WARRENTON, Va., March 19, 2003 -- SPEC/GPC's OpenGL Performance Characterization (SPECopc) project group today released SPECviewperf 7.1, a new version of its performance evaluation software that includes dynamic data changes to better reflect real-world application behavior.

SPECviewperf 7.1 can be downloaded for free on this web site. Testing results using the new benchmark are also available on the site.

SPECviewperf 7.1 introduces new data changes to discourage optimizations that benefit the benchmark, but might not improve real-world application performance. The benchmark inserts a small amount of variation at regular intervals within its application-based test files, called viewsets. This ensures that the test system examines and processes each frame individually, as it would in typical real-world applications.

Also new to the benchmark is a second frame counter that moves around within the frame. This provides visual verification of whether frame changes are being rendered.

All SPECviewperf viewsets have been updated to include these changes, except for ugs-03, which is based on a display-list application whose data by definition is static. The ugs-03 viewset has been upgraded with new subtests that measure performance for both aliased and anti-aliased lines.

The frame variation upgrades in SPECviewperf build on the move last year to generate viewsets from actual application traces, which brought the benchmark tests closer to reflecting real-world performance.

"SPECviewperf 7.1 furthers our goal to measure performance in a way that corresponds as closely as possible to what everyday users experience with their applications," says Ian Williams of NVIDIA, SPECopc's chair. "We intend to evolve SPECviewperf faster than ever before to reflect current application behavior."

As a result of the major revisions, results reported under SPECviewperf 7.1 cannot be compared with those from SPECviewperf 7.0 or earlier versions of the benchmark.

About SPECviewperf

SPECviewperf measures the 3D rendering performance of systems running under the OpenGL application programming interface (API). The benchmark's viewsets represent a similar mix of graphics rendering and manipulation found in actual applications. There are currently six viewsets based on popular applications for digital content creation, CAD/CAM and visualization.

About SPECopc

SPECopc is a project group of the Graphics Performance Characterization (GPC) Group, which in turn 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 be applied to the newest generation of high-performance computers. SPEC's membership includes computer hardware and software vendors, and leading universities and research facilities worldwide.

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