Comino GRANDO RM V2-S professional high-end workstation in review - 4 RTX A6000 meet Ryzen Threadripper Pro 3975WX
Comino is a system manufacturer that produces workstations and complete multi-GPU data center solutions according to customer requirements. The manufacturer pairs the whole thing with a specially developed liquid cooling system. Due to the perfect workmanship and the extensive tests, Comino delivers its systems in server quality, even if it is a workstation or a high-end gaming PC.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 3975WX meets 4 Nvidia RTX A6000 GPUs at once
The manufacturer Comino sent us the GRANDO RM V2-S workstation for the review. The whole system was packed in a sturdy wooden case with a lot of padding, so that the system arrives undamaged. Especially with ready-to-use PCs that are also equipped with a water cooling system, secure and stable packaging is a must. Comino has already done everything right here. But now to the system itself. Built in is an AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 3975WX with a total of 32 core CPU and threads. Thus, this processor is currently AMD's second fastest AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro CPU. Comino installs 4 Nvidia RTX A6000 graphics cards in this configuration. Each has 48 GB of VRAM, which is twice as large as that of an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090. But that's not enough, because the 32-core is supported by a whopping 512 GB of RAM. It should be clear to everyone that this configuration is not cheap, because an Nvidia RTX A6000 alone costs around 5,000 Euros (~$5,659). Thus, it is not surprising that the bottom line is almost 29,000 Euros (~$32,824) before taxes for this system.
Those who don't want to dig quite so deep into their pockets can also choose other components. There are different configurations on the manufacturer's website.
Processor benchmarks - 32 cores and 64 threads
The AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 3975WX is a true computing monster with its 32 cores. Only in a few benchmarks can the AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 3995WX set itself apart in the multi-core tests. The performance advantage of the Comino GRANDO workstation clearly lies in the built-in cooling. This ensures that the 32-core can call up the optimal performance and can thus beat AMD's allegedly faster 64-core. With its 32 cores and the total of 64 threads, the AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 3975WX is optimally suited for virtualizations. The generous 512 GB DDR4 ECC RAM is an advantage here. However, the AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 3975WX cannot rely on the advantages of the current Zen3 architecture, since only Matisse dies, which are based on the Zen2 architecture, are installed under the huge heatspreader. This results in the lag in the single-core benchmarks compared to the latest 5000-generation Ryzen. The AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 3975WX is more comparable to the AMD Ryzen R9 3900X in terms of single-core performance.
For further comparisons and benchmarks we refer to ourCPU comparison chart.
CPU-Benchmarks Performance rating
* ... smaller is better
More CPU-Benchmarks
Mozilla Kraken 1.1 - Total | |
Asus X299 Prime Desktop, Intel Core i9-10980XE | |
Lenovo ThinkStation P620, AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3995WX | |
GRANDO RM-S (4 Nvidia RTX A6000), AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX | |
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, AMD Ryzen 9 5900X | |
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, AMD Ryzen 9 5950X | |
Intel Core i9-11900K, Intel Core i9-11900K | |
Intel Core i9-12900K, Intel Core i9-12900K |
* ... smaller is better
Comino GRANDO RM V2-S in the Cinebench R15 multi-loop
The specially developed cooling concept ensures a good performance, which we have already seen in the CPU benchmarks. But even under permanent load, the cooling does not reach its limits. Thus, all scores of the Cinebench R15 multi-loop are more or less on par with a few minor fluctuations. The workstation masters the 50 runs with an average of 7,121 points.
Application performance
In the application benchmarks, the Comino GRANDO RM V2-S workstation can dominate if the software is also able to retrieve the performance of all graphics cards. The LuxMark test shows very clearly what performance can be expected. In the other benchmarks, the number of the four Nvidia RTX A6000 unfortunately does not show to advantage. Depending on the render test, sometimes Nvidia and sometimes AMD benefit from the performance.
The installed mass storage of our test sample comprises 2 TB and delivers very fast transfer rates thanks to the NVMe protocol. We also had 512 GB of DDR4 working memory, which is absolute overkill for normal workloads. Anyone who orders such a machine with this amount of working memory should know how to use it.
Render Tests in Performance Rating
3D performance
That a workstation should not primarily be used as a gaming platform becomes clear when you take a closer look at the gaming tests in detail. Especially in the two Far Cry games, our test sample has massive problems with playable frame rates. Things look a bit better in the other games we looked at, even though the performance of the Nvidia RTX A6000 is sometimes clearly behind the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090. Furthermore, multi-GPU support is completely missing in games, so only one of four GPUs could be used. However, if you disable three of the four graphics cards, the performance of the individually used Nvidia RTX A6000 increases significantly. It becomes very clear here that Windows should not be the first choice as a platform for multi-GPUs.
For further comparisons and benchmarks, we refer to our GPU comparison table.
Performance Rating - Percent | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT | |
NVIDIA Titan RTX -6! | |
NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
4x NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
AMD Radeon Pro W6800 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT |
3DMark | |
Fire Strike Extreme Graphics | |
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | |
NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
AMD Radeon Pro W6800 | |
4x NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
NVIDIA Titan RTX | |
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT | |
1920x1080 Fire Strike Graphics | |
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | |
NVIDIA Titan RTX | |
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT | |
AMD Radeon Pro W6800 | |
4x NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
2560x1440 Time Spy Graphics | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT | |
NVIDIA Titan RTX | |
AMD Radeon Pro W6800 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT | |
NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
4x NVIDIA RTX A6000 |
3DMark 11 | |
1280x720 Performance GPU | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT | |
NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
NVIDIA Titan RTX | |
AMD Radeon Pro W6800 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT | |
4x NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
1280x720 Performance | |
NVIDIA Titan RTX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT | |
NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT | |
AMD Radeon Pro W6800 | |
4x NVIDIA RTX A6000 |
Unigine Superposition | |
1280x720 720p Low | |
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT | |
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | |
NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
4x NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
AMD Radeon Pro W6800 | |
1920x1080 1080p High | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT | |
NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
4x NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
AMD Radeon Pro W6800 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT | |
1920x1080 1080p Extreme | |
NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | |
4x NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT | |
AMD Radeon Pro W6800 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT | |
3840x2160 4k Optimized | |
NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
4x NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT | |
AMD Radeon Pro W6800 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT | |
7680x4320 8k Optimized | |
NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
4x NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT | |
AMD Radeon Pro W6800 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT |
Metro Exodus - 3840x2160 Ultra Quality AF:16x | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | |
NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
4x NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT | |
AMD Radeon Pro W6800 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT |
Far Cry New Dawn - 3840x2160 Ultra Preset | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT | |
NVIDIA Titan RTX | |
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT | |
NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
AMD Radeon Pro W6800 | |
4x NVIDIA RTX A6000 |
Far Cry 5 - 3840x2160 Ultra Preset AA:T | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT | |
NVIDIA Titan RTX | |
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT | |
AMD Radeon Pro W6800 | |
NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
4x NVIDIA RTX A6000 |
X-Plane 11.11 - 3840x2160 high (fps_test=3) | |
NVIDIA Titan RTX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | |
4x NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT | |
AMD Radeon Pro W6800 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT |
Final Fantasy XV Benchmark - 3840x2160 High Quality | |
NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT | |
NVIDIA Titan RTX | |
AMD Radeon Pro W6800 | |
4x NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT |
Dota 2 Reborn - 3840x2160 ultra (3/3) best looking | |
NVIDIA Titan RTX | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | |
NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT | |
4x NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT | |
AMD Radeon Pro W6800 |
The Witcher 3 - 3840x2160 High Graphics & Postprocessing (Nvidia HairWorks Off) | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | |
NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
4x NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT | |
NVIDIA Titan RTX | |
AMD Radeon Pro W6800 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT |
F1 2020 - 3840x2160 Ultra High Preset AA:T AF:16x | |
NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
4x NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT | |
AMD Radeon Pro W6800 | |
NVIDIA Titan RTX | |
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT |
GTA V - 3840x2160 High/On (Advanced Graphics Off) AA:FX AF:8x | |
NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | |
4x NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
NVIDIA Titan RTX | |
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT | |
AMD Radeon Pro W6800 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT |
Strange Brigade - 3840x2160 ultra AA:ultra AF:16 | |
4x NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | |
NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT | |
AMD Radeon Pro W6800 | |
NVIDIA Titan RTX | |
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT |
Comino GRANDO RM V2-S with 4x Nvidia RTX A6000
low | med. | high | ultra | QHD | 4K | |
GTA V (2015) | 169 | 162 | 142 | 88.5 | 88.4 | 139 |
The Witcher 3 (2015) | 351 | 331 | 305 | 173 | 142 | |
Dota 2 Reborn (2015) | 154 | 135.3 | 126.8 | 115.3 | 109.3 | |
Final Fantasy XV Benchmark (2018) | 175 | 167 | 131 | 113 | 56.3 | |
X-Plane 11.11 (2018) | 109 | 96.8 | 78.3 | 67.8 | ||
Far Cry 5 (2018) | 18 | 18 | 17 | 18 | 17 | 18 |
Strange Brigade (2018) | 317 | 260 | 257 | 258 | 252 | 246 |
Far Cry New Dawn (2019) | 40 | 40 | 38 | 37 | 37 | 36 |
Metro Exodus (2019) | 119 | 106 | 95.7 | 87.9 | 83.5 | 67 |
F1 2020 (2020) | 277 | 241 | 241 | 221 | 210 | 136 |
F1 2021 (2021) | 328 | 303 | 278 | 159 | 149 | 96.8 |
Comino GRANDO RM V2-S with 1x Nvidia RTX A6000
low | med. | high | ultra | QHD | 4K | |
GTA V (2015) | 177 | 171 | 160 | 96.2 | 95.8 | 155 |
The Witcher 3 (2015) | 362 | 334 | 307 | 180 | 146 | |
Dota 2 Reborn (2015) | 160.5 | 144.8 | 138.7 | 131.2 | 127.9 | |
Final Fantasy XV Benchmark (2018) | 176 | 168 | 135 | 127 | 82.4 | |
X-Plane 11.11 (2018) | 109 | 97 | 78.1 | 67.2 | ||
Far Cry 5 (2018) | 55 | 52 | 53 | 52 | 52 | 50 |
Strange Brigade (2018) | 382 | 300 | 293 | 288 | 247 | 149 |
Far Cry New Dawn (2019) | 71 | 66 | 68 | 65 | 63 | 63 |
Metro Exodus (2019) | 120 | 109 | 96.8 | 87.9 | 84.1 | 70.4 |
F1 2020 (2020) | 278 | 248 | 241 | 224 | 210 | 137 |
F1 2021 (2021) | 333 | 313 | 281 | 162 | 155 | 99.7 |
Emissions
Comino GRANDO RM V2-S cools surprisingly well
The cooling concept of the Comino GRANDO RM V2-S workstation is unique. Both the AMD Threadripper Pro 3975WX as well as the four Nvidia RTX A6000 graphics cards are cooled by a specially developed liquid cooling system. Very amazing is the use of a single 360-millimeter (~14.2 in) radiator. In addition, three 140-millimeter (~5.5 in) fans are installed in the case in order to conduct the waste heat out of the case. For this, you have to take a closer look at the case construction, because the system should not be used without the mounted side panel, because otherwise the pressure of the fans is not enough to force the air through the radiator.
The 32-core heats up to a maximum of 69 °C (156.2 °F) in the stress test with Prime95. If we also start FurMark, the processor heats up to 73 °C (163.4 °F), although we note 57 °C (134.6 °F) for the graphics card. However, FurMark only uses one GPU under load. Various settings to change this were tried without success. With other tools, however, it was possible to load all graphics cards at the same time to check whether the cooling is capable of cooling all components despite the single radiator. In fact, this is possible. However, the temperatures of the graphics cards rise to a bit over 80 °C (176 °F), which is still well within the green zone. If we consider that there is a total waste heat of 1,480 watts (CPU + GPUs), the bottom line is very good. Regarding the design of the Comino GRANDO RM V2-S, it should be mentioned that it is a 19-inch rack. Thus, the planned use is rather in a server room with air conditioning, which should improve the temperatures even more. The temperature in our test environment was 22.6 °C (~73 °F) at the time of testing.
Extremely high performance also has a disadvantage
The Comino GRANDO RM V2-S workstation sets new highs in energy consumption. Even in idle, our measurement device shows just over 200 watts. As soon as we start Prime95, it increases and reaches an average of 580 watts. But that's not enough, because almost 716 watts have to be provided during gaming. We measured an average of 1,880 watts in the worst-case scenario where we load the CPU and GPUs to 100%. However, the maximum that the power supply units have to provide is up to 1,940 watts. Power supplies, yes you read correctly. If you have already taken a closer look at the setup, you could see that a total of three SFF power supplies with 750 watts each are installed. These provide a solid performance and there was no system failure due to too high load peaks even under extreme load.
Energy consumption of the Comino GRANDO RM V2-S
Power Consumption | |
1920x1080 The Witcher 3 ultra (external Monitor) | |
GRANDO RM-S (4 Nvidia RTX A6000) | |
Intel Core i9-12900K (Idle: 70.5 W) | |
AMD Threadripper 2970WX, AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 | |
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (Idle: 78 W) | |
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X (Idle: 78.1 W) | |
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X (16 core, 32 threads) Review | |
AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (Idle: 81.56 W) | |
Intel Core i9-11900K (Idle: 57.3 W) | |
Lenovo ThinkStation P620 | |
Prime95 V2810 Stress (external Monitor) | |
GRANDO RM-S (4 Nvidia RTX A6000) | |
Lenovo ThinkStation P620 | |
AMD Threadripper 2970WX, AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 | |
Intel Core i9-11900K (Idle: 57.3 W) | |
Intel Core i9-12900K (Idle: 70.5 W) | |
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X (16 core, 32 threads) Review | |
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (Idle: 78 W) | |
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X (Idle: 78.1 W) | |
AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (Idle: 81.56 W) |
* ... smaller is better
Pros
Cons
Verdict - High-end workstation for the price of a mid-range car
The Comino GRANDO RM V2-S is not a simple off-the-shelf workstation. Rather, the manufacturer has made it its business to directly respond to the customer's wishes in order to offer customized workstation solutions. It also relies on server components to deliver the best possible stability in everyday use. Nevertheless, the manufacturer dares to equip the system with a water cooling system to perfectly cool the processor and graphics cards. We could hardly believe that a single radiator is enough to keep the entire system in check after the first visual inspection. But in the course of the test, it turned out that the cooling concept worked. Thus, the AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 3975WX was able to deliver a very good performance. Even under full load, the performance was always kept at the same level. This also applies to the four Nvidia RTX A6000 graphics cards, which can only show their true potential in combination with special software. What is theoretically feasible could be shown in individual benchmarks.
The Comino GRANDO RM V2-S is a special workstation with brute performance and a sophisticated cooling concept.
With the installed AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 3975WX, you get a very fast 32-core CPU, which is supported by a total of 512 GB of RAM in our configuration. Those who know the advantages of a RAM drive can take full advantage of them here. Other workloads, such as virtualization or video editing, are handled by this workstation without any problems. Other tasks for such a system would be, for example, AI research or scientific calculations as well as 3D rendering and movie production.
Anyone who decides to put together such a workstation has a clear use target for this machine. For professional use, the performance is very high and the time savings should play an important role. Nevertheless, the cost factor is enormous. In our case, the system as we had it in the test costs about 29,000 Euros (~$32,824, before taxes). Since this is a purely commercial purchase, the gross amount can be neglected. A private person will certainly not pay this amount for a workstation. However, if you think that this price is an exception, you're wrong. The recently reviewed Lenovo ThinkStation P620 can also be quickly configured up to 25,000 Euros (~$28,296).
Comino offers a large number of workstation PCs that can be customized on request. The prices for alternative equipment are also only available on request from the manufacturer.