AMD Radeon Pro Software for Enterprise 19.Q2 Delivers Performance Where It Counts

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Today, we are releasing our second quarterly Radeon™ Pro Software for Enterprise driver of 2019, 19.Q2, with significant performance improvements in areas where it really counts for enterprise professionals. Additionally, our Day Zero Certification Program continues to help ensure that many professional applications will be certified on this latest enterprise driver prior to its release and the 19.Q2 driver is also ready to support the Windows® 10 May 2019 Update.

“We have been using Radeon Pro graphics cards for years and rely on the stability and performance to meet our product development deadlines. The performance of the Radeon Pro is smooth and effortless and exploits all of the advanced features of SOLIDWORKS®. I really appreciate the regular delivery of Enterprise Drivers, so our graphics solutions are up-to-date to meet the demands of our workflows.
                                                                         – Steven Pearson, Lead Partner and Chief Designer, Wills Wing

Along with the latest enterprise driver, we are also announcing that in order to better serve professionals who use Radeon™ Pro graphics cards for game development and gaming, we’ve upgraded our Radeon Pro Software “Driver Options” feature with the ability to simply install the standard Radeon™ Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition driver on professional graphics cards.^1,2

Performance Where it Counts, in Real Design Steps

Radeon Pro Software for Enterprise 19.Q2 delivers performance where it counts and is faster than the competition in key performance scenarios that reflect how professionals actually use their workstations, as well as being faster in the typical synthetic benchmarks.

To accomplish this, we created an internal SOLIDWORKS® performance test that realistically reflects the 3D modeling steps that professionals take using CAD applications -- instead of simply rotating, panning, and zooming a 3d model, our internal test uses 20 modeling steps, including sketching, combining, extruding, and cutting. Using this test, when using Radeon Pro Software for Enterprise 19.Q2, the Radeon™ Pro WX 4100 is ~25% faster than the NVIDIA Quadro® P1000³ and the Radeon™ Pro WX 7100 is ~28% faster than the NVIDIA Quadro® RTX 4000⁴, with both NVIDIA® cards using the Quadro® Optimal Driver For Enterprise (ODE) R418 U4 (425.31).
 

Desktop Workstation Performance Virtually Anywhere

Using the AMD Remote Workstation⁵ feature of Radeon™ Pro Software for Enterprise, professionals can access the full GPU-accelerated experience of their workstation from virtually anywhere, with minimal performance penalty. When testing with the SPECviewperf® 13 “3dsmax-06” benchmark, there was only a ~2% performance drop when remotely accessing an AMD Radeon Pro WX 4100 graphics-powered workstation (using Citrix® Virtual Apps and Desktops).⁶

Multitasking Performance

Today’s professionals are rarely doing only one thing at a time, and Radeon Pro graphics and Radeon Pro Software for Enterprise 19.Q2 together deliver outstanding multitasking performance even in incredibly demanding environments. When tested against the NVIDIA Quadro P1000 using the NVIDIA Quadro Optimal Driver For Enterprise (ODE) R418 U4 (425.31), when running the demanding SPECviewperf® 13 “medical-02” benchmark with the Prime95 CPU “stress test” running in the background, the Radeon Pro WX 4100 only suffered a ~1% performance hit compared to the ~39% drop in performance on the NVIDIA graphics card.⁷

“At Blox Architects, we use a host of CAD and graphic programs switching between them constantly. To stay productive, we needed a graphics solution that could multitask along with us. We see the difference in performance with Radeon Pro hardware and have been impressed with the results and the speed of the machines running this.”
                                                                                  – Peter Bloxham, Founding Director, BLOX Architects Ltd.

Competitive Performance in Real Applications

Along with the competitive performance demonstrated by our internal SOLIDWORKS performance test, when using benchmarks that test performance using real applications, Radeon Pro graphics cards using Radeon Pro Software for Enterprise 19.Q2 are faster than the competition. The AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 is ~ 11% and ~50% faster than the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 using the NVIDIA Quadro Optimal Driver for Enterprise (ODE) R418 U4 (425.31) when tested with OCUS v6.2 for PTC Creo® and SPECapc® for Siemens NX™ 10.0, respectively.^8,9

Over 750 Day Zero Certifications Delivered

Combined with all the great performance stories above, Radeon Pro Software for Enterprise 19.Q2 software launches with Day Zero ISV application certifications, with over 750 certifications delivered since the Day Zero program launched in November 2018 (when comparing previous NVIDIA Quadro Optimal Drivers (ODE) for Enterprise)¹⁰. Additionally, AMD has more listed current ISV application certifications than the competition for drivers published during that period.¹¹

“Our long-term partnership with AMD has helped us continuously develop robust, reliable experiences for our users. The Day Zero Certification Program, AMD's benchmark for product excellence, has further enhanced that experience by providing timely solutions that creators can use with confidence.”
                                                                                                                                – Jon Wadelton, CTO, Foundry

Support for Windows 10 May 2019 Update

The 19.Q2 driver is also ready for the latest OS update from Microsoft®, the Windows 10 May 2019 Update, and we’ve added streaming capability to Radeon™ Pro ReLive¹², the AMD professional-grade screen capture and recording solution included with Radeon™ Pro Software.

Day-0 Game Support for Professional Graphics

Lastly, we’re excited to announce that our standard Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition driver now supports Radeon Pro graphics cards, with this support replacing the previous Radeon Pro Software “Driver Options” feature. By adding Radeon Pro support to our standard Adrenalin 2019 Edition driver, professionals who use their workstation graphics card for game development and gaming now have access to our performance-optimized Day-0 game drivers.

Please note, when used with Radeon Pro graphics cards, Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition does not provide access to any of the gaming features of Radeon Software – Radeon Pro graphics cards will continue to use the Radeon™ Pro Settings UI and support all our workstation software features. Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition is NOT certified on any professional ISV applications.

Download Radeon Pro Software for Enterprise 19.Q2 Now

Alexander Blake-Davies is a Software Product Marketing Specialist for Professional Graphics at AMD’s Radeon Technology Group. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied. GD-5

Footnotes

1. Not all AMD Radeon™ Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition gaming features are enabled when this driver is installed on AMD Radeon™ Pro graphics cards, including but not limited to Enhanced Sync, Performance Monitoring, Radeon™ Chill, Radeon™ Game Advisor, Radeon™ Overlay, Radeon™ Settings Advisor, Radeon™ WattMan, and Upgrade Advisor. RPS-80
2. Radeon™ Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition is not certified for professional ISV applications.
3. The Radeon™ Pro WX 4100 running on Radeon™ Pro Software for Enterprise 19.Q2 is up to 25% faster than the NVIDIA Quadro® P1000 running on the NVIDIA Quadro® Optimal Driver for Enterprise (ODE) R418 U4 (425.31) driver in the AMD internal real-world SOLIDWORKS® 2019 design steps benchmark. Testing conducted by AMD labs as of April 22nd, 2019 on a test system comprising of HP Z8 Workstation platform, Intel® Xeon® Gold 5122 CPU @ 3.60 GHz, 16 GB RAM, Windows® 10 Pro October 2018 Update using Radeon™ Pro Software for Enterprise 19.Q2 running on the Radeon™ Pro WX 4100 and the NVIDIA Quadro® Optimal Driver for Enterprise (ODE) R418 U4 (425.31) driver running on the NVIDIA Quadro® P1000. The test was conducted using the AMD internal real-world SOLIDWORKS® 2019 design steps benchmark. Using this configuration, the Radeon™ Pro WX 4100 took 152 seconds to finish the test while the competition took 190 seconds. Making Radeon™ Pro WX 4100 up to 25% faster than the NVIDIA Quadro® P1000. Performance Differential: 190–152 (seconds) =~25.0%. RPS-60
4. The Radeon™ Pro WX 7100 running on Radeon™ Pro Software for Enterprise 19.Q2 is up to 28% faster than the NVIDIA Quadro® RTX 4000 running on the NVIDIA Quadro® Optimal Driver for Enterprise (ODE) R418 U4 (425.31) driver in the AMD internal real-world SOLIDWORKS® 2019 design steps benchmark. Testing conducted by AMD labs as of April 22nd, 2019 on a test system comprising of HP Z8 Workstation platform, Intel® Xeon® Gold 5122 CPU @ 3.60 GHz, 16 GB RAM, Windows® 10 Pro October 2018 Update using Radeon™ Pro Software for Enterprise 19.Q2 running on the Radeon™ Pro WX 7100 and the NVIDIA Quadro® Optimal Driver for Enterprise (ODE) R418 U4 (425.31) driver running on the NVIDIA Quadro® RTX 4000. The test was conducted using the AMD internal real-world SOLIDWORKS® 2019 design steps benchmark. Using this configuration, the Radeon™ Pro WX 7100 took 145.4 seconds to finish the test while the competition took 186.2 seconds. Making the Radeon™ Pro WX 7100 up to 28% faster than the NVIDIA Quadro® RTX 4000. Performance Differential: 186.2-145.4 (seconds) = ~28.0%. RPS-59
5. AMD Remote Workstation functionality requires AMD Radeon™ Pro Software for Enterprise driver 18.Q4 or newer plus purchase and installation of Citrix® Virtual Apps & Desktops or Microsoft® Remote Desktop Services. RPS-50
6. Radeon™ Pro Software for Enterprise 19.Q2 with AMD Remote Workstation delivers comparable performance on SPECviewperf® 13 3dsmax-06 when compared local (non-remoted) performance. Testing conducted by AMD labs as of April 22nd, 2019 on a test system comprising of Intel® Core i5 8400 CPU, MSI Z370-A PRO motherboard, ADATA XPG Z1 16 GB DDR4 RAM, Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows® 10 Pro October 2018 Update with a Radeon™ Pro WX 4100 graphics card using Radeon™ Pro Software for Enterprise 19.Q2. The test was conducted using running benchmark the application SPECviewperf® 13 benchmark for its “3dsmax-06” viewset subtest. Radeon Pro Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition for Enterprise 19.Q2 with Radeon™ Pro Remote Workstation: 50.22. 19.Q2 run locally: 51.36 resulting in only up to a 2% drop. The results are the average of 3 iterations. The AMD Remote Workstation solution was implemented using the Citrix® XenDesktop® 7.18 application on an HP ZBook 17 G5 Client. Performance Differential: 51.36-50.22 = ~2.0% performance drop with the AMD Remote Workstation solution on Radeon™ Pro Software for Enterprise 19.Q2 versus running locally. Additional information about the SPEC benchmarks can be found at spec.org/gwpg. RPS-53
7. While multitasking, a Radeon™ Pro WX 4100 using Radeon™ Pro Software for Enterprise 19.Q2 shows near performance parity where the NVIDIA Quadro® P1000 using the NVIDIA Quadro® Optimal Driver for Enterprise (ODE) R418 U4 (425.31) driver has up to a 39% drop with the SPECviewperf® 13 benchmark medical-02 viewset while Prime95 is running in the background. Testing was conducted by AMD labs as of April 22nd, 2019 on a test system comprising of Dell Inspiron 7810, Intel® Xeon® E5-2609 v3 @ 1.90 GHz, 48 GB RAM, Windows® 10 Pro October 2018 Update, Radeon™ Pro WX 4100 graphics card using Radeon™ Pro Software for Enterprise 19.Q2. For the competition, the NVIDIA Quadro® Optimal Driver for Enterprise (ODE) R418 U4 (425.31) driver was used with the NVIDIA Quadro® P1000 graphics card. For both “multitasking” scenarios, the application “Prime95” was running in the background. The test was conducted using benchmark application running the SPECviewperf® 13 benchmark “medical-02” viewset. The Radeon™ Pro WX 4100 using Radeon™ Pro Software for Enterprise 19.Q2 with Prime95 running scored an average of 20.38, while the test running without Prime95 running scored an average of 20.60, resulting in a 1% performance drop. The results are an average of 3 iterations. For the NVIDIA Quadro® P1000 using the NVIDIA Quadro® Optimal Driver for Enterprise (ODE) R418 U4 (425.31) driver with Prime95 running scored an average of 10.98, while the test running without Prime95 running scored an average of 17.96, resulting in a 39% performance drop. The results are an average of 3 iterations. Performance Differential: For AMD, 20.6 (Without workload) -20.38 (With Workload) = ~-1.0%. For NVIDIA®, 17.96 (Without workload) – 10.98 (With Workload) = ~-39%. Additional information about the SPEC benchmarks can be found at www.spec.org/gwpg. RPS-54
8. The Radeon™ Pro WX 7100 running Radeon™ Pro Software for Enterprise 19.Q2 is up to 11% faster than the NVIDIA Quadro® RTX 4000 running on NVIDIA Quadro® Optimal Driver for Enterprise (ODE) R418 U4 (425.31) driver in PTC Creo® 5.0. Testing conducted by AMD labs as of April 22nd, 2019 on a test system comprising of Intel® Core i5 8400 CPU, MSI Z370-A PRO motherboard, ADATA XPG Z1 16 GB DDR4 RAM, Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows® 10 Pro October 2018 Update using Radeon™ Pro Software for Enterprise 19.Q2 running on a Radeon™ Pro WX 7100 and the NVIDIA Quadro® Optimal Driver for Enterprise (ODE) R418 U4 (425.31) driver running on an NVIDIA Quadro® RTX 4000. The test was conducted using the OCUS v6.2 benchmark for PTC Creo® 5.0. Using this configuration, the Radeon™ Pro WX 7100 took 180 seconds to complete the test while the NVIDIA Quadro® RTX 4000 took 200 seconds, resulting in an 11% lead for AMD. Performance Differential: 200-180 (seconds) = ~11.0% lead for Radeon™ Pro WX 7100 over NVIDIA Quadro® RTX 4000. RPS-56
9. The Radeon™ Pro WX 7100 running on Radeon™ Pro Software for Enterprise 19.Q2 is up to 50% faster than the NVIDIA Quadro® RTX 4000 running on the NVIDIA Quadro® Optimal Driver for Enterprise (ODE) R418 U4 (425.31) driver when tested with the SPECapc® for Siemens NX™ 10 benchmark estimated Graphics Composite. Testing conducted by AMD labs as of April 22nd, 2019 on a test system comprising of HP Z6 Workstation platform, Intel® Xeon® Gold 5122 CPU @ 3.60 GHz, 32 GB RAM, and the Windows® 10 Pro May 2019 Update using Radeon™ Pro Software for Enterprise 19.Q2 running the Radeon™ Pro WX 7100 and the NVIDIA Quadro® Optimal Driver for Enterprise (ODE) R418 U4 (425.31) driver running the NVIDIA Quadro® RTX 4000. The test was conducted using the SPECapc® for Siemens NX™ 10 benchmark. Using this configuration, the Radeon™ Pro WX 7100 achieved an estimated Graphics Composite score of 4.00 while the NVIDIA Quadro® RTX 4000 scored an estimated Graphics Composite score of 2.67 resulting in an up to 50% lead for the Radeon™ Pro WX 7100. These scores are the average of 3 runs for each. Performance Differential: 4.00 -2.67 = ~50.0% lead for the Radeon™ Pro WX 7100 over the NVIDIA Quadro® RTX 4000. Additional information about the SPEC benchmarks can be found at www.spec.org/gwpg. RPS-57
10. AMD Radeon™ Pro Software for Enterprise has over 750 ISV application certifications since the start of the Day Zero Certification Program. Based on AMD internal research as of April 30th, 2019, the total number of ISV application certifications for the AMD Radeon™ Pro Software for Enterprise drivers (18.Q4 + 19.Q1) since the start of the Day Zero Certification Program (18.Q4 or November 14, 2018) is 773. ISV application certifications for Radeon™ Pro Software for Enterprise 18.Q4: 300. ISV application certifications for Radeon™ Pro Software for Enterprise 19.Q1: 473. Total: 300+473 =773 ISV application certifications for Radeon™ Pro Software for Enterprise since the start of the Day Zero Certification Program. Learn more at https://www.amd.com/en/support/certified-drivers. RPS-79
11. AMD Radeon™ Pro Software for Enterprise has more listed ISV application certifications than the competition since the start of the Day Zero Certification Program. As of May 3rd, 2019, based on certifications listed on AMD.com (https://www.amd.com/en/support/certified-drivers) and Nvidia.com (https://www.nvidia.com/object/quadro-certified-drivers.html#page=partnerSelected), AMD Radeon™ Pro Software for Enterprise has more listed ISV application certifications than the competition since the start of the Day Zero Certification Program (18.Q4 or November 14, 2018). AMD drivers released since that date are: (18.Q4, 18.Q4.1, 19.Q1, 19.Q1.1, 19.Q1.2); NVIDIA® drivers released since that date are (411.81, 416.78, 411.95, 412.16, 418.81, 419.17, 412.29, 419.67, 425.31 and 430.39). Results are subject to change as certifications are completed. RPS–78
12. AMD Radeon™ Pro ReLive functionality depends on graphics card compatibility. Please see amd.com/en/technologies/radeon-pro-software-relive

Attribution

AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, Radeon, and combinations thereof are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Citrix is a trademark of Citrix Systems, Inc. and/or one or more of its subsidiaries, and may be registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the US and other countries. NX is a trademark or registered trademark of Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and in other countries. SOLIDWORKS is a registered trademark of Dassault Systèmes or its subsidiaries in the US and other countries. SPEC®, SPECviewperf® and SPECapc® are registered trademarks of Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. Learn more at www.spec.org. PTC Creo is a registered trademark of PTC Inc. or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and in other countries. Other product names used in this publication are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective companies.