With the rise of 5G networks, video social applications are becoming increasingly popular, and more users are joining the ranks of content creators, which raises the performance demands on digital content production tools. Consequently, the market demand for high-performance designer PCs is growing stronger. NVIDIA, a leader in GPU graphics technology, has leveraged the computing power of GPUs that far exceeds that of CPUs to create the NVIDIA STUDIO and RTX STUDIO solutions with even more robust professional design performance. As a key partner of NVIDIA, Zotac has launched the Inspire Studio series mini designer PCs based on this solution, providing an efficient and user-friendly choice for professional designers.
01
Why Choose NVIDIA STUDIO Solutions?
Because GPUs are more efficient than CPUs
Many users might think that professional design software relies heavily on CPU performance. Indeed, in the past, CPU was the main player in the rendering output of various professional software. However, this view is no longer aligned with the current facts.
The differences between GPU and CPU in professional design are evident in how they handle tasks. CPUs are composed of cores optimized for serial tasks, while GPUs are built from thousands of smaller, more efficient cores arranged in a massively parallel architecture designed for simultaneous processing of multiple tasks. Therefore, when processing specific data in parallel, GPUs are significantly more efficient than CPUs.
CPUs are designed for low latency
GPUs are designed for high throughput
At the same time, with the demand from the gaming market leading the way, GPUs have not only seen significant performance improvements but also support increasingly complex calculations, programmability, and functionality have greatly expanded. The single-precision floating-point processing capabilities have also been significantly enhanced. Currently, mainstream GPUs adopt a unified architecture unit, greatly expanding their application range. Taking NVIDIA graphics cards as an example, they are equipped with the CUDA general-purpose parallel computing architecture, which allows GPUs to participate in solving complex computational problems, and the development difficulty is not too high.
Thus, we have gradually transitioned from the pure CPU computing era to the GPU-assisted CPU computing era, where GPUs play an increasingly significant role in 3D rendering, video compression encoding, image processing, fluid dynamics, and more.
According to survey reports, among the five dimensions of performance, reliability, price, application compatibility, and brand, performance is the primary factor influencing creators’ purchasing decisions, with reliability following closely behind. Among the main components that creators plan to upgrade, GPUs and memory rank first and second, respectively. GPUs are increasingly receiving attention from creators because, given the same processor performance, GPUs can effectively accelerate the efficiency of professional software, making design work more efficient.
In the past, Apple computers were the first choice for creators, but now creators are gradually moving away from Apple and choosing traditional WINDOWS PCs. This is not only because the upgrade speed of related professional application software on WINDOWS is increasingly faster but also due to the flexibility of hardware selection in traditional PCs, which offers a richer combination of graphics cards. With NVIDIA’s CUDA architecture, creators can render and output works faster, significantly improving work efficiency.
NVIDIA’s latest Turing architecture GPU not only has excellent gaming performance but also has made significant improvements in the field of professional creation. Its hardware-level real-time ray tracing RT Cores can not only achieve richer ray tracing effects in games but also support ray tracing effect rendering in professional application software with a ray computation capability of up to 10 billion per second, allowing artists to achieve higher quality rendering effects in a shorter time and create more stunning artworks.
For creators, completing a creative content design usually takes only 20% of the time for creativity, while 80% of the time is wasted on repetitive operations, which is a huge waste of time. The NVIDIA RTX graphics card equipped with the new generation RTX tensor computing cores can provide up to 10 times the computing power for artificial intelligence inference (compared to the previous generation). Tasks that are time-consuming and repetitive, such as filling pixels, enhancing resolution, photo enhancement, color matching, and face tagging, can also be handled by artificial intelligence through professional software, helping creators save valuable time and focus on creation.
With the emergence of the Panasonic video camera S1H, video mirrorless has crossed from the 4K era to the 6K era, and 6K video editing has placed greater pressure on the overall machine performance. The massive raw image information in RED RAW format brings a huge computational load. In the past, it required workstation-level high configuration to meet the editing requirements, but with the help of NVIDIA RTX graphics cards, real-time playback and preview of high-definition videos can be accelerated using the GPU in REDCINE-X PRO, allowing personal computers to edit RED RAW materials, greatly improving work efficiency and reducing costs.
However, having powerful hardware also requires compatible software to unleash its effectiveness. Therefore, NVIDIA has specially provided creators with NVIDIA Creator Ready drivers, which have now been upgraded to the new NVIDIA Studio drivers, providing optimal performance and reliability for artists, creators, and 3D developers using creative applications. Studio Drivers have undergone extensive testing for multi-application creator workflows and have been tested against multiple versions of top creative applications such as Adobe and Autodesk, delivering studio-level performance and reliability.
These applications familiar to creators support NVIDIA GPU acceleration
NVIDIA Studio drivers also bring 30-bit (10bit) color support to its consumer graphics card lines, including GeForce and TITAN products, ensuring that image displays do not suffer from color banding due to low color depth, resulting in smoother color displays. As more and more display panels transition from 8bit to 10bit, creators can achieve better and more accurate color display effects using NVIDIA Studio drivers.
Quickly switch driver modes in GeForce Experience
Unlike the Game Ready driver, which updates every 2-3 weeks, NVIDIA Studio driver updates are not as frequent because stability is another important aspect for creators aside from performance. Additionally, the update cycle of creative software is not frequent, and the updates of NVIDIA Studio drivers are kept consistent with the version and feature update frequency of these software. Currently, creators can download Studio drivers directly from the NVIDIA official website or through GeForce Experience by selecting the Studio driver option in the “Drivers” tab.
In summary, the designer PC equipped with GeForce RTX series graphics cards can provide users with much stronger rendering performance than ordinary PCs, undoubtedly making it the most efficient and economical professional design productivity tool solution. Next, let’s take a comprehensive look at the Zotac Inspire Studio mini designer PC equipped with the powerful RTX graphics card.
02
Mini Size + Powerful Configuration
Efficiency and Portability Combined
Zotac’s ZBOX series mini computer products have a good reputation among gamers, and this time the Inspire Studio is even more distinctive. Unlike the previous ZBOX mini series, which focused on extreme compactness and used mobile platform components, the Inspire Studio, positioned as an efficient productivity tool, emphasizes powerful performance. It is equipped with a desktop-level 8-core processor and RTX 2060 SUPER graphics card (performance reaching that of high-end desktop computers, far surpassing that of performance-level laptops), while also offering greater expandability.
However, even with so many high-end components, the Inspire Studio still keeps its size under 6L, far below the 30-40L of typical desktop computers, making it remarkably mini.
It is precisely because of such a compact size that the Zotac Inspire Studio is very suitable for applications where performance needs to exceed that of designer laptops (reaching the level of high-end designer PCs) while also requiring good portability, or for design users who prefer a neat desktop aesthetic. For example, when real-time video editing is needed at events or meetings, the Inspire Studio can be connected to a large-screen TV for operation, which is much more efficient than using a laptop, and after use, it can easily fit into a suitcase for portability.
So, how does the cooling of the Inspire Studio, equipped with a desktop-level RTX 2060 SUPER graphics card and 8-core CPU, perform? In addition to the top of the chassis being fully covered with ventilation holes, we can also see that inside the chassis, a large area of embedded copper heat sink provides cooling for the CPU (along with two smart temperature-controlled fans for active cooling). The graphics card is installed horizontally, and the aluminum chassis shell is cleverly utilized to become a large heat sink (with a silent fan on each side of the chassis, creating an efficient heat dissipation airflow). This way, even under full load rendering or gaming, the system’s stability and reliability are ensured. Most importantly, there is no need to worry about the performance throttling issues due to high temperatures like with laptops during prolonged rendering; the Inspire Studio can maintain a high-efficiency working state like a desktop workstation.
Additionally, the Inspire Studio provides a rich array of ports, starting with 3×DP + 1×HDMI outputs, supporting 4-screen display, which is very suitable for designers who need a large operating space. Secondly, it also offers dual Gigabit wired network cards and a wireless network card (the retail version comes with a white Wi-Fi antenna), accommodating various network environments and ensuring designer users can upload and download videos and materials anytime, anywhere. Of course, the card reader that designers must use is also provided by Inspire Studio, along with 6×USB 3.1 ports (including 1×Type-C) for easy connection of various digital devices and high-speed mobile storage devices.
Next, let’s use practical tests to evaluate the performance of the Inspire Studio.
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Practical Testing, Professional Design with GPU Acceleration is Much Faster
As a Creator PC designed specifically for designers, the performance of the Inspire Studio in professional design software is, of course, a key focus of evaluation. Our tests selected V-RAY and Keyshot 9 for 3D design, HandBrake and Adobe Premiere Pro 2019 for video transcoding, Adobe Photoshop CC 2019 for image processing, and REDCINE-X PRO for ultra-high-definition video editing. We tested the performance under both CPU acceleration and NVIDIA CUDA acceleration, using the NVIDIA STUDIO graphics driver in the tests.
The test results are very clear; even with a powerful 8-core CPU, the performance in various professional design software is far inferior to that of the Inspire Studio with RTX 2060 SUPER graphics card acceleration. In all projects, the efficiency after GPU acceleration was 204% to 1000% faster than CPU acceleration! Especially in the Keyshot 9 rendering test, the efficiency improved by a full 10 times when choosing RTX 2060 SUPER acceleration! Even in the commonly used Photoshop DPI modification operation, GPU acceleration was 340% faster than CPU, demonstrating that the GeForce RTX graphics card equipped with the NVIDIA STUDIO driver is indeed a designer’s tool that far surpasses pure CPU computing in productivity.
Of course, the GeForce RTX graphics card is also a gaming powerhouse. The Inspire Studio can meet users’ gaming entertainment needs while working efficiently — you just need to switch the driver mode from STUDIO to GAME READY in GeForce Experience. The gaming performance tests of the GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER are well-known, and as a ray tracing graphics card, it can fully meet the performance requirements for smooth operation of AAA games at 2K resolution. Although the Zotac Inspire Studio is equipped with a mini version of the RTX 2060 SUPER, its performance has not been compromised, achieving the standard level of desktop RTX 2060 SUPER in actual tests, thanks to the excellent power and temperature control capabilities of the Turing architecture.
04
Zotac Inspire Studio Provides
A Perfect Combination of Efficiency and Portability as a Productivity Tool
Summary: Through the previous analysis and experience, I believe everyone now has a fairly comprehensive understanding of the Zotac Inspire Studio, a highly efficient mini designer PC, so let’s summarize briefly.
● The Zotac Inspire Studio is positioned between designer laptops and high-performance desktop workstations, possessing the powerful performance and expandability of desktop-level workstations while exceeding the portability of traditional desktops, making it convenient for designer users to produce works efficiently on-site.
● The Zotac Inspire Studio is equipped with the powerful GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER graphics card, and combined with NVIDIA STUDIO drivers, it can significantly enhance (by several times to over ten times) work efficiency in professional software, far exceeding pure CPU computing PCs and high-performance laptops, which is the core of NVIDIA’s RTX STUDIO solution.
● The Zotac Inspire Studio also has strong gaming and entertainment performance. By using GeForce Experience, users can quickly switch between STUDIO and GAME READY driver modes, achieving both efficient work and AAA gaming entertainment.
In short, if you are looking for a beautifully designed, reliable, and portable ultra-efficient professional design work tool, the Zotac Inspire Studio is indeed worth considering first.
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