Desktop vs Workstation

Its a question many creative professionals have asked: Do I really need a workstation, as opposed to a high-end desktop? If you are a creative professional—and you are probably are since you are reading this article—then the answer is a resounding yes.
I am not even being biased; I am being honest. Did you know the difference in price between a similarly configured high-end desktop and an entry-level workstation is less than $100 today? Did you know the user experience you get on a workstation is dramatically different from that of a high-end desktop? The difference is so powerful you need to see the difference. It is true a picture, or in this case a video capture, is worth a thousand words.
So what makes a workstation so much faster than a high-end desktop? As you have read before, workstations are purpose-built to do a job. They are tested and optimized so that creative applications from Autodesk, Bentley, Dassault CATIA, PTC, Siemens PLM NX, Dassault SolidWorks and others run faster. They are not optimized to run games, they are optimized to create. So is the $100 worth it? I think so.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Solidworks
• DSK
• WSK

[sixthcrusifix]

There's no such thing as a "workstation" there are just many different desktops with specific configurations. Workstation is just a marketing term for a desktop with a specific set of parts. AMD and nVidia make editing-oriented graphics cards that have optimized drivers for color accuracy and anti-aliasing; Intel makes business-oriented processors, the list goes on.

Only comparing them at a component level makes any sense.

[megamindstorm101]

from what i see workstations are just high end gaming computers with a different video card.

[gl33k81]

@toontent

you got the point. GL drivers man, GL drivers ...

[gl33k81]

@richieblac

not a lot of workstation need a 2 or more CPU motherboard. to make rendering, rendering farm is better, cheaper, more scalable...

you are right about RAM cap and ECC though.

[gl33k81]

fail. the difference between workstation and gamer computer is graphics driver.

5 years ago, we were able to fool the drivers installer, and use quadro drivers with gforce. the performance gap was EXACTLY wiped. a 200$ nvidia gforce had the GL perfs of a 3000$ quadro card.The same happend to ATI fireGL drivers...

since then , nvidia and ATI decided to overprotect their GL drivers with hardware trap.

the difference you spoke about disappeared long time ago, after the fall of SGI.

[FoodOnCrack]

workstations are desktops based for 3d programs and rendering. these suck at gaming.

desktops are better for gaming but are slow for rendering.

if you are a gamer, dont spent 6000 on a quadro a cheap ass looks better in games

[jeystonemusic]

fail video

[MrAvatar9999]

@ jpmarkee,

hi, I running trading platform call "Multichart" , do you think it's better to use workstation or high-end desktop ?

pls advice, tq :)

[richieblac]

A workstation is a computer with a much more scaleable motherboard, with often more than one CPU slot, a MUCH higher RAM cap (often 100's of gigs of RAM), uses workstation CPU's (Xeon or Opteron), also the Xeon/Opteron CPU's allow utilization of ECC RAM, among other things...

Decked-out desktops can run you maybe $5,000 max, while Decked-out workstations can easily exceed $10,000.

[TalesOfWar]

@toontent Workstation components usually have very specialised drivers written for them that allow them to squeeze out every last drop of possible performance. You can get drivers written JUST to take advantage and be optimised for a SINGLE application or task, which puts all available power into completing it. They're run on server architecture because they're designed to be massively reliable and stable. They can run full load for years (in theory) before they fail. "Desktops" can't do this/

[TalesOfWar]

@sixthcrusifix Respectfully disagree. A workstation is a system assigned to one specific (or set of) task. It performs these tasks throughout the day, generally being operated by people on a shift rotation. Even during the night they're usually left on crunching data in order to render things out or run calculations or whatever it is the machine has been dedicated to do. It's technically a desktop yes, but the term workstation is as much a practical term as a marketing term.