ASUS are no strangers to computing records, having garnered more than a few through both motherboard and GPU brands over the years. This week they've taken a new scalp in a less well known arena: rendering, specifically the OctaneBench tool for High Performance Computer Rendering.
Strongbox, an organisation which specialises in designing purpose-built High Performance Computing and professional workstation systems, assembled a system specialising in 24/7 rendering workloads. Key points of note were:
1) The Strongbox built HPC was a stock machine for an existing customer – Jellyfish Animation.
2) The components used were an Asus chassis, motherboard and 8 x Asus 1080TI’s.
3) The machine performed the rendering on a test bench with no special cooling or air conditioning.
2) The components used were an Asus chassis, motherboard and 8 x Asus 1080TI’s.
3) The machine performed the rendering on a test bench with no special cooling or air conditioning.
The ASUS 1080Ti's were an interesting choice. The OctaneBench best was held by a system equipped with NVIDIA's GTX Titan XP GPUs, but they also carry a considerable cost premium over the typical GTX 1080 Ti. Still, you would expect the Titan XP to take the performance crown, surely?
Apparently not, according to Strongbox:
"Using the Octane Render test - Octane Bench, the Strongbox 8GPU HPC smashed the previous record of 1498 for a Titan XP and a previous high of 1397 for an equivalent 1080Ti machine. Strongbox has taken over the OctaneBench podium with the highest score of 1620.82 and all top three places.
Performing the benchmark test proves that our Strongbox 8x GPU 4U HPC has the best bang for buck performance ratio in the world, beating the Titan XP at half the cost. This beast has also been tamed with rock solid stability and GPU temperatures hitting a maximum of 51ºC on full load, in an ambient temperature of 22ºC while breaking the OctaneBench record."
Performing the benchmark test proves that our Strongbox 8x GPU 4U HPC has the best bang for buck performance ratio in the world, beating the Titan XP at half the cost. This beast has also been tamed with rock solid stability and GPU temperatures hitting a maximum of 51ºC on full load, in an ambient temperature of 22ºC while breaking the OctaneBench record."
Deeply impressive any way you shake it, and a testament to both the top-tier performance and cooling available on the ASUS GPUs.
Less than 48hours after achieving this record the system was on its way to Jellyfish Animation in London, there to take up a role as a dedicated rendering rig.
