Graphics Workstations: 10 Key Queries Answered

Why choose a Workstation?

1. Higher System Reliability
Graphics workstations use technology that provides higher reliability than what’s used in traditional PCs. These include error checking and correcting (ECC) memory, larger power supplies, and more sophisticated cooling mechanisms to name a few. They also offer better expandability and can be kept running 24x7 without going down or crashing.

2. Better return on investment
Workstations are designed to provide cost saving to the IT organization by providing greater built-in expansion room for additional memory, a larger number of I/O slots, support for more peripherals, processor upgradeability, toolless chassis design, which all translates to ease and flexibility of upgrading, and larger power supplies mean that the system can be upgraded or expanded with additional I/O cards and/or high-end graphics cards.

3. Enhanced performance
The demand for a workstation is due to its enhanced performance, graphics and multiple features which allow you to run the CAD-like software. The workstation can add more than one processor, more processors mean more core and more aggregate performance, especially with today’s multitasking applications. The memory capacity of these machines is very high, which is a key requirement for running large models and increasing the performance of interactive sessions.

What are the advantages provided by graphics workstations over regular desktop PCs?
Graphics Workstations offered higher performance than our personal computers, especially with respect to CPU and graphics, memory capacity, and multitasking capability. Workstations are optimized for the visualization and rendering process for different types of complex data such as 3D mechanical design, engineering simulation (e.g. computational fluid dynamics), animation and rendering of images, and mathematical plots. The displays attached with these machines are of high resolution and can be more than one, which means it offers multi-display support. The graphics card plays a large part in defining the role of a workstation. Workstations are designed to support the most powerful graphics cards.

Can a workstation run 24x7 and does it need an AC while running?
Graphics workstation are designed to run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. These are designed for professionals who rely on the highest application performance and high-reliability expectations through both design and testing.
The environment needs: Your workstation should not be placed under desks or other office furniture. Keep relative humidity of the air between 30% and 60%. Maintain proper ventilation to ensure that there is an adequate supply of fresh air. You need AC environment to maintain indoor temperatures range between 68° and 74° F (20° and 23.5° C) during the summer season.

How much minimum RAM is needed for smooth running of workstations?
The amount of RAM installed in a CAD/CAM workstation can dramatically impact performance. Without enough memory, a system starts caching data to its hard drive, which can lead to latency, system crashes, and other frustrations. If you want to run all apps in parallel then you should consider starting first with 24 GB total memory.

What is the difference between server and graphics workstation?
A server is an application or device that performs service for connected clients as part of the client-server architecture and, on the other hand, a workstation is a computer that is used for high-end applications such as graphic design, video editing, CAD, 3-D design, or other CPU and RAM intensive programs.

What is the difference between desktops and workstations?
Overall looks of workstations and desktops are almost similar, but uses of these two are completely different. The desktops are for home or business use and workstations are for heavy designing purposes.
The cost for a desktop is very low as compared to workstations. They are needed for general purposes, such as emailing, document preparation and accounting. Desktop computers are an all-in-one solutions with budget and uniformity in mind. Their computing power and memory are also lower than workstations.
Technically, a workstation computer is a desktop but the performance, graphics, memory capacity, and multitasking capability is very high. As such, the base setup for a workstation will almost always be more expensive per unit than a comparable desktop. Workstations often come with better CPUs, more RAM, and bigger power supplies.

How are professional workstation graphics cards different from consumer gaming graphics cards?
Gaming and workstation graphics cards employ the same hardware, differentiated by slight tweaks, drivers, and validation. The real difference between a workstation graphics card and a gaming graphics card is the software applications they have been configured or designed to run. Workstation graphics cards and their specialized graphics software drivers are typically designed and configured to deliver anything up to 5x faster performance, computational data integrity and accuracy and up to 8x faster. Consumer graphic cards nowadays are focused only on being clocked higher to give higher fps for demanding games. Gaming cards use a great deal of power and produce a lot of heat, generally in short bursts of gaming sessions. Workstation cards are designed to be used for more than 7 hour work days, and with the expectation that they may also be tasked with 24/7 rendering tasks.