Lenovo ThinkStation P920 Review A Truly Top-End Workstation

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Lenovo ThinkStation P920 Tower hashcat64

hashcat64 is a password cracking benchmarks that can run an impressive number of different algorithms. We used the windows version and a simple command of hashcat64 -b. Out of these results, we used five results in the graph. Users who are interested in hashcat can find the download here.

Lenovo ThinkStation P920 HASHCAT
Lenovo ThinkStation P920 HASHCAT

Hashcat can put a heavy load on GPUs, and here we see the dual-fan graphics cards have the edge in our results. Dual GPU’s in NVLINK simply outperform any other configurations.

Security research is another potential use case for such a large machine, so we wanted to see how these types of applications run on such a high-end system.

Lenovo ThinkStation P920 Tower Rendering Related Benchmarks

Next, we wanted to get a sense of the rendering performance of the Lenovo ThinkStation P920 Tower.

Arion v2.5

Arion Benchmark is a standalone render benchmark based on the commercially available Arion render software from RandomControl. The benchmark is GPU-accelerated using NVIDIA CUDA. However, it is unique in that it can run on both NVIDIA GPUs and CPUs.

Download the Arion Benchmark from here. First-time users will have to register to download the benchmark.

Lenovo ThinkStation P920 Arion
Lenovo ThinkStation P920 Arion

Like our first set of benchmarks, there is but a slight difference between the Quadro RTX 8000 NVLINK and Titan RTX NVLINK.

MAXON Cinema4D 3D

ProRender is an OpenCL based GPU renderer which is available in MAXON’s Cinema4D 3D animation software. A fully functional 42-day trial version is available for downloaded from the MAXON website here. Note: Even after expiration, the trial can still be used to measure render times.

Lenovo ThinkStation P920 Cinema4D
Lenovo ThinkStation P920 Cinema4D

With a two-second difference, the Quadro RTX 8000 NVLINK ranks ahead of the Titan RTX NVLINK.

OctaneRender 4

OctaneRender from Otoy is an unbiased GPU renderer using the CUDA API. The latest release, OctaneRender 4, introduces support for out of core geometry. Octane is available as a standalone rendering application, and a demo version is available for downloaded from the OTOY website here.

Lenovo ThinkStation P920 OctaneRender
Lenovo ThinkStation P920 OctaneRender

Again, we see a one-second difference, and the Quadro RTX 8000 NVLINK ranks ahead of the Titan RTX NVLINK.

Redshift v2.6.32

Redshift is a GPU-accelerated renderer with production-quality. A demo version of this benchmark can be found here.

Lenovo ThinkStation P920 Redshift
Lenovo ThinkStation P920 Redshift

NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 NVLINK finishes 5 seconds behind the Titan RTX NVLINK, which has better cooling.

Next, we will have power consumption, thermals, and our final thoughts.

12 COMMENTS

  1. P620 looks to be the better, cheaper, faster option with a drawback that’s it’s not available at the moment.

  2. Looks to be a swan’s song of xeon/lenovo workstation especially after p620 was already announced. The only question is if p620 will be half or one third of the p920 price.
    Anyway, pity AMD is saving this for OEMs since if it would be in general market, man would be able to build even cheaper WS.

  3. Everybody blaming Apple for their pricey workstations.
    But, simply put, horsepower is expensive.

    When you go for professional workstation the order of magnitude is well above 25-30k.
    Apple, although more expensive seems not too far from this price tag.

    (writing this from my lenovo notebook which is great 🙂 )

  4. Their airflow design is rather poor though, second cpu heats up quite a lot more and higher than seems reasonable, because of that the rear fan goes bonkers and it is Very loud, now imagine an office space with 30 of these

  5. Wonder if Intel actually paid or otherwise leveraged Lenovo somehow to segment the Threadripper in the 600 series of their Workstation range. After all, to the clueless exec that is going to be signing off on these, 920 is exactly 300 more than 620, and the morer the betterer, like always.

    P620 is about 5x more desirable in all real world scenarios I can think of.

    Unfortunately, this doesn’t matter at all. These workstations sung their songs, and it’s game over for them anyway (willing to bet they will bleed a lot of market share in the next years). Everybody I know in my industry (Turbomachinery, heavy ANSYS users) say they got switched to mobile workstations in the last couple of years (myself included), and pointed towards local HPC cluster, or worse yet – AWS, for heavy lifting.

    You can imagine with COVID and WFH trends, it’s just going to become even worse for the big ol’ boxes.

    Too bad. I really like them. And no, working on a cluster can never feel* as fast, snappy and productive as working on your local beast.

    *subjectively, OFC

  6. @Turbo

    That and when media outlets use “Truly Top End” Workstation as their tagline and then a muted “first” for the competitor, it really highlights the focus on one to the other.

    It seems such a cold shoulder when the only reasons to not put the 620 up higher on the list are 600GB less memory and per core licensing models…

  7. “Lenovo ThinkStation P920 Review A Truly Top-End Workstation”

    A truly top-end in price, compared with P620?

  8. Hi William,

    this is pendantry, and not at all necessary for comprehension, but may I be allowed to suggest a easier scan for your punctuation of your introductory paragraph?

    Thus:
    “Lenovo has updated its classic ThinkStation P910 Tower we reviewed three years ago. With the latest processors and GPU’s equipped in our P920, let us jump into it and see how these new machines perform and all of the features Lenovo includes in its ThinkStation P920.”

    Potentially might be more easily read, after the following very minor editing:

    “Lenovo has updated its classic ThinkStation P910 Tower, which we reviewed three years ago, with the latest processors and GPU’s equipped in our P920.”

    “Let’s jump into it and see how these new machines perform, and all of the features Lenovo includes in its ThinkStation P920.”

  9. Mischa,

    The last time I wrote a PO for IBM Xeon w/s we ended up getting the machines subsystem by subsystem stowed in carry on from Armonk because our tiny order languished in someone’s in tray depths for a few months unti we realised that IBM was still under a consent order to not offer for sale anything not available from stock for delivery. The legacy of the Seven Dwarves slain by vaporware deposit taking for frames still on the drawing board expired iirc in ’05 after 50 years.

    I’m recalling this because – STH notices aside – the general market is increasingly disenfranchised and segregated from the state of the art in ways that I am increasingly certain are highly prejudicial to our scale competitiveness. The pecking order doesn’t even seem to confer any embarrassment upon the industry and I think this is a all round bad sign because it cools the most fervid ardor for high margin early adoption purchasing as well as the equinanimus and sanguine mind when evaluating computing strategy.

  10. Ivan,

    I really think that Apple is criticised for the empty ecosystem for components, AICs, just generally and I specifically here am uncaring for the Apple – nvidia situation which is fire, because the few people who need desktop graphics horsepower ime equip with acceleration such as the RED raw card and the high end has lots of dedicated outboard for eg TRANSCIDING, color timing, HDR conforms, and with many softwares like Flame the w/s is a package deal with little budgetary impact and you’re handing over the work flow from OS to OS via SAN or now nvme fabric only noticing the application processes. Only users without any established output pipeline into tier one distribution and single handed shops are troubled by the paucity of options. Unfortunately that’s 95% of the industry by headcount. Just wander around even stills photography and the sheer volume of Mac tweaking guides (some prominent ones very expensive drivel) is revealing that desperation.

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