Marco Romero

I am pleased to announce the hardware acquisition of the latest generation "Intel Dual Xeon Server" dedicated 24/7 exclusively to HD rendering and complex simulations.

For the initial phase, has been installed the first Intel Xeon E5-2697 v3 @3092.62 MHz (28 Threads) on a Intel S2600CWT Server Motherboard, as well as 128GB Kingston ValueRAM DDR4-SDRAM.

With this new acquisition, I can guarantee the availability to perform extensive 3D animation works, as well as complex calculus operations, reaffirming again the high production capacity on latest generation high-end hardware.

CPU-Z Validation: http://valid.x86.fr/1u9vu8

GPU-Z Validation: http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/details.php?id=489d2

3DMark 11 Performance 1.0 24/10/2015: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/10441124

3DMark Vantage Performance 24/10/2015: http://www.3dmark.com/3dmv/5352703

3DMark06 24/10/2015: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm06/17820319

PCMark 7 24/10/2015: http://www.3dmark.com/pcm7/984181

MAXON CINEBENCH R15

HARDWARE SPECS:

01.- Motherboard:

Intel S2600CWT Server Motherboard
http://ark.intel.com/products/83028/Intel-Server-Board-S2600CWT

02.- CPU:

Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-2697 v3 (14 Cores 28 Threads, 35M Cache, @3092.62 MHz)
http://ark.intel.com/products/81059/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-2697-v3-35M-Cache-2_60-GHz

03.- RAM:

[128GB kit 32GBx4] Kingston Technology ValueRAM 32 GB DDR4 (PC4 2133) Memory KVR21L15Q4/32
https://www.kingston.com/en/memory/server
http://www.kingston.com/dataSheets/KVR21L15Q4_32.pdf

04.- Cooling System:

CORSAIR Hydro Series™ H110 280mm Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
http://www.corsair.com/us/hydro-series-h110-280mm-extreme-performance-liquid-cpu-cooler.html

AeroCool Touch 2100
http://www.aerocool.us/peripheral/touch2100.htm

Noctua NH-D15S D-Style CPU Cooler
http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=productview&products_id=112&lng=en

05.- Video:

[2x] NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 (Quad SLI) 4GB 512-bit GDDR5 PCI Express - 04G-P4-2692-KR - 3072 CUDA Cores (x2)
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-690
http://www.evga.com/Products/Specs/GPU.aspx?pn=BE6D6573-5B67-446C-B76C-C09614C70991

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 4GB 256 bit GDDR5 Superclocked - 04G-P4-2982-KR - 2048 CUDA Cores
http://maxwell.nvidia.com/gtx-980
http://www.evga.com/Products/Product.aspx?pn=04G-P4-2982-KR
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-980/specifications

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB 384 bit GDDR5 Superclocked - 06G-P4-4992-KR - 2816 CUDA Cores
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-980-ti
http://www.evga.com/Products/Product.aspx?pn=06G-P4-4992-KR

06.- Displays:

[3X] SAMSUNG SyncMaster T27B550LB 27" HDTV LED Monitor
http://www.samsung.com/latin/consumer/monitor-peripherals-printer/monitors/led/LT27B550LB/ZM

07.- Storage:

[2x] Intel Mini-SAS/SATA Data Transfer Cable AXXCBL450HD7S
http://ark.intel.com/products/82795/Mini-SAS-Cable-Kit-AXXCBL450HD7S

Intel® 520 Series SSDSC2CW480A3K5 (480GB, 2.5in SATA3 6Gb/s, 25nm, MLC)
http://ark.intel.com/products/66251/Intel-SSD-520-Series-480GB-2_5in-SATA-6Gbs-25nm-MLC

[3x] WD Black 2TB Hard Drive WD2002FAEX
http://wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=760

08.- Optical disc drive

Pioneer BDR-207MBK - Internal BD/DVD/CD Burner. Supports BDXL Media. SATA Interface.
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Computer/Computer+Drives/BDR-207MBK

09.- Power Supply:

Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid 1300W
http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=6744

10.- Case:

Cooler Master Cosmos II Ultra
http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=6792

11.- Keyboard:

Corsair Vengeance® K70 Mechanical Keyboard - CH-9000059-NA
http://www.corsair.com/en/vengeance-k70-special-edition-mechanical-gaming-keyboard-gunmetal-cherry-mx-brown-uk

12.- Mouse:

Thermaltake eSPORTS Level 10 M Wired Gaming Mouse - Black
http://mmouse.ttesports.com/

13.- UPS:

APC Power Saving Back-UPS Pro 1500VA - BR1500GI
http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BR1500G

14.- Network:

D-Link DWA-556 Xtreme N PCI-Express Desktop Adapter
http://www.dlink.com/uk/en/home-solutions/connect/adapters/dwa-556-xtreme-n-pci-express-desktop-adapter

TP-LINK TL-ANT2408C 2.4GHz 8dBi Indoor Desktop Omni-directional Antenna
http://www.tp-link.com/en/products/details/cat-4765_TL-ANT2408C.html

NETGEAR ProSAFE GS108E 8-Port Gigabit Plus Switch (GS108E-300NAS)
http://www.netgear.com/business/products/switches/unmanaged-plus/GS108E.aspx

PHOTO GALLERY:

Hardware upgrade 09/2015

Motherboard size comparison "Intel DX79SI" vs "Intel S2600CWT Server"

Intel S2600CWT Server Motherboard on Cooler Master Cosmos II Ultra case

Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-2697 v3 (14 Cores 28 Threads, 35M Cache, @3092.62 MHz)

Kingston Technology ValueRAM 32 GB DDR4 2133 (PC4 2133) Memory

CORSAIR Hydro Series™ H110 installation

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 4GB 512-bit GDDR5 - 04G-P4-2692-KR - 3072 CUDA Cores (x2)
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-690
http://www.evga.com/Products/Specs/GPU.aspx?pn=BE6D6573-5B67-446C-B76C-C09614C70991

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 4GB 256 bit GDDR5 Superclocked - 04G-P4-2982-KR - 2048 CUDA Cores
http://maxwell.nvidia.com/gtx-980
http://www.evga.com/Products/Product.aspx?pn=04G-P4-2982-KR
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-980/specifications

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB 384 bit GDDR5 Superclocked - 06G-P4-4992-KR - 2816 CUDA Cores
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-980-ti
http://www.evga.com/Products/Product.aspx?pn=06G-P4-4992-KR

Intel Dual Xeon Server custom assembly on Cooler Master Cosmos II Ultra case

09/2015

Hardware upgrade 10/2015

Intel Mini-SAS/SATA Data Transfer Cable AXXCBL450HD7S

Intel Mini-SAS/SATA Data Transfer Cable connection

Noctua NH-D15S D-Style CPU Cooler

Noctua NH-D15S D-Style installation

New Hardware Upgrade:

EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Superclocked - 06G-P4-4992-KR

GeForce® GTX™ 980 Ti enables a new level of capabilities and sets a new benchmark in performance. Accelerated by the groundbreaking NVIDIA Maxwell™ architecture, it delivers the advanced technologies and horsepower to take on even the most challenging games at high settings in 4K and smooth, immersive virtual reality.

GPU-Z validation entry: http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/map74/

GTX 980 Ti architecture

http://maxwell.nvidia.com/gtx-980-ti/

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-980-ti

http://www.evga.com/Products/Product.aspx?pn=06G-P4-4992-KR

http://www.evga.com/articles/00934/EVGA-GeForce-GTX-980-Ti

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/vr/technology

The Graphic Card created for Virtual Reality:

VR Direct in a nutshell is a collection of technologies and software enhancements designed to improve the experience and performance of virtual reality headsets such as the Oculus Rift. From a practical perspective NVIDIA already has some experience in stereoscopic rendering through 3D Vision, and from a marketing perspective the high resource requirements of VR would be good for encouraging GeForce sales, so NVIDIA will be heavily investing into the development of VR technologies through VR Direct.

From a technical perspective the biggest thing that Oculus and other VR headset makers need from GPU manufacturers and the other companies involved in the PC ecosystem is methods of reducing the latency/input lag between a user’s input and when a finished frame becomes visible on a headset. While some latency is inevitable – it takes time to gather data and render a frame – the greater the latency the greater the disconnect will be between the user and the rendered world. In more extreme cases this can make the simulation unusable, or even trigger motion sickness in individuals whose minds can’t handle the disorientation from the latency. As a result several of NVIDIA’s features are focused on reducing latency in some manner.

First and foremost, for VR headsets NVIDIA has implemented a low latency mode that minimizes the amount of time a frame spends being prepared by the drivers and OS. In an average case this low latency mode eliminates 10ms of OS-induced latency from the rendering pipeline, and this is the purest optimization of the bunch.

Meanwhile at the more extreme end of the feature spectrum, NVIDIA will be supporting a feature called asynchronous warp. This feature, known by Oculus developers as time warp, involves rendering a frame and then at the last possible moment updating the head tracking information from the user. After that information is acquired, the nearly finished frame then has a post-process warping applied to it to take into account head movement since the frame was initially submitted, with the ultimate goal of this warping being the simulation of what the frame should look like had it been rendered instantaneously.

From a quality perspective asynchronous warp stands to be a bit of a kludge, but it is the single most potent latency improvement among the VR Direct feature set. By modifying the frame to account for the user’s head position as late as is possible, it reduces the perceived latency by as much as 25ms.

NVIDIA’s third latency optimization is less a VR optimization and more a practical effect of an existing technology, and that is Multi-Frame sampled Anti-Aliasing. As we'll discuss later in our look at this new AA mode, Multi-Frame sampled Anti-Aliasing is designed to offer 4x MSAA-like quality with 2x MSAA-like performance. Assuming a baseline of 4x MSAA, switching it out for Multi-Frame sampled Anti-Aliasing can shave an additional few milliseconds off of the frame rendering time.

Lastly, NVIDIA’s fourth and final latency optimization for VR Direct is VR SLI. And this feature is simple enough: rather than using alternate frame rendering (AFR) to render both eyes at once on one GPU, split up the workload such that each GPU is working on each eye simultaneously. AFR, though highly compatible with traditional monoscopic rendering, introduces additional latency that would be undesirable for VR. By rendering each eye separately on each GPU, NVIDIA is able to apply the performance benefits of SLI to VR without creating additional latency. Given the very high performance and low latencies required for VR, it’s currently expected that most high-end games supporting VR headsets will need SLI to achieve their necessary performance, so being able to use SLI without a latency penalty will be an important part of making VR gaming commercially viable.

On a side note, for the sake of clarity we do want to point out that many of NVIDIA’s latency optimizations come from the best practices suggestions of Oculus VR. Asynchronous warp and OS level latency optimizations for example are features that Oculus VR is suggesting for hardware developers and/or pursuing themselves. So while these features are very useful to have on GeForce hardware, they are not necessarily all ideas that NVIDIA has come up with or technologies that are limited to NVIDIA hardware (or even the Maxwell 2 architecture).

Moving on, other than NVIDIA’s latency reduction technologies the VR Direct feature set will also include some feature improvements designed to improve the quality and usability of VR. NVIDIA’s Dynamic Super Resolution (DSR) technology will be available to VR, and given the physical limits on pixel density in today’s OLED panels it will be an important tool in reducing perceptible aliasing. NVIDIA will also be extending VR support to GeForce Experience at a future time, simplifying the configuration of VR-enabled games. For VR on GeForce Experience NVIDIA wants to go beyond just graphical settings and also auto-configure inputs as well, handling remapping of inputs to head/body tracking for the user automatically.

Ultimately at this point VR Direct is more of a forward looking technology than it is something applicable today – the first consumer Oculus Rift hasn’t even been announced, let alone shipped – but by focusing on VR early NVIDIA is hoping to improve the speed and ease of VR development, and have the underpinnings in place once consumer VR gear becomes readily available.

"The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Review: Maxwell Mark 2"
by Ryan Smith