ‘full 4,800MHz DDR5 RDIMM memory that lead has gone. remote management’, enabling ■ 1 TB M.2 NVMe The beauty of the Lenovo IT managers to monitor the PCIe 5.0 SSD ThinkStation P8 is that it workstation, cycle on and off, ■ Lenovo Extended can cover so many different perform BIOS or firmware eATX WRX90 motherboard workflows. With support for updates and re-image if ■ 175 x 508 x Threadripper Pro 7000 WXnecessary. There’s also dual 434mm chassis Series processors from 12 to 96 Ethernet as standard (1 GbE and ■ Microsoft cores, up to three dual slot or six 10 GbE) with Wake-on-LAN, Windows 11 Pro single slot professional GPUs along with a rear power button. ■ ■ 3 Year On-site warranty (future proofed for PCIe Gen 5 An entire ThinkStation P8 can GPUs when they come available), be assigned to a single user, but ■ £ on application and up to 1 TB of DDR5 memory, not everyone needs such levels ■ Lenovo.com it can do almost everything of performance. The machine that the Intel Xeon-based also lends itself extremely well to ThinkStation P5, P7 and PX combined can virtualisation and with the right software do. It’s only when you need more memory, can be carved up into six virtual machines, more memory bandwidth, or four dual slot each with their own dedicated single slot GPUs, that you’ll have to turn to the dual pro GPU, powerful enough for CAD and socket Lenovo ThinkStation PX. mainstream design visualisation.

hen it comes to AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro, Lenovo is a relative veteran. Back in 2020, the company became the first major OEM to take on the powerful multi-core workstation processor. The ThinkStation P620 redefined the high-end desktop workstation, and arguably made it what it is today. The ThinkStation P8 is Lenovo’s second generation Threadripper Pro workstation, built around the ‘Zen 4’ Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-Series. It shares the same chassis as the Intel Xeon W-3400-based ThinkStation P7, but arguably earns its elevated status in The chassis Lenovo’s workstation portfolio, simply For desktop or datacentre because it is so much faster. The ThinkStation P8 is primarily a desktop The ThinkStation P8 is a beautifully When we reviewed the ThinkStation workstation, but it’s also been built for the designed and engineered machine, with a WS22

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solid metal 175 x 508 x 434.4 mm chassis Considering the ThinkStation P8 has a the ThinkStation P8 boosted to 3.13 GHz, with handles on all four corners. This 350W processor flanked by eight memory while the 64-core 7980X in the Armari makes it easy to hold, and it certainly modules, and up to three 300W GPUs, Magnetar M64T7 sustained 3.56 GHz. needs to be. Approaching 20kg, our test it’s hardly surprising Lenovo paid a lot of For our test machine, Lenovo supplied machine was heavy enough with one attention to the thermal design. the memory in four 128 GB 4,800MHz dual slot Nvidia RTX A5500 GPU and It all starts with the ‘3D Hexperf’ front RDIMMs. This meant it did not take full one SSD. When loaded up with multiple grill, the design of which was inspired advantage of the platform’s 8-channel GPUs and Hard Disk Drives (HDDs), by the Aston Martin DBS grand tourer. memory architecture, resulting in lower raising it into a rack memory bandwidth. is definitely a twoIn the SiSoft Sandra person job. memory bandwidth The ThinkStation benchmark, it The beauty of the Lenovo ThinkStation P8 is that it P8 scores very highly recorded 113.86 GB/ on serviceability sec. In comparison, can cover so many different workflows. It can do with tool-free access the HP Z6 G5 A almost everything that the Intel Xeon-based on everything bar Threadripper Pro ThinkStation P5, P7 and PX combined can do the CPU. This starts workstation, maxed with the side panel out with 8 x 16 GB that can be removed RDIMMs of 5,600 with a simple press MHz DDR5 memory, and pull of the stylish flush handle. It The spacing and shape of the rigid plastic delivered 206.10 GB/sec. continues inside, with red handles and grill, which has rounded spikes that While the lower memory bandwidth clips to secure and release the GPUs, protrude at the front, is engineered for had very little bearing on our rendering fans, power supply unit (PSU) and 3.5- maximum airflow. benchmarks it did impact the scores in inch HDDs. In short, anything that is red, Low duty front fans pull fresh air our simulation tests. With the WPCcfd moves. Unlike the ThinkStation PX, there into the machine, while rear fans push workset from the SPECWorkstation 3.1 are no blind mate connectors, however. warm air out. There’s a massive dual benchmark, the HP Z6 G5 A configured Cables for the fans and HDDs must still be fan heatsink for the air-cooled processor with the 32-core Threadripper Pro unplugged. with dual stacks to maximise surface 7975WX actually beat the Lenovo The Lenovo ThinkStation P8 is a area. Each bank of four memory modules ThinkStation P8, even though it had one beautiful looking machine, with an also gets its own cooling fan unit. third as many cores. Aston Martin-inspired ‘Storm Grey’ Unlike the ThinkStation P7, there’s Of course, the P8 is completely flexible. and red design, which was the result no air baffle to channel cool air directly All eight memory slots can be populated for of a collaboration with the legendary over the CPU, but the system cooling maximum memory bandwidth and it can be automaker. The front grill and side panel remains very effective. Even when CPU configured with any of the six new ‘Zen 4’ flush handle are heavily influenced by the rendering in KeyShot with the 96-core Threadripper Pro 7000 processors, from 12 UK firm’s sports cars. Threadripper Pro 7995WX, and GPU to 96 cores. There are some nice touches at the front: rendering in Twinmotion with the Nvidia We explore performance in much the ThinkStation logo lights up, as do the RTX A5500 GPU, the machine was more detail in our in-depth review of the USB ports — (2) USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 and (2) remarkably quiet. Running Cinebench Threadripper 7000 Series, both Pro and USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 — to make them easy to R23 for over an hour barely took the CPU High-End Desktop (HEDT) models, on find in the dark. There are plenty more temperature above 80 C. page WS8. USB ports at the rear — (3) USB-A 3.2 Gen The verdict 2, (2) USB-A 2.0 and (1) USB-C 3.2 Gen 2x2. On test On top of the standard dual Ethernet, Lenovo sent us a ThinkStation P8 pre- The ThinkStation P8 is an impressive there’s an optional Nvidia ConnectX-6 production unit with the top-end 96 core new addition to Lenovo’s workstation Dual Port 25-Gigabit PCIe adapter for AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7995WX family. The striking, functional chassis super high-bandwidth data transfer. processor, Nvidia RTX A5500 GPU, 512 that Lenovo introduced with the Intel For cable free connectivity, an optional GB of 4,800MHz DDR5 memory, and Xeon-based ThinkStation P7 now has Mediatek RZ616 WiFi 6E module uses an 1 TB M.2 SSD. a turbocharged processor at its heart antenna that sits under the panel at the For CPU rendering, the ThinkStation to take performance to exciting new top of the chassis, instead of sticking out P8 set new records in all our benchmarks. levels. And it does so without breaking at the rear. It was a whopping 71% faster than a into a sweat, with a thermally optimised Most storage is internal, via on- standard workstation with a 64-core design that keeps fan noise well within board M.2 SSDs or HDDs / U.3 SSDs Threadripper Pro 5995WX, the flagship acceptable limits. in a dedicated drive bay. There’s also processor from the ‘Zen 3’ generation. When a machine looks this good – and an optional front access Flex Bay that The lead over a ‘Zen 4’ 64-core it’s hard not to love the clean design and supports a single M.2 NVMe SSD. This Threadripper AMD Ryzen Threadripper Storm Grey / red aesthetic – it’s a shame could be particularly useful for easy access 7980X processor, however, was not as to hide it away. But with the rack mounted in rack mounted deployments. However, large as one might have expected. As kit and optional Baseboard Management the competition can support more. The Dell the number of cores goes up, the all-core Controller (BMC) the ThinkStation P8 will Precision 7875 offers up to two front NVMe frequencies come down. When rendering be just as much at home in the datacentre SSDs and the HP Z6 G5 A up to four. in Cinebench R23, the 96 core 7995WX in as it is on the desk.

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Review: Armari Magnetar M64T7 This AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 Series workstation takes performance to entirely new levels with a custom liquid cooler that allows to processor to boost well above its typical all core frequencies, writes Greg Corke

ne of the advantages of buying a workstation from a specialist system builder is that they sometimes squeeze every last drop of performance out of key components. This is especially true with CPUs. One of the best in the business is UK firm Armari, which has developed exceedingly powerful workstations for decades and, as we found in our last two reviews, knows how to get the absolute best out of AMD’s multi-core Ryzen Threadripper processors. For its new ‘Zen 4’ Threadripper 7000 Series workstation, the Magnetar M64T7, Armari has managed to significantly increase the performance of a standard Threadripper processor — so much so that an overclocked 64-core High End Desktop (HEDT) model, the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X, can beat a standard 96-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7995WX in some workflows. Before we get into the details, let’s first talk about overclocking in general. In years gone by, Armari had to manually tweak frequencies and voltages to boost

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the performance of each from the processor is the need to Product spec processor. Then AMD released feed in more power. At standard Precision Boost Overdrive settings, the Threadripper ■ AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X (PBO) and the process of 7000 Series draws 350W. By processor (3.2 GHz, overclocking essentially became enabling PBO, power can go up 5.1 GHz boost) (64cores, 128 threads) automated, pushing up all-core all the way up to 700W. ■ 128GB (4 x 32GB) frequencies so long as sufficient Users have full control over G.SKILL Z5 Neo DDR5 cooling was in place. this. By simply changing a PBO RDIMM 6,400MT/sec memory Of course, good cooling takes setting in the BIOS of the ASUS ■ 2TB Crucial T700 engineering expertise. In the Pro WS TRX50-SAFE WIFI PCIe Gen 5 SSD past, Armari developed a Full motherboard, the CPU can be ■ ASUS Pro WS TRX50-SAFE WIFI Water Loop (FWL) cooling boosted to the desired level. motherboard system, which required regular It’s all controlled by setting (TRX50) maintenance with liquid thermal boundaries. ‘Level 3’ ■ AMD Radeon Pro W7700 GPU (16 GB coolant changes and plumbing limits the temperature of the GDDR6 memory) inspections. For its latest processor to 70°C and raises ■ Armari workstation it has gone for an the sustained PBO to around Threadripper AIO CPU cooler All In One (AIO) cooler, which 500W. ‘Level 2’ takes it up ■ Magnetar is far more straightforward. to 80°C (around 600W), and M60G4 chassis Armari’s AIO is different ‘Level 1’ up to 90°C (around (470 x 220 x 570mm) to many others on the market 700W, which is the upper limit ■ Microsoft Windows 11 Pro in that it covers the entire of the AIO cooler). This might ■ 3 Year RTB rectangular integrated sound hot, but AMD considers warranty. 3 Years RTB Parts & Labour, heat spreader (IHS) of the 95°C to be safe. 1st year collect and Threadripper Pro CPU, so That’s as far as temperature return is included heat generated by the massive goes. AMD’s product warranty ■ £8,495 (Ex VAT) processor transfers more does not officially cover ■ www.armari.com efficiently to the cooler. Other any damages caused by AIOs that are being used with overclocking, but Armari has Threadripper processors are circular, so stated that PBO tuning is a ‘supported don’t reach the extremities. Round peg, and fully warrantied feature’ of the square hole, if you will. The result is an Magnetar M64T7. In short, Armari extremely efficient liquid cooled system knows what it’s doing. that keeps thermals well under control and allows the processor to boost to very What about performance? high all-core frequencies, resulting in a PBO can make a big difference to double-digit performance boost. performance in ray trace rendering Nothing in life is free, of course, and the software. Going from PBO off, and running downside to extracting more performance the CPU at a stock 350W, to ‘Level 3’ 70°C, which pumps 150W more into the processor, took all core frequency from 3.56 GHz to 4.10 GHz and boosted performance by 16% in Cinebench R23, 14% in Cinebench 2024, 20% in V-Ray, and 23% in KeyShot. If you’re planning on rendering out a complex animation for hours this is a massive potential time saving. You can take performance even higher but there are diminishing returns with each new Level of PBO. Going from ‘Level 3’ 70°C to ‘Level 1’ 90°C took all core frequency from 4.10 GHz to 4.56 GHz and boosted performance by an additional 7% in Cinebench R23, 6% in V-Ray, and 4% in KeyShot, but you burn a considerable 200W to get you there. We also observed no benefit at all in Cinebench 2024, which uses the Redshift rendering engine. Of course, even small boosts are important to some users and with ‘Level 1’ 90°C enabled the Armari Magnetar M64T7 even outpaced the leader of the ‘Zen 4’ pack, the 96-core Threadripper Pro 7995WX, in all our ray trace rendering benchmarks, as tested in the Lenovo ThinkStation P8. As the 96-core 7995WX processor costs www.AECmag.com

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twice as much as the 64-core 7980X this is certainly food for thought. In fact, you can buy the entire Armari workstation for only a tad more than the 96-core processor. PBO is not for everyone. In some workflows there is no benefit at all. In engineering simulation, for example, in the WPCcfd (Computational Fluid Dynamics) and Calculix (Finite Element Analysis) worksets from the SPECworkstation 3.1 benchmark, scores remained static even with more power draw. There is also no benefit to PBO in single threaded or lightly threaded workflows, such as those typically used in CAD and BIM application like Solidworks and Revit, but at least you are not wasting energy if PBO is enabled, as it never goes above 350W. As reviewed, the Armari Magnetar M64T7 can be considered more of a technology demonstration / preproduction unit than a fully shipping product. When we tested the workstation in December 2023 as part of AMD’s Threadripper 7000 Series review program, Armari was putting the finishing touches to the machine, and in the process of introducing an updated chassis. As part of the review program, AMD provided Armari with 128 GB of G.SKILL Z5 Neo DDR5 6,400 MT/sec memory. Spread across four 32 GB RDIMMs it maxes out the four-channel architecture of the HEDT Threadripper 7000 Series platform. The G.SKILL Z5 Neo DDR5 6,400 MT/ sec memory is not only faster than the typical 5,600 MT/sec DDR5 memory that Armari would supply with this machine, but it also costs significantly more. In fact if you specify 256 GB of 5,600 MT/sec DDR5 memory instead of 128 GB of G.SKILL Z5 Neo DDR5 6400 you’ll save £100. In the Threadripper 7000 Series all memory operates at 5,200 MT/s speeds by default, but like the processor itself, memory can be overclocked. In the Magnetar M64T7, Armari set the memory to run at full 6,400 MT/s memory speeds, delivering a significant boost in memory bandwidth. With a score of 152.15 GB/sec in the SiSoft Sandra benchmark, it wasn’t that far off a Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-Series workstation with 8-channel memory. As tested with 8 x 16 GB DDR 5600 DIMMs (running at 5,200 speeds), the HP Z6 G5A delivered 206.1 GB/sec. Memory bandwidth has very little bearing on performance in ray trace rendering software. However, there are some select visualisation workflows where it will make a difference. Recompiling shaders in Unreal Engine is one, which is probably why the Armari WS26

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Magnetar M64T7 outpaced the Lenovo ThinkStation P8 with the 96-core 7995WX and four 4800 DDR5 RDIMMs (113.86 GB/sec) even with PBO off. We explore performance in much more detail in our in-depth review of the Threadripper 7000 Series, both Pro and High-End Desktop (HEDT) models on page WS8.

The chassis Unlike most other specialist system builders, Armari designs its own chassis. Our test machine was built around the company’s M60G3 case, which features a strong steel frame and lightweight aluminium side panels. It’s since been updated to a G4 edition, with changes largely made to accommodate very high-end Nvidia GPUs. This includes a new ATX 3.0 PSU with native 12VHPWR (Nvidia) GPU power connectors, improvements to the cooling to support two Nvidia RTX 4090s, and a new support brace to secure them in transit. The Armari M60G3 chassis is sizeable. At 470 x 220 x 570mm it’s much bigger than the Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-Series workstations from Dell, HP and Lenovo. A large part is taken up with the AIO cooler’s heat exchanger, which is secured top left and cooled by three 12cm fans. Each memory bank has its own custom RAM cooler, which is 3D printed in house by Armari. The rest of the machine is all about pushing air from front to back using a combination of large Phantek and Noctua intake and exhaust fans. Altogether it contributes to a relatively quiet system, although fan noise does ramp up as PBO levels increase. But even when 700W is being pushed through the CPU, it’s not excessive. There are plenty of options for storage. Armari included a single 2TB Crucial T700 PCIe Gen 5 SSD, but the motherboard can accommodate up to two more M.2 NVMe SSDs (1 x PCIe Gen 5 and 1 x Gen 4). With a caddy for up to four 3.5inch Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) there’s plenty of options to build on this. For accessible I/O, all the ports are on

the top of the machine, rather than the front, which is good or bad depending on where you keep your workstation. There’s (1) USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C and (2) USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports. At the rear, you get (1) USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C, (6) USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A, and (2) USB 2.0. As the name of the motherboard suggests, the machine has WiFi 6E built in. Of course, for most workstations of this type, it’s all about maximum and consistent data transfer over the network, and this is done via the built in 10Gb or 2.5Gb Ethernet. Armari did not provide a GPU, but we tested with a mid-range AMD Radeon Pro W7700 (16 GB) (see page WS30 for our review). As mentioned earlier, it can take up to two super highend Nvidia GPUs.

The verdict It’s impossible not to take notice of the Magnetar M64T7, simply because Armari has squeezed so much additional performance out of the already powerful Threadripper 7000 Series processor. Dell, HP and Lenovo simply can’t compete on performance alone. Outpacing the 96-core Threadripper Pro 7995WX processor with the 64-core Threadripper 7980X is a phenomenal feat. It can save you a lot of money or, because Armari can also configure this machine with the 96-core Pro chip, there’s potential to take performance even higher. Of course, dialling up PBO does come with a cost — both in terms of power consumed and heat produced. We expect most users will choose some middle ground here. Armari ships the machine with ‘Level 2’ enabled, but customers can select whichever profile they prefer, including PBO off. It’s not inconceivable that a user could temporarily invoke ‘Level 1’ when on a tight deadline, although this will require a reboot. In summary, Armari has delivered another excellent Threadripper workstation that not only stands out from the major OEMs, but many of the other specialist system builders as well. www.AECmag.com

30/01/2024 16:14

Professional Graphics Begins Here

With built-in ray tracing hardware, graphics acceleration, and machine learning capabilities, the Intel® Arc™ Pro A40 GPU unites fluid viewports, the latest in visual technologies, and rich content creation in a condensed low-profile, single slot form factor. • Ray Tracing Hardware Acceleration • Dedicated AI Acceleration • Full Media Encode and Decode Support, Including AV1 • 6GB High Speed Memory • Software Certifications • Up to 4x Displays, with Audio Support & Latching Mechanism • Premium Components • 3-year Limited Warranty

Intel.com/ArcProA40 Customize on Dell.com to select the Intel® Arc™ Pro A40 GPU

Now Available in the Dell Precision 3460 SFF Workstation

© Copyright 2024 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Intel, the Intel logo, and other Intel marks are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries. Intel Arc Graphics is a trademark of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

workstation special report

Review: Workstation Specialists WS IC-Z7900 (14th Gen Intel Core)

he 14th Gen Intel Core processor has received a lot of bad press since its launch in Autumn 2023. The mainstream chip has been criticised for being little different to 13th Gen Intel Core, both architecturally and in terms of performance. Many said it’s not deserving of a new generation. That might be true, but the fact remains that it’s still the fastest desktop processor for single threaded CAD and BIM workflows. If you rely on Revit, Inventor, Solidworks, or other similar tools, you should be paying attention. The WS IC-Z7900 is a mid-sized tower workstation, one of the many to feature the new processor. It’s built around the compact Asus Prime Z790-P WiFi ATX motherboard, which feels a little lost inside the spacious 469 x 220 x 490mm Antec P20CE case, which can take motherboards up to E-ATX (Extended ATX) in size. The workstation has plenty of options for connectivity. At the rear you get a 2.5 Gigabit Realtek RJ45 network port, Dual Band Intel WiFi 6 Network & Bluetooth 5.2, (4) x USB 2.0 Type-A, (2) USB 3.2 Type-A and (1) USB 3.2 Type-C. The easy access ports are located on top, and this also aids uninterrupted airflow from front to back. These include (2) USB 3.0 Type A and (1) USB 3.2 Type-C. There’s 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) of 5,200MHz

Dual Channel DDR5 memory and a lone 2TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2 NVMe SSD. With a slender single slot Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada Generation GPU and no hard disk drives, it’s a very neat build, with minimal visible wires. There are some nice touches inside, including a custom 3D printed mounting bracket attached to the end of the GPU to keep it firmly in place. A large part of the interior is taken up by the Fractal Lumen AIO cooler, which keeps the Intel Core i9-14900KF processor running cool. Despite drawing 253W at peak with its 8 P-Cores and 16 E-Cores running flat out when rendering, CPU temperature never went above 80°C in our tests. The fans kick in after a while, but the machine stays remarkably quiet. The Intel Core i9-14900KF processor sits at the top of Intel’s 14th Gen stack, alongside the slightly more expensive Intel Core i9-14900K, which has integrated Intel UHD Graphics 770 graphics built in. It shines in CAD and BIM workflows, where most operations are single threaded or lightly threaded. However, in the majority of the SPECapc for Solidworks 2022 benchmark tests it only edged out the Intel Core i9-13900K by around 2% to 4%, as tested in the Scan 3XS GWP-ME A132C workstation we reviewed in November 2022. This can be explained by the Intel Core i9-14900KF only having a slightly higher max turbo frequency than

Chaos Group V-Ray 5.0 benchmark

Cinebench R23 benchmark (multi core)

KeyShot 11.3.1 benchmark

CPU rendering

1.23 Benchmark score (bigger is better)

This 14th Gen Intel Core workstation doesn’t deliver the generation on generation performance increase one would expect, but it’s still one of the fastest for CAD and BIM workflows, writes Greg Corke

Intel Core i9-12900K

16,427

Intel Core i9-12900K

Intel Core i9-13900K

26,952

Intel Core i9-14900KF (WS IC-Z7900)

25,543

Intel Core i9-13900K Intel Core i9-14900KF (WS IC-Z7900)

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X

29,458

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X

28,392

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D

WS28

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

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■ Intel Core i9-14900KF processor (3.2 GHz, 6.0 GHz boost) (8 P-Cores, 16 E-Cores, 32 threads) ■ 64GB (2x 32GB)

5,200MHz Dual Channel DDR5 memory

■ 2TB Samsung 990

PRO M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD ■ Asus PRIME Z790-P WiFi ATX motherboard

■ Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada Generation GPU (20GB GDDR6 memory) ■ Antec P20CE case (469 x 220 x 490mm) ■ Microsoft Windows 11 Pro ■ 36 Months Premium RTB hardware warranty with remote engineer diagnostics by next business day ■ £2,839 (Ex VAT) ■ www.workstation

specialist.com

22,691

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D 0

Product spec

the Intel Core i9-13900K — 6.0 GHz versus 5.8 GHz. Interestingly, the Intel Core i9-13900K beat the Intel Core i9-14900KF in all our multithreaded rendering benchmarks, by as much as 6% in some tests. This can be explained by higher all-core frequencies. In Cinebench R23, for example, the Intel Core i9-13900K hit 4.77 GHz, while the Intel Core i914900KF settled at 4.70 GHz. Of course, as both processors were tested in entirely different systems with different Windows 11 builds, there are many variables here. The lower all core frequency of the Intel Core i9-14900KF could be down to the cooling in the Workstation Specialists machine, rather than the processor itself, although the Fractal Lumen AIO is a respected piece of kit. Compared to the Intel Core i912900K, as tested in the Lenovo ThinkStation P360 Ultra, the performance gains were larger, between 13% and 29% in the single threaded and lightly threaded workloads of the SPECapc for Solidworks benchmark. However, as the Intel Core i9-12900K also has fewer cores (8 P-Cores and 8 E-Cores), the Intel Core i9-14900KF pulled away considerably when rendering. In KeyShot it was nearly twice as fast. Of course, these days Intel faces increased competition from AMD, from both the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X and AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D processors.

Intel Core i9-12900K

2.75

37,862

Intel Core i9-13900K

37,421

Intel Core i9-14900KF (WS IC-Z7900)

37,601 35,490

5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000 35000 40000

5.65 5.32

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X

5.70

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D 0

5.37 3

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Solidworks 2022

Intel Core continues to be strong in single threaded workflows in BIM authoring tools like Revit

SPECapc benchmark (CAD) 1.23 Benchmark score (bigger is better)

Rebuild test Intel Core i9-12900K

2.16

Intel Core i9-13900K

2.41

Intel Core i9-14900KF (WS IC-Z7900)

2.50

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X

2.32

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D

2.32

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

Convert test Intel Core i9-12900K

2.02

Intel Core i9-13900K

2.28

Intel Core i9-14900KF (WS IC-Z7900)

2.33

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X

2.17

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D

2.25

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

Simulate test Intel Core i9-12900K

1.99

Intel Core i9-13900K

2.18

Intel Core i9-14900KF (WS IC-Z7900)

2.26

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X

1.99

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D

1.95

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

Mass properties test Intel Core i9-12900K

Intel Core i9-13900K

2.41

Intel Core i9-14900KF (WS IC-Z7900)

2.47

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X

2.57

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D

2.19

0.0

0.5

2.70

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

And not just in terms of performance; both AMD chips consume less power. The Core i9-14900KF was around 7% to 12% faster than the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X in most single threaded and lightly threaded operations, as tested in the Scan 3XS GWPME A132R. However, it lost out in most multi-threaded rendering tests. In V-Ray, the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X had a 15% lead.

capabilities less important. It’s all about delivering high frequencies on a few cores and leaving all the heavy lifting to the GPU. Of course, if you’re 100% focused on CAD and BIM, the Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada Generation is overkill. You can save a significant amount by downgrading to an Nvidia T1000 (8 GB), AMD Radeon Pro W7500 (8 GB) (see page WS30) or similar.

Graphics choice

The verdict

The Workstation Specialists WS ICZ7900 comes with a massive choice of GPUs, from the Nvidia T400 GPU for true entry-level CAD to the Nvidia RTX 6000 Ada Generation for the most demanding viz workflows. Our test machine took up some middle ground with an Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada Generation GPU (20 GB), which is a great option for CAD-focused visualisation (read our review on page WS36). With plenty of horsepower and plenty of memory for AEC-focused real time viz tools like Lumion, Twinmotion and Enscape, this powerful GPU makes the CPU’s all-core

If you currently have a workstation with a 13th Gen Intel Core processor, this is probably not the machine for you. The performance gains with 14th Gen Intel Core in single threaded workflows are marginal, and you may even take a drop in multi-threaded performance. But if your workstation is older, and your priority is accelerating your CAD and BIM workflows, then this quality desktop machine is worth a look. It’s well built, quiet in operation, and while it’s a bit on the large side considering the components inside, it should serve you well, now and into the future.

Boolean test Intel Core i9-12900K

Intel Core i9-13900K

Intel Core i9-14900KF (WS IC-Z7900)

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D

1.79 2.26 2.32 2.06

0.0

0.5

2.29 1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

Rendering test Intel Core i9-12900K

4.30

Intel Core i9-13900K

Intel Core i9-14900KF (WS IC-Z7900)

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D

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others have burgeoning needs for performance. With a total board power Review: AMD visualisation as they look to make it an of 190W it requires an 8-pin power part of their design process. connector. It costs £833 + VAT. Radeon Pro W7500 integral The RDNA 3-based Radeon Pro W7600 and W7700, which The CAD workhorses W7600 & W7700 W7500, launched in summer 2023, are specifically 3D graphics performance in a lot of CAD designed to appeal to these types of users. AMD’s new mid-range workstation GPUs represent a solid foundation for 3D CAD and entry-level viz. However, by not having the option of a low profile form factor and holding back on memory in the middle of the stack, AMD has missed some opportunities in this price competitive market, writes Greg Corke Radeon Pro W7500 (8 GB) - £358 + VAT Radeon Pro W7600 (8 GB) - £492 + VAT Radeon Pro W7700 (16 GB) - £833 + VAT amd.com/radeonpro

n Spring 2023, AMD introduced the AMD Radeon Pro W7800 and W7900, a duo of high-end workstation GPUs based on the company’s RDNA 3 architecture. With 32 GB and 48 GB of GDDR6 memory respectively, both GPUs were designed for demanding workflows in media and entertainment and design visualisation. Despite offering buckets of processing power, AMD could not keep pace with Nvidia’s best, the Nvidia RTX 6000 Ada Generation (48 GB). However, the Radeon Pro W7800 and W7900 were hot on price/performance. In some workflows, the Radeon Pro W7900 could deliver 75% of what the Nvidia RTX 6000 Ada Generation could, for less than half the price (£3,200 +VAT vs £6,670 + VAT). Of course, not everyone has needs or budgets for such high-end pro GPUs. Many architects, engineers and product designers rely purely on CAD or BIM software, which is far less demanding from a GPU perspective. Meanwhile,

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Targeting the mid-range All three Radeon Pro GPUs are designed to address the volume mid-range workstation market, which AMD describes as the $350 to $950 dollar segment. The GPUs comprise multiple unified RDNA 3 compute units (28 on the W7500, 32 on the W7600 and 48 on the W7700). Each compute unit has 64 dual issue stream processors, two AI accelerators and one second gen ray tracing (RT) accelerator. According to AMD, RDNA 3 offers up to 50% more raytracing performance per compute unit than the previous generation. The Radeon Pro W7500 and W7600 are full height, single slot GPUs, so are designed to fit in a standard desktop tower workstation. There are not compatible with small form factors (SFFs) / ultra-compacts. Both GPUs come with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and four DisplayPort 2.1 Connectors, the latest version of the digital display standard. The Radeon Pro W7500 offers 12.2 TLOPs of peak single precision performance and has a total board power of 70W, so can operate with PCIe slot power alone. It costs £358 + VAT. The Radeon Pro W7600 boosts peak single precision performance to 19.9 TLOPs and has a total board power of 130W, so needs a 6-pin connector from the Power Supply Unit (PSU). It costs £492 + VAT. Finally, the Radeon Pro W7700 is a full height, dual slot GPU with four DisplayPort 2.1 connectors. It comes with 16 GB of GDDR6 memory and boasts 32 TFLOPs of peak single precision

and BIM software is CPU limited, where the GPU is held back by the frequency of a single CPU core. If all you ever do is model buildings in Autodesk Revit or design machinery in Autodesk Inventor, there’s little point in buying a high-end pro GPU. CAD software developers are slowly managing to better harness the power of GPUs in general. As they adopt more modern graphics APIs and push more of the graphics processing onto the GPU, this reduces the reliance on the CPU and hence the bottleneck. A case in point is the product design focused CAD software, Solidworks, which updated its graphics engine a few years ago. Prior to the 2020 release, performance scaled very little as you moved up the range of your chosen GPU brand. Now, there’s a fair bit of difference. With the SPECapc for Solidworks 2022 benchmark, there is a substantial gap between the W7500’s and W7700’s benchmark scores in simple shaded with edges display mode and when RealView is enabled for more realistic lighting and materials. However, this doesn’t mean you should buy the faster GPU simply because it has bigger numbers. It’s important to have some context. We loaded up the largest Solidworks model we have, a massive 13,000 component MaunaKea Spectroscopic Explorer telescope assembly, and still got good performance with the Radeon Pro W7500. Even at 4K resolution, it delivered a smooth 29 Frames Per Second (FPS) with RealView on, above the minimum recommended 24 FPS. With the Radeon Pro W7600 this went up to 52 FPS. This higher frame rate might mean

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workstation special report

something to a hardcore gamer, but we found there was no discernible difference in terms of user experience when navigating the model.

Design visualisation

SPECapc for Solidworks 2022 benchmark

GPU shaded with edges (4K resolution)

GPU shaded with edges with RealView (4K resolution)

1.23 Benchmark score (bigger is better)

AMD Radeon Pro W7500 1

1.19

AMD Radeon Pro W7500 1

1.36

Dedicated design visualisation tools put a 1.62 AMD Radeon Pro W7600 1.98 much bigger load on the GPU, with highly AMD Radeon Pro W7600 realistic materials and lighting and, more AMD Radeon Pro W7700 2.69 AMD Radeon Pro W7700 3.22 recently, GPU ray tracing. Nvidia RTX A4000 2.33 Nvidia RTX A4000 2.55 In real time arch viz applications like Enscape, Lumion, and Twinmotion, Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada 2.28 Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada 2.86 there’s a big benefit to more powerful GPUs. They not only make model 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 23.Q4 driver / Ryzen 7 5800X 537.7 driver / Ryzen 7 5800X 23.Q4 driver / Ryzen 7 5800X 537.7 driver / Ryzen 7 5800X navigation smoother, especially at higher resolutions, but render times are much shorter when exporting stills and videos. Unreal Engine 4.26 (DirectX 12 - rasterisation) Unreal Engine 4.26 (DirectX 12 - DXR) Audi car configurator model (ray tracing enabled) Here the Radeon Pro W7700 shows a Audi car configurator model (ray tracing disabled) real benefit over its lower end siblings. 1.23 Frames Per Second (FPS) (bigger is better) 1.23 Frames Per Second (FPS) (bigger is better) In Unreal Engine it delivered a smooth 32.23 FPS at 4K resolution, when testing FHD 52.82 FHD 20.79 AMD Radeon Pro W6600 the Audi car configurator model with ray AMD Radeon Pro W6600 4K 12.81 4K 2.56 (uses more GPU memory than available) tracing disabled. It also beat the Radeon FHD 106.53 FHD 41.00 AMD Radeon Pro W6800 AMD Radeon Pro W6800 4K 29.67 4K 11.43 (uses more GPU memory than available) Pro W6800, which was AMD’s previous 43.61 FHD 17.67 generation flagship pro GPU. It even AMD Radeon Pro W7500 FHD AMD Radeon Pro W7500 4K 12.57 4K 3.11 (uses more GPU memory than available) outpaced the new Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada FHD 61.97 FHD 26.86 AMD Radeon Pro W7600 generation GPU which costs 40% more AMD Radeon Pro W7600 4K 19.04 4K 2.40 (uses more GPU memory than available) FHD 107.02 FHD 43.21 (see review on page WS36). AMD Radeon Pro W7700 AMD Radeon Pro W7700 4K 32.23 4K 12.06 Meanwhile the Radeon Pro W7500 and FHD (MAX) 120.00 FHD 56.76 AMD Radeon Pro W7800 W7600 could only muster 12.57 FPS and AMD Radeon Pro W7800 4K 39.69 4K 15.98 19.04 FPS respectively. For acceptable FHD 86.10 FHD 49.44 Nvidia RTX A4000 Nvidia RTX A4000 4K 26.03 4K 14.11 viewport performance with this dataset 77.09 FHD 49.70 and these lower end GPUs, you’d really Nvidia RTX 4000 SFF Ada FHD Nvidia RTX 4000 SFF Ada 4K 21.10 4K 12.97 need to go down to FHD resolution. FHD 100.52 FHD 68.71 Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada Introducing real time ray tracing and 4K 4K 29.64 18.31 engaging the ray tracing (RT) accelerators 23.Q4 driver / Threadripper 7980X 537.7 driver / Threadripper 7980X 536.25 driver / Ryzen 7950X3D 23.Q4 driver / Threadripper 7980X 537.7 driver / Threadripper 7980X 536.25 driver / Ryzen 7950X3D that are built into the GPUs showed a 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 different side to the AMD cards. Compared to the Nvidia GPUs, performance was out final images at notably slower. The high resolutions or In certain viz workflows, the Radeon Pro Nvidia RTX 4000 displaying models with W7700 looks to be excellent value for money, Ada outperformed the more realism. Radeon Pro W7700 Running out of GPU particularly compared to the Nvidia RTX 4000 by some margin, and memory is not the Ada Generation, which costs 40% more even beat the highcatastrophic event it end AMD Radeon Pro used to be, which often W7800. We saw similar resulted in crashes as when ray trace rendering in Lumion and more detailed materials and higher display soon as it ran out. However, it can have a Twinmotion. AMD’s RT accelerators are resolutions. At 4K resolution (3,840 x huge impact on performance and end user one generation behind Nvidia’s, so it’s 2,160), for example, the GPU has four times experience. Instead of accessing data from clear that AMD has some catching up to do. as many pixels to process than at FHD fast GPU memory, the GPU must pull (1,920 x 1,080) resolution. data from shared GPU memory, which The weight of GPU memory With 8 GB, both the Radeon Pro is reserved in the workstation’s system GPU memory is becoming increasingly W7500 and W7600 should have memory (RAM). important, so the fact that the Radeon plenty in reserve for most CAD / BIM In several of our tests the 8 GB Radeon Pro W7500 and W7600 both have 8 GB workflows. Viewing the colossal Pro W6600, W7500 and W7600 and the Radeon Pro W7700 has 16 GB is telescope model in Solidworks 2024, came up short. In Unreal Engine for significant. for example, takes up 7.6 GB at 4K with example, viewing the Audi model at 4K In CAD and BIM software, in order for RealView enabled. Most CAD models use with ray tracing enabled pushes GPU the GPU to take on more of the processing, considerably less. With a 300 component memory usage to around 9 GB. This more data must be loaded into GPU computer model, Solidworks fills 2.4 GB. effectively ground the viewport to a halt, memory. Memory usage increases due to Memory usage in viz tools is typically with all three GPUs only delivering an several factors: model size and complexity, higher, especially when rendering unworkable 2-3 FPS. 1

‘‘

’’

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In Lumion, rendering out our sample scenes at FHD resolution with the ray tracing effect enabled, also pushed memory over 8 GB, resulting in significantly longer render times. To experiment, we processed the same Lumion sample scenes, but dialled down the monitor’s resolution from 4K (3,840 x 2,160) to 720p (1,280 x 720). This reduced the reliance on shared GPU memory and cut the render times from 1,160 seconds to 855. While working at 720p is highly impractical, it just shows that even small changes can have a big impact on performance when GPU memory is in short supply. All of this testing was done with single applications straight after a Windows reboot. In reality, this is not how architects, engineers and designers work. Running multiple applications at the same time can have an accumulative effect on GPU memory. In most CAD-centric visualisation workflows, users rely on a companion visualisation tool. For architects, it’s often Revit and Twinmotion or Revit and Enscape. For product designers, it’s Solidworks and KeyShot or Solidworks and Solidworks Visualize. For users to be able to swap quickly between these tools, each application must reserve some GPU memory. To find out what impact a shortage of memory might have on multi-application workflows, we loaded up a model in Solidworks then rendered it in Solidworks Visualize at the same time. Even with the relatively small 300 component computer model, memory usage soon went over 8 GB. And while the Radeon Pro W7500 still managed to render the scene OK, albeit slower than it would have done with everything stored in GPU memory, it also had an impact on user experience. Rendering at 1K resolution used 5.7 GB of GPU memory in total and both applications remained 100% responsive. This wasn’t the case when rendering at 2K resolution. It used up 7.7 GB of GPU memory and 3.8 GB of shared GPU memory, and when swapping back to Solidworks and trying to quickly reposition the model in the viewport, there was a small initial lag. Rendering at 4K resolution used up 7.6 GB of GPU memory and 7.8 GB of shared GPU memory. This caused more lag in Solidworks and Solidworks Visualize became quite unresponsive. On one of our test runs the entire Windows 11 OS froze. Meanwhile with 16 GB of GDDR6 memory, the Radeon Pro W7700 loaded everything in, resulting in a WS32

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Twinmotion 2023.1.2

Lake House ‘real time’ render (set of 11 images)

Lake House ‘path tracer’ render (set of 7 images)

1.23 Render time (secs) (smaller is better)

AMD Radeon Pro W6600 1

120

AMD Radeon Pro W6800 1

AMD Radeon Pro W6600 1

AMD Radeon Pro W7500 1

125

AMD Radeon Pro W7600 1

AMD Radeon Pro W7500 1

Nvidia RTX 4000 SFF Ada 3 53

303 260

Nvidia RTX A4000 2

Data N/A

523 385

AMD Radeon Pro W7800 1

Nvidia RTX A4000 2

Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada 2

AMD Radeon Pro W7700 1

Nvidia RTX 4000 SFF Ada 3

307

AMD Radeon Pro W7600 1

AMD Radeon Pro W7800 1

478

AMD Radeon Pro W6800 1

AMD Radeon Pro W7700 1

106 Data N/A

Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada 2

120

150

106

100

200

300

400

500

600

23.Q4 driver / Threadripper 7980X 2 537.7 driver / Threadripper 7980X 3 536.25 driver / Ryzen 7950X3D

Lumion 2023

‘Streetscape’ render set (4K resolution)

‘Streetscape’ render set with ray tracing (FHD resolution)

1.23 Render time (secs) (smaller is better)

AMD Radeon Pro W6600 1

AMD Radeon Pro W6800 1

650

AMD Radeon Pro W6600 1

338

AMD Radeon Pro W7500 1

740

AMD Radeon Pro W7600 1

307

AMD Radeon Pro W7500 1

515

1,141

AMD Radeon Pro W7600 1

360

AMD Radeon Pro W7800 1

560

AMD Radeon Pro W6800 1

AMD Radeon Pro W7700 1

23.Q4 driver / Threadripper 7980X 2 537.7 driver / Threadripper 7980X 3 536.25 driver / Ryzen 7950X3D

966

AMD Radeon Pro W7700 1

279

AMD Radeon Pro W7800 1

276 206

Nvidia RTX A4000 2

438

Nvidia RTX A4000 2

256

Nvidia RTX 4000 SFF Ada 3

443

Nvidia RTX 4000 SFF Ada 3

254

Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada 2

335

0 1

Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada 2

100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

23.Q4 driver / Threadripper 7980X 2 537.7 driver / Threadripper 7980X 3 536.25 driver / Ryzen 7950X3D

0 1

202

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

23.Q4 driver / Threadripper 7980X 2 537.7 driver / Threadripper 7980X 3 536.25 driver / Ryzen 7950X3D

‘‘

When a workstation runs out of system memory, you can add some more. With a GPU, it’s fixed, and because you will typically have that card for three to five years it’s important to get things right

’’

highly responsive Solidworks viewport, continues to rely on older graphics cards and faster renders, beyond what you to target less demanding workflows like would expect from simply having more CAD and entry-level visualisation. processing power at your disposal. In terms of positioning, the Radeon Pro W7500 goes up against the Nvidia The competition T1000, which launched in summer In the volume $350 to $950 mid-range 2021. Both GPUs have 8 GB of memory workstation market AMD has no direct and should be powerful enough for most competition from Nvidia’s RTX Ada CAD and BIM workflows. The Radeon Generation GPUs. Instead, Nvidia Pro W7500 has the advantage of having www.AECmag.com

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workstation special report

it outperforms the older Nvidia RTX A4000 and is priced almost identically. It even outpaces the new Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada which costs 40% more. However, it loses out on ray tracing performance, uses more power and takes up two slots on the motherboard so may not be compatible with as many desktop workstations. AMD also faces competition from Intel with its Arc Pro GPUs that effectively launched in 2023. Arc Pro GPUs have hardware ray tracing built in and are price competitive, but are not that widely available. The single slot 130W Arc Pro A60 is the closest in terms of positioning, and comes with 12 GB of memory. There’s also the entry-level low-profile 50W Arc Pro A40 and 75W Arc Pro A50, both with 6 GB.

The verdict Twinmotion Lake House model Lumion 2023 sample model

hardware ray tracing built in and while we don’t expect this GPU to be used on anything other than CAD or entry-level viz workflows, it does make it more future proofed. Over the next few years, we expect to see ray tracing techniques combined with traditional rasterisation to deliver a much more realistic CAD viewport. The idea is that users will be able to flip into ‘ray traced’ mode, in much the same way they currently do with shaded, shaded with edges and realistic. Moving up the stack, the Radeon Pro W7600 goes up against the Nvidia RTX A2000. Both GPUs feature hardware ray tracing, but the Nvidia RTX A2000 has two advantages. One, it has 12 GB of memory, which gives it more headroom in viz focused workflows. Two, it has greater WS34

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software compatibility, including support for V-Ray and KeyShot, although with the rise of DirectX-based real time viz tools like Lumion, Twinmotion, D5 Render and Chaos Vantage, this is changing. The other advantage of both Nvidia GPUs is that they are low profile boards. This means they can fit in standard desktop tower workstations and Small Form Factor / ultra-compact workstations, such as the HP Z2 Mini and Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Ultra. With these compact machines representing an increasingly big slice of the mainstream workstation market, not just on the desktops of users but in racks for remote graphics deployments (see page WS40), this limits the market for AMD. Finally, there’s the Radeon Pro W7700. In workflows that rely on rasterisation,

As AMD rolls out its RDNA 3 pro graphics cards for the volume workstation market it feels like there are some missed some opportunities. With no low-profile option, users have to rely on the previous generation Radeon Pro W6400 (4 GB), which is very much entry-level. If AMD had made the Radeon Pro W7500 compatible with this increasingly popular form factor, it would have immediately expanded its potential reach. Perhaps with these cards AMD is focusing more on specialist system builders like Armari and BOXX, who tend to only use standard workstation tower chassis. Alternatively, it possibly feels there is less need for a low-profile pro GPU moving forward as it plans to beef up its APUs (CPUs with integrated GPUs). At the same time, only giving the Radeon Pro W7600 8 GB of memory limits its appeal for visualisation workflows. It certainly has enough raw graphics processing power for entry-level workflows in Lumion, Twinmotion and others, but if you run out of GPU memory things can slow right down. Yes, you can adjust your workflows, but who wants to make compromises? When a workstation runs out of system memory, you can add some more. With a GPU, it’s fixed, and because you will typically have that card for three to five years, it’s important to get things right. Even 12 GB would have given it some headroom. Finally, in certain viz workflows, the Radeon Pro W7700 looks to be excellent value for money particularly compared to the Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada Generation, which costs 40% more. However, it’s let down a little by its ray tracing performance, which is only going to become more important to architects and designers in years to come. www.AECmag.com

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Review: Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada Generation Nvidia’s new flagship single slot workstation GPU might not offer as big a gen-on-gen performance leap as some 4000-class graphics cards from the past, but it’s a very solid performer for CADcentric visualisation, writes Greg Corke Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada Generation (20 GB) £1,159 + VAT www.nvidia.com | www.pny.com/professional

ver the years, Nvidia’s 4000 class pro GPUs have formed a very important part of the company’s workstation GPU portfolio. With a total board power of around 150W the single slot graphics cards have found their way into an extremely broad range of workstations, from the entry-level to the high-end. They have provided architects, engineers, and designers with enough horsepower to augment CAD and BIM modelling with more demanding workflows such as real time visualisation, VR, and others. The latest incarnation, the Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada Generation, is based on the AD104 graphics processor, the exact same chip found in the dual slot, small form factor version, the Nvidia RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation. Both GPUs feature 20 GB of GDDR6 memory, 4 GB more than the previous ‘Ampere’ generation Nvidia RTX A4000. However, the full sized Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada Generation has slightly more memory bandwidth than its SFF sibling (360 GB/s vs 280 GB/sec). It also draws more power, and hence offers more performance. The Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada has 130W to play with compared to the SFF version, which has 70W. This means the processor can be clocked higher, resulting in more Chaos Group V-Ray 5.0 benchmark

horsepower across the board. SinglePrecision Performance is rated at 26.7 TFLOPs versus 19.2, RT Core Performance for ray tracing is rated at 61.8 TFLOPs versus 44.3, and Tensor Performance for AI is rated at 327.6 TFLOPs versus 306.8. Despite there being a significant performance difference between them on paper, both GPUs cost the same (£1,159 + VAT). In terms of price/performance, this means users pay a premium to have the AD104 chip in a small form factor or super compact workstation like the HP Z2 Mini or Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Ultra. Interestingly, the SFF version comes with a half-height bracket and optional fullheight ATX bracket, so can be used in full sized towers as well. This doesn’t really make sense unless you are particularly focused on using less power. The Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada Generation cannot draw all of its electricity from the PCIe slot on a workstation motherboard, so gets its additional power from a 16-pin 12VHPWR connector. This modern connector is only supported directly on new generation Power Supply Units (PSUs). It’s not a problem if your workstation doesn’t have one. Nvidia includes a standard 8-pin to 16-pin adapter, so you can plug into your existing PSU.

The pro viz workhorse For testing, we compared the Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada Generation (20 GB) to the SFF version, as well as the previous Ampere generation, Nvidia RTX A4000 (16 GB). Here, it’s important to state that our benchmark comparisons aren’t perfect, as not all GPUs were tested in the same workstation. For the Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada Generation and Nvidia RTX A4000 we used the 537.7 driver inside an AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7800X workstation from Armari. For the Nvidia RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation, we used the 536.25 driver inside an AMD Ryzen 7950X3D-based workstation, also from Armari. PNY loaned the Nvidia RTX 4000 SFF GPU to us several months ago, so we no longer have the card.

As both CPUs are built around the same AMD ‘Zen 4’ architecture and hit similar single core frequencies, any variance from testing on two different systems should be very small. Our testing focused predominantly on design viz, with the architectural-focused Twinmotion, Lumion, V-Ray and Nvidia Omniverse, the product design focused KeyShot, and Unreal Engine with an automotive model. We also tested with CAD software Solidworks, although for a GPU with this much horsepower, it’s a given that you’ll get good performance. The big trend in visualisation at the moment is the expansion of GPU ray tracing for much more realistic renders. GPU ray tracing used to be handled exclusively by offline renderers like V-Ray and KeyShot. Now it’s also available in real time viz tools, typically enabled through the graphics APIs DirectX 12 with DirectX Ray Tracing (DXR) and Vulkan Ray tracing. In Unreal Engine, Twinmotion, Lumion, Omniverse and others, users can choose between standard rasterisation, or ray tracing to increase visual quality and realism. This is all done on the GPU and has largely been driven by Nvidia, and the dedicated RT and Tensor cores in its RTX cards. In the Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada, the RT cores are third generation, and the Tensor cores are fourth generation. While it has the same number of cores as the Ampere-based Nvidia RTX A4000, all are one generation ahead. As you would expect, ray tracing increases the load on the GPU. In Unreal Engine, when testing at 4K resolution with the Audi car configurator model, viewport performance went down from 29.64 Frames Per Second (FPS) with ray tracing disabled to 18.31 FPS with it enabled. This is below the ideal 24 FPS, but navigation within the scene was still relatively smooth. On paper, it’s not a massive improvement over the Nvidia RTX A4000 (14.11 FPS) but there was a noticeable difference in terms of how easy it was to quickly and accurately reposition the model in the For more performance data see page WS30

Luxion KeyShot 11.3.1 benchmark (GPU)

1.23 vrays (calculations per minute) (bigger is better)

Nvidia RTX A4000 1

Nvidia RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation 2

Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada Generation 1

500

1,669

1000

1500

Nvidia RTX A4000 1

55.51

1,920

Nvidia RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation 2

69.42

1,961

Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada Generation 1

72.01

2000

537.7 driver / Threadripper 7980X 2 536.25 driver / Ryzen 7950X3D

1.23 Relative performance to reference system (bigger is better)

100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

V-Ray GPU RTX

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workstation special report

viewport of Unreal Engine Editor. The rest of our main tests were all about render times, expressed either in seconds (smaller is better) or as a benchmark score (bigger is better). In general, the Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada Generation was about 25% to 30% faster than the Nvidia RTX A4000. However, in V-Ray it was only 12% faster and in Twinmotion with path tracer enabled there was no difference at all. Comparisons to the Nvidia RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation were in some cases, quite unexpected. The full-sized Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada card had a clear lead in real time viz tools — Unreal Engine (41%) and Lumion (32% with default render and 25% with ray trace effect). However, in prior frame, to discover how the scene is RTX 4000 to the ‘Ampere’ Nvidia RTX offline renderers, V-Ray and KeyShot, this changing as you navigate a scene. It then A4000, the generation-on-generation lead was very slender (2% and 4%). generates entirely new frames without leap was much higher. In most real time viz This could be explained by how much having to process the graphics pipeline. tools you were talking about 45% to 60%. power the full sized Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada DLSS 3 Frame Generation has been In KeyShot it was as much as 89%. card consumes when rendering in those implemented in Nvidia Omniverse, Of course, most workstation users don’t applications. In Unreal Engine, it uses Autodesk VRED, Chaos Vantage, D5 have the luxury of upgrading their GPU close to its maximum 130W. In KeyShot Render and others. every two years. Many will be looking and V-Ray, however, it uses considerably In Omniverse USD Composer 2023.2.2, to make the move from 2019’s ‘Turing’ less (100W), much closer to the 70W we tested out the feature with the Nvidia Quadro RTX 4000. Those on maximum of the SFF version. It could also Brownstone building sample model. tight budgets may perceive better value be that core count is in the Nvidia RTX more important than A4000, which is still frequency in those available for £812 Normally with a new pro GPU, one would be very applications (as a Ex VAT or the AMD reminder, the chip in happy with a 25% to 41% performance improvement Radeon Pro W7700 both cards is identical, over the previous generation. The problem is, Nvidia (16 GB) (£833+VAT) it’s just clocked higher (read our review on has set expectation levels very high in the RTX 4000 page WS30), but this Ada), or that the SFF could end up being version can maintain a false economy higher boost frequencies in those tests. In ‘RTX – Real-Time’ mode with DLSS over the lifetime of the card. Without having a SFF card at our disposal, enabled the Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada was First, you get 4 GB less memory, and as it’s hard to tell. a substantial 2.24 times faster than the datasets continue to swell, applications Nvidia RTX A4000. However, there’s a and operating systems become more Deep Learning Super Sampling case of comparing apples with pears here memory hungry, and multi-application The Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada Generation as the Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada uses DLSS 3 workflows more prevalent, that 4 GB also brings other technical advancements while the Nvidia RTX A4000 use DLSS 2 could be extremely important. to the table. One of those is the Frame (see earlier on). In saying that, we saw Second, you get access to technologies Generation feature in Nvidia’s Deep no visual difference between the two. In exclusive to Ada Generation GPUs, Learning Super Sampling 3 (DLSS) ‘RTX – interactive (path tracing)’ mode, which can deliver real benefits. Frame technology, which is supported exclusively which doesn’t take advantage of DLSS, the Generation in DLSS 3, for example, can on Nvidia Ada Generation GPUs. Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada was 41% faster, increase frames rates quite considerably. Nvidia DLSS has been around for which is closer to what we saw in other Of course, the RTX 4000 Ada several years and with ‘Ada’, it is now on applications. Generation is only one of many new Ada its third generation. It uses the GPU’s AI Generation workstation GPUs from Tensor cores to boost frame rates in real The verdict Nvidia. To push performance higher, time applications. Normally with a new pro GPU, one there’s also the Nvidia RTX 4500 Ada With Nvidia’s previous generation would be very happy with a 25% to 41% (24 GB) (£2,099), Nvidia RTX 5000 Ada ‘Ampere’ GPUs, DLSS 2 took a low- performance improvement over the (32 GB) (£3,699) and, if your pockets are resolution current frame and the high- previous generation. This is what you’ll really deep, the Nvidia RTX 6000 Ada resolution previous frame to predict, typically get if upgrading to the Nvidia (48 GB) (£6,700). All three powerful dual on a pixel-by-pixel basis, what a high- RTX 4000 Ada Generation from the slot GPUs should significantly boost resolution current frame would look like. Nvidia RTX A4000 — although in some real time interactivity and cut render With Frame Generation in DLSS 3, the workflows the boost is much smaller. times, especially at higher resolutions, Tensor cores generate entirely new frames The problem is, Nvidia has set and if visualisation is a critical part of rather than just pixels. The technology expectation levels very high. In 2021, when your workflow, they should be under is used to process the new frame, and the it went from the ‘Turing’ Nvidia Quadro serious consideration.

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workstation special report

Working and rendering beyond the desktop Increased demands on visualisation are pushing AEC businesses, and specifically the visualisers within them, to explore new ways to deliver content – accurately and quickly, writes Lee Danskin, CTO of Escape Technology

echnology continues to raise the bar on not just what’s possible, but what’s expected, from images, video and now commonly AR and VR in the AEC space. These expectations have pushed visualisation to the point where traditional workflows are struggling to cope. The need for accuracy/quality brings with it increasingly large data sets, putting huge strain on hardware, infrastructure and the people who manage it. Visuals are now part of the ongoing design process rather than just a tool used to win jobs, calling for a collaborative way of working well beyond the limits of a single desktop or laptop. This demand for lifelike renders is pushing AEC businesses, and specifically the visualisers within them, to explore new ways to deliver – accurately and quickly. With a dazzling number of ways to deliver the end result, what are the options for practices looking for the best match for their business and clients?

A question of scale There are of course practices which can still thrive with a single visualiser using a desktop to produce still images. Problems arise however when scaling comes in, when the need changes from a still image to a video, or to explorable virtual content. These bring with them huge amounts of additional data, which can clog up the whole pipeline. One natural tried and tested solution is a render farm. Obviously, there’s a large capital expenditure cost with this route, along with considerations like the space to physically house the servers, the expense of powering and cooling it all, centralised storage and the expertise to manage the whole thing effectively. But even a render farm brings with it a range of challenging decisions to make. Should it be based on traditional CPU; or the more memory-limited, less versatile but better at rendering GPU; or the newer XPU, specialist softwares that combine CPU and GPU? And beyond that, how quickly will renders be needed? Is it better WS38

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to prepare for quick turnaround with more servers on hand, or fewer servers that are used more often but take longer? An alternative is to utilise cloud render farms to provide the computing power needed to render these detailed images. Although viable, there are potential issues, including the rough edges between differing versions of software/plugins on workstations and the cloud render servers, and perhaps more importantly the lack of control the visualiser has between sending the files for rendering, and seeing the results hours later. This ‘fire and forget’ way of rendering can prove costly if, for example, an essential texture-map file is missing. The render will be inaccurate and need to be redone – costly in terms of both money and time. Another approach is to commit to a game-engine pipeline, utilising something like Unreal Engine or Unity to present visuals in real time – albeit with a slightly lower level of accuracy than a ‘proper’ render. This sidesteps the need for traditional rendering, with an impressive and immersive final result, but it does demand the conversion, cleanup and optimisation of the datasets used to remove all the granular detail that the game engine simply doesn’t require. This calls for specialists, and can actually result in a bottleneck as the remaining data is manipulated to fit into GPU memory and run smoothly on a single machine running the engine. Often this results in a completely new way of working, unsurprisingly feeling like game development, with a much more collaborative approach enabled by code management (Perforce, Jenkins, Git etc.) and continuous build that ensures that each iteration is up to date.

A completely new way of thinking With all that said, we’ve reached the point where the best solution is something new. The demands of massive datasets, collaboration and virtual content mean we have to do more than simply tweak parts of the design process – we need a different approach entirely that breaks free of the single desktop/laptop. The answer is a centralised approach to data, and feeding it as and when it’s needed to a graphics application controlled remotely. This moves the machine from under the desk, to a data centre or the public cloud. Wherever a visualiser is

working, they can access this machine and work from it as if it is under their desk. How is this possible? It’s thanks to leaps in multiple technologies that have all converged to the point where this new world of remote rendering is not only viable, it’s easily accessible. Networking options up to 400Gb/s now make the typical 1Gb/s speed of the structured cabling in most buildings seem archaic. Similarly, NVMe drives in workstations, centralised storage and servers can transfer data at over 10Gb/s (20x faster than traditional hard drives). With these potential speeds available, it makes no sense to try and transfer huge amounts of data from a server to a workstation using ‘just’ the 1Gb/s cable – unless of course you enjoy waiting an hour for a complex scene to load! Instead, put the machine next to the storage, and use the 1Gb network to stream the desktop to an end device. The potential leap in performance is huge. Data is no longer transferred: what would be seen on the workstation’s monitor is streamed to the end device, wherever that may be. The hard work is all done by the remote workstation next www.AECmag.com

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workstation special report

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We’re seeing more businesses becoming cloud-first or utilising their own private data centres in order to reap the benefits of a remotecompute model and keep up with the demand for more technically demanding, accurate visuals

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to the centralised storage. It also allows collaboration like never before, with the data available to everybody who needs it. With the right remote desktop software, the experience for the visualiser is no different from using the machine under their desk. All that’s needed is a device with a display – desktops, laptops or tablets for example – and remote desktop software that can enable these workflows. Escape Technology’s Sherpa is a prime example, with a scalability suitable for practices of all sizes. Like many solutions, Sherpa allows you to dial up or down the number of cores you need depending on the project, giving you excellent control of spend over the lifetime of a project.

rendering etc.) together. With Open USD, all of these tools can exchange information, opening up even more opportunities for collaboration. It also tackles the issue of digital content creation applications such as Maya and 3ds Max being only able to load data on a single thread. Even a powerful machine like HP’s new Threadripper Pro Z6 G5 A, packed with up to 96 cores and designed for 3D rendering will be shackled if data is only loaded onto it via a single thread at a time. More time will be spent loading data than actually rendering. Like using a renderer file format, Open USD takes the rendering away from the DCC applications and ensures that data is loaded over all cores, fully leveraging A framework, not a file format the power of all the new technologies Creating visuals remotely has been further available to us and enabling a dramatic empowered by Open USD (Universal performance boost in all aspects of the Scene Description), a technology originally workflow and process. from Pixar which is now available under many different names and has been Is local ever best? described as ‘the html of the metaverse’. In short, our answer is now ‘no’. There It’s a new framework that enables not are simply so many ways to get better just the creation of 3D content, but also performance from a remote setup than brings all of the tools in the visualisation a traditional local one, including access pipeline (modelling, shading, lighting, from wherever the visualiser happens

to be (home, office, on site); the ability to define the performance you need on a daily basis (why have a 96-core workstation when you simply need to clean up a model on a single core?); and the ease of collaboration thanks to the centralisation of data. There are always exceptions of course. VR workflows are one such example, which need a powerful, physical machine to execute the environment to the highest levels of performance. Even so, that’s just the end point. Actually, generating the environments (as opposed to executing them) can still be done using remote workstations. And for VR planned correctly, CloudXR can even be considered as a fully remote solution. We’re seeing more businesses becoming cloud-first or utilising their own private data centres in order to reap the benefits of a remote-compute model and keep up with the demand for more technically demanding, accurate visuals. With a growing number of DCC solutions also offering more cloud-based services too, it’s clear that this is not just the future of visualisation, it’s the present.

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January / February 2024

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■ www.escape-technology.com

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workstation special report

Remote possibilities: Lenovo targets the cloud With its ThinkStation workstations now fully-optimised for racks as well as desktops, Lenovo is focusing on complete solutions for remote workstations, with an agnostic approach to software, writes Greg Corke

n the early days of the cloud, a simple explanation was that it was someone else’s computer, accessed remotely. This might be true, but when it comes to cloud workstations, you’re typically sharing that computer with many other users through a technology called virtualisation. Virtualisation carves up CPU, memory and sometimes graphics resources from a single computer to create multiple Virtual Machines (VMs). The processors that are typically used in cloud workstations have lots of cores but run at relatively low frequencies. And as we showed in our May 2023 Workstation Special Report, this can mean considerably less performance, when compared to the fastest desktop workstations. With an operational expense (OpEx) model, instead of a capital expense (CapEx) model, cloud workstations can also cost more over several years. This has presented a big opportunity for the major workstation OEMs. HP, for example, has built an integrated remote workstation solution around its HP Z desktop workstations and HP Anyware, the remote workstation or digital workspace software. The idea is that users can remote into powerful desktop workstations, typically stored in racks in a server room or datacentre. As with cloud workstations, all processing, including graphics, is done remotely, with only pixels streamed to the end user, wherever they may be. HP’s acquisition of Teradici in 2021 put the spotlight on HP for remote workstations. Meanwhile, Lenovo has been quietly building up its remote workstation capabilities. The company WS40

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really started to become vocal about its plans for the datacentre with the launch of the ‘Sapphire Rapids’ Intel Xeonbased ThinkStation P7, P9 and PX in Spring 2023, followed by the AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro-based ThinkStation P8 in Autumn 2023 (read our review on page WS22). These powerful tower workstations sit pretty on any desk, but were also purpose-built for racks. The ThinkStation PX comes with a redundant power supply, front accessible storage, a rear power button, and an out of band baseboard management controller (BMC) for server level control. In the main, however, these machines still require virtualisation when part of a remote workstation solution. Only the most demanding users need all the resources of a single machine. And while their Intel Xeon and AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro processors are specifically designed for workstations and are more modern and powerful than those typically used in cloud workstations, they still have lots of cores and lower all core frequencies than the fastest CAD-focused workstations. To deliver a true desktop experience, remotely, that feels familiar to users The ThinkStation P3 delivers impressive performance for CAD over a 1:1 connection and with a compact form factor, seven workstations can fit in a 5U rack space

of CAD and BIM software, you need a different type of machine. With a high frequency Intel Core processor and powerful Nvidia RTX GPU, the ThinkStation P3 Ultra delivers exceptional performance for CAD-centric workflows over a 1:1 connection. The chassis is extremely small, so you can get seven units in a 5U rack space for that all important server room density. But, importantly, there’s still room for a BMC add-in card for remote monitoring and systems management. Lenovo’s cloud / remote workstation play isn’t just about hardware, however. It’s about delivering comprehensive remote workstation solutions, as Mark Hirst, Lenovo’s workstation solutions manager for remote graphics + hybrid cloud, explains, “We can’t just talk about the CPU and the GPU in these [our workstations]. If we’re going to educate our customers and educate our partners and educate ourselves, we’ve got to do a much better job about talking about the entire technology stack around it. “Our customers don’t just want to talk workstations, they want to talk datacentre, they want to talk data management, they want to talk remote protocols, they want to talk networking, security, all this kind of stuff,” he says. In order to best support its customers on their remote workstation journey, Lenovo is developing a Remote Centre of Excellence at its workstation HQ in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. The centre will act as a hub for research and as an educational and developmental resource for customers, who can test solutions remotely. “We want people to really understand that there’s an alternative to cloud and we want our customers and our partners to try these systems out. If they want to learn about different protocols, then we’ve got the expertise in house to be able to educate them on that and on other things in the stack as well.” In the Remote Centre of Excellence, Lenovo is racking all of its different desktop workstations and configuring them with various different remote graphics software protocols. In the past, Lenovo had a big focus on Mechdyne TGX, but now it’s also testing its kit with Nice DCV from AWS, Splashtop, Parsec, Microsoft Remote Desktop, and even HP Anyware (formerly Teradici CAS), www.AECmag.com

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workstation special report

despite HP being a major competitor. The interesting thing about Back in Raleigh, Lenovo is With front-accessible storage, a redundant “We wanted to talk about all of these IMSCAD’s offering, is that working closely with ISVs power supply and many different protocols, because some are customers have huge choice. to help find the right fit for other features, the better than others in different aspects. For a managed service in the many different tools and ThinkStation PX has Some have got better Wacom support, IMSCAD’s private cloud, strong rack credentials workflows of its customers. some have got better 3D mouse support, customers can either buy the There’s an initial focus on some are better for high resolution workstations outright or push everything the AEC market, which presents Lenovo displays, all that kind of stuff. over to a OpEx subscription model. with the biggest opportunity in terms of “There’s no one protocol fits all. Some Meanwhile, for on-premise, workstations volume. The company will also draw on have got their own integrated connection can either be deployed in a dedicated server the expertise of its R&D labs, which tests a brokers. Do we look at third parties, room, or just kept on desks in the office. The huge range of professional workloads when like a Leostream [broker] or something idea here is that firms can carry on working developing ThinkStation workstations. like that, that has a lot more extensive in a way that many are familiar with, but Meanwhile, one of the biggest challenges capabilities when facing Lenovo for it comes to things remote workstations like management is not of a technical We want to get people to think about how they’re using nature. and monitoring?” The Lenovo is not must their workstations. A workstation is not just that box at company only relying on the desk anymore. All of these things are rack mountable work out how its workstation get the message Mark Hirst, workstation solutions manager, Lenovo division to drive over to customers its Remote Centre that cloud is not of Excellence. It the only way and can also bring in experts from its server access their workstation resource remotely traditional workstations can offer a real and storage business unit, as well as when required, simply streaming pixels to a alternative. “We don’t want to be a cloud workstation partners, such as IMSCAD, remote end device. basher, but we do want to get people a pioneer of workstation-focused Virtual That’s not to say a remote workstation to think about how they’re using their Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solutions. solution built around Lenovo ThinkStation workstations,” says Hirst. “A workstation IMSCAD is providing Lenovo technology renders the cloud redundant. is not just that box at the desk anymore. with global consulting and a route IMSCAD also offers a desktop disaster All of these things are rack mountable. to market, offering on-premise or recovery solution in Microsoft Azure They [customers] might love their private cloud hosted solutions built that provides companies with a virtual workstation, but if it makes sense to move around the ThinkStation P3 Ultra workstation and data resource on-demand. it over in that room next to your data, and the ThinkStation P8. From its UK Here the cloud acts as an insurance policy if then you’ve already started improving datacentre, customers can have a free 48- physical on-premise workstations go down, that experience.” hour trial with up to five apps. perhaps due to fire, theft or a power cut. ■ www.lenovo.com ■ www.imscadservices.com

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Building Information Modelling (BIM) for Architecture, Engineering and Construction

Technology for BIM and beyond

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05/09/2022 16:52

workstation special report

Inevidesk: flexible virtual workstations Inevidesk’s flexible and transparent approach to virtual workstations should resonate with UK practices that want to enable their staff, wherever they are based, to work off the same infrastructure, writes Greg Corke

ne of big unknowns of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) or cloud workstation solutions is how much they cost. With no one size fits all approach, few service providers publish clear pricing. There can also be hidden charges along the way. Compared to buying desktop workstations outright, and typically keeping them for three to five years, cloud workstations can also end up being very expensive. London-based Inevidesk has built its AEC-focused virtual desktop business around transparency, putting pricing up front and centre on its website (see table right). Typically, customers buy the hardware up front, just as they would with desktop workstations, then pay an annual service fee on top. This includes the virtualisation platform, access to the administration portal, as well as support and service updates. Inevidesk builds its solution around pods, bespoke rack mounted servers that can host up to seven GPU-accelerated virtual desktops, known as vdesks. Each vdesk gets a dedicated GPU. Customers can choose to keep their pods on premise, in their own server room. Alternatively, as the majority choose to do, pay a fee to have them hosted in Inevidesk’s London datacentre, which is powered by 100% renewable energy. Buying hardware outright is fine if you know exactly where your business will be in a few years, but few architectural practices do. Things can grow and contract quite quickly. To make things more flexible, Inevidesk recently introduced its Flexidesk service. This allows firms to burst up and scale down in increments of one or more vdesks, without having to buy the hardware. Well, that’s not 100% correct. In order to use the Flexidesk service, customers must own at least one pod and it must be hosted with Inevidesk. With the Flexidesk service, the commitment can be for as little as one month, although it works out cheaper to sign up for a year. Prices start at £99 per month and include the vdesk, service and hosting fees. Buying pods is more cost efficient, so www.AECmag.com

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Inevidesk Mid-spec pod (CAD/BIM)

Inevidesk High-spec pod (CAD/BIM and viz)

Inevidesk CPU rendering pod (multithreaded workflows)

No. vdesks

Virtual CPU

4 vCPU

8 vCPU

31 vCPU

RAM

32G

64G

120G

SSD

500G

900G

GPU

Nvidia T1000 (8G)

Nvidia RTX A4000 (16G)

Chassis

Purchase price (Ex VAT)

£9,974

£16,565

£12,145

Price per vdesk (Ex VAT)

£1,425

£2,366

£6,073

Service fee

£1,720 (ex VAT) (per pod per annum)

Inevidesk hosting service

Fee (ex VAT) (per month)

Mid-spec pod hosting

£165

£230

Server storage

£75 / TB

4 vCPU bolt on

£25

firms can strike a balance between renting and owning hardware. There’s a fine line here. Rent too much and it’ll cost more in the long run. Buy too much and it could sit idle during downturns.

Inside the pod Inevidesk pods are custom rack mounted servers built around the AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5000 Series processors. Inevidesk plans to introduce the new AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7000 Series (as reviewed on page WS8) once motherboards with enough PCIe slots for seven GPUs become available. A ‘mid-spec pod’ is designed for CAD and BIM workflows to support applications like Revit and Rhino. The compact 2U chassis includes seven vdesks, each with four virtual CPU (vCPU), 32G of RAM, 500G SSD and a dedicated Nvidia T1000 GPU (8G). A ‘high-spec pod’ is designed for GPU-centric visualisation workflows to support applications like Enscape and Twinmotion. The 3U chassis includes seven vdesks, each with eight virtual CPU (vCPU), 64G of RAM, 500G SSD and a dedicated Nvidia RTX A4000 GPU (16G), which has hardware ray tracing built in. N.B. Inevidesk doesn’t currently see sufficient value in the new Nvidia RTX

4000 Ada Generation GPU to make it a standard offering (see review on page WS36). As is common with most VMs, both of these vdesks are overprovisioned, which means they are allocated more resources than there physically are in the server. Overprovisioning is based on the idea that not all users are hammering all resources all the time. In the mid-spec system, which has a Threadripper Pro 5955WX processor with 16 physical cores, each of the seven vdesks is allocated four vCPU, which makes 28 vCPU in total. To find the right balance between cost and performance, Inevidesk keeps an eye on the resources its customers use, as Inevidesk’s Mark Adams explains. “In general, pretty much all of our clients hang around 50 to 60% utilisation, so even though we’re provisioning 28 cores, they only ever actually use half of what’s available.” Of course, that statistic relates to typical modelling workflows, which tend to be single threaded or lightly threaded. “[With the mid-spec and high-spec pods] we specifically state you can’t do CPU rendering on every virtual desktop at the same time, but nobody does,” adds Adams. “They’ve got a dedicated graphics card, so render away on that. It’s more common nowadays, anyway.” January / February 2024

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workstation special report

For some, CPU rendering or other balanced — depending on application and The verdict highly multi-threaded workflows such latency. Users are encouraged to play with It’s refreshing to see a company bring real as point cloud processing, is an important these settings to get the best experience. clarity to virtual workstations – not just in part of their workflows. For these users, To test out the system Inevidesk terms of pricing, but the specifications of the Inevidesk also offers a CPU rendering pod, provided a vdesk for real time viz with VMs, how much they’re overprovisioned with two vdesks, each with 31 vCPU, 120G 8 vCPU (from a virtualised AMD Ryzen and the options for hosting. of RAM, 900G SSD and an Nvidia RTX Threadripper Pro 5955WX) and a Buying hardware outright and having it A4000 GPU. dedicated Nvidia RTX A4000 GPU. hosted in Inevidesk’s datacentre might go Unlike the mid-spec and high-spec We connected to the hosted VM from against the grain, but for many architectural pods, Inevidesk guarantees access to London, over AC3000 WiFi using a practices it can provide more certainty and all CPU resources all of the time, as standard home Internet connection. Our remove the need to accommodate bulky Adams explains, “In that one, it’s the end device was an HP ZBook Firefly G10 hardware — servers and workstations — in [Threadripper Pro] 5995WX and we with AMD Ryzen 9 Pro 7940HS processor expensive London offices. only allow half of the cores to each vdesk so and Windows 11 Pro. It’s a pretty The other notable benefit of the they can use 100% of what’s been assigned powerful laptop, although Inevidesk says Inevidesk solution, that its pods use to them. There’s no overprovisioning connecting computers only need a modern Threadripper Pro processors, which are essentially.” Intel processor (2015 and up) or Nvidia/ designed specifically for workstations. The three vdesks described are just the AMD graphics card to take advantage of For CAD workflows, while Inevidesk’s ‘defaults’, and Inevidesk stresses that the Parsec’s optimisation capabilities which vdesks won’t keep pace with the platform is fully fastest desktop customisable in workstations, terms of vCPU you’ll get Buying hardware outright and having it hosted in which can be much closer Inevidesk’s datacentre might go against the grain, but for performance than reassigned in the admin portal. many architectural practices it can provide more certainty you would with a GPUs and RAM traditional VDI and remove the need to accommodate bulky hardware allocations can / cloud solution. also be mixed And with pods and matched. based on the Higher spec processors can be added, if utilise h265 decoding of the video stream. AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7000 required, and double slot GPUs can be Our experience at 4K resolution was Series coming soon, this gap will close. accommodated in the CPU rendering pod. impressive. Both Revit and Enscape felt At a time when momentum is growing very responsive, with complex models for remote solutions based around The technology loaded. There was no visible compression compact desktop workstations like the IT administrators access their pods in the viewport, as we’ve sometimes seen HP Z2 Mini and Lenovo ThinkStation through Inevidesk’s web-based with public cloud workstations. P3 Ultra (see page WS40) this will put administration portal. The first step is To get an idea of relative performance, Inevidesk in a comparatively good to create a template for all the required we ran a few benchmarks. Single threaded position when the conversation turns to CAD, viz and productivity software. performance, which is important for CAD performance. Once complete, the template is simply and BIM, was pretty much exactly where cloned to create all the vdesks. we expected it to be. Inevidesk offers a free trial for its hosted pods. To access the vdesks themselves, end In the Cinebench R23 single threaded test, ■ www.inevidesk.uk users simply download the Inevidesk it edged out a desktop workstation with a client application (available for Windows 64-core Threadripper Pro 5995WX. This and Mac), punch in their credentials, and is because the pod’s 16-core Threadripper they will be shown which vdesks they Pro 5955WX has a higher base frequency. have access to. This is typically one that’s However, compared to the fastest current Inevidesk is developed by London-based been assigned to them specifically. For CAD workstation with an Intel Core i9Inevitech. Following the official launch in added security, firms can enable multi 14900K processor (see review on page WS28), 2020, Inevidesk has attracted a broad range of factor authentication. it only delivered 62% of the performance. customers, predominantly in the AEC space, By default, the Inevidesk client When Inevidesk brings the new from relatively small architectural practices application uses remote desktop software Threadripper Pro 7000 Series processors to larger firms including Hawkins Brown, Parsec, which needs to be licensed, along on board, this gap should close dramatically. Western Williamson, Allies and Morrison and with Windows. However, users can also Importantly, our vdesk was significantly Hopkins, which has around 150 to 160 vdesks. choose their own way of connecting to faster than the public cloud workstations Customers are typically in and around their vdesk via other protocols such as we tested last year (see Summer 2023 London, although some of the practices Windows RDP, Logmein, HP Anyware, Workstation Special Report - tinyurl.com/ have offices around the UK. Some are even Splashtop and others. AEC-WS-23). Both AWS and Microsoft international, in mainland Europe or East The Inevidesk virtual desktop can Azure use server-class processors, where Coast America, although as with all remote launch Windowed or full screen and the focus is on the number of cores rather workstations, the further you are away from it’s possible to use dual displays up to than frequency. In contrast, Threadripper the datacentre, the more latency you get, which 4K resolution. The system offers three Pro is specifically designed for workstations, negatively impacts the experience. different display modes — 3D, 2D or so frequency and cores are a priority.

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About Inevidesk

WS44

January / February 2024

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