SPECapc Demos New Maya 6.5 Benchmark, Announces Future Releases

By DE Editors

SPEC/GPC’s(Warrenton, VA) Application Performance Characterization (SPECapc)project group demonstrated a Maya 6.5 benchmark at SIGGRAPH 2005 in LosAngeles Wednesday that will be released to the public on August 17. Thegroup also announced plans and gave partial demos of upcomingbenchmarks for Pro/Engineer Wildfire 2.0, UGS NX3, and Solid Edge V17.Those three updated CAD benchmarks are expected to be released betweennow and the end of the year.

SPECapc for Maya 6.5 is an updated benchmark that reflects the changesAlias made to improve OpenGL performance by switching fromglArrayElement to glDrawElements. The SPECapc group did additionaltuning to streamline the benchmark’s graphics path. The greaterefficiency makes the benchmark less CPU-bound, and will accentuate thedifferences among system configurations.

“With the cooperation of ISVs, we are working to stay up-to-date withthe latest application releases and dig deeper into new functionality,“says Dan Bennett, SPECapc chair. “Benchmark testing always requiressome tradeoffs, but we’ve taken great strides to make SPECapc testresults reflect user experiences.”

SPECapc’s current suite includes application benchmarks for 3ds max 7,Maya 6, Pro/E 2001, Solid Edge V14, and SolidWorks 2005. The SPECapcgroup continues to seek additional benchmarks for leading softwareprograms in CAD/CAM/CAE, visualization, and digital content creation(DCC).

SPECapc is a project group of the Graphics Performance Characterization(GPC) Group, which is part of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corp.(SPEC). SPEC is a non-profit corporation formed to establish, maintain,and endorse a standardized set of relevant benchmarks that can beapplied to the newest generation of high-performance computers. Formore information, visit spec.org.