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Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation

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SPECworkstation 3 benchmark

The SPECworkstation 3 benchmark measures all key aspects of workstation performance based on diverse professional applications.

On February 25, 2020, the SPECwpc subcommittee released version 3.0.4 of the SPECworkstation benchmark, enabling certain computational workloads to scale beyond 64 logical processors. SPECwpc decided to launch this update in two forms: as a minor-version patch to the benchmark for those already using SPECworkstation 3.0.3, and as a full benchmark installation. If your already installed version of SPECworkstation is lower than 3.0.3, the full benchmark installation package should be used instead of the patch. Whether you download the full V3.0.4 benchmark or just the patch, you will retain comparability between 3.0.4 and all previous 3.0 versions.

To install the patch, extract the contents of the downloaded zip file into an existing SPECworkstation 3.0.3 installation folder, overwriting files when prompted. Users can verify their installation of SPECworkstation has been patched successfully by confirming that the version number shown in the application title bar and the results files matches "3.0.4".

SPECworkstation 3 submissions on the SPEC website results page will include the minor version information in order to disclose up front what version was used to obtain a published result.

SPECworkstation 3 is free for everyone but sellers of computers and related products, who are required to pay a $5,000 vendor license.

 

Free license for the SPECworkstation 3 benchmark

This is available to everyone but sellers of computers and related products.



Vendor license for the SPECworkstation 3 benchmark

FAQ: Am I required to purchase a license for this benchmark?

V3.0.4 patch for V3.0.3 installations to enable scaling for >64 logical processors




Major new features and upgrades in the SPECworkstation 3 benchmark include:

  • A totally redesigned storage workload based on traces of nearly two-dozen applications.
  • Workloads that reflect changes in updated versions of Blender, Handbrake, Python and Luxrender applications.
  • GPU-accelerated workloads based on Luxrender, Caffe, and Folding@Home applications.
  • Refreshed graphics workloads from the SPECviewperf 13 benchmark, including new viewsets representing Autodesk Maya, PTC Creo, energy (oil & gas), and medical applications.
  • A more robust GUI and improved results validation and error reporting.
  • An option to report results based on subsystems in addition to vertical market segments.

Running the benchmark

More than 30 workloads containing nearly 140 tests in the SPECworkstation 3 benchmark exercise CPU, graphics, I/O and memory bandwidth. The workloads are divided by application categories that include media and entertainment (3D animation, rendering), product development (CAD/CAM/CAE), life sciences (medical, molecular), financial services, energy (oil and gas), general operations, and GPU compute.

Individual scores are generated for each test and a composite score for each category is calculated based on a reference machine, yielding a "bigger is better" result. The reference machine is a Z240 tower with the following configuration:

Processor: Intel E3-1240 v5 @3.5GHz
Graphics: AMD Radeon Pro WX3100
Memory: 16GB, DDR3 2133MHz
Storage: SanDisk 512GB SSD
OS: MS Windows 10 build 17134

The SPECworkstation 3 benchmark does not require the full application and associated licensing to be installed on the system under test, simplifying set-up, running and results reporting. It runs under Microsoft Windows 10 64-bit RS3 or later. Results from the SPECworkstation 3 benchmark cannot be compared to earlier versions of the SPECwpc benchmark.

Benchmark documentation

Workload descriptions

Run rules

Results