SPEC

Critical New Tools for Siemens NX Performance Benchmarking

By Ross Cunniff, SPECgpc Committee Chair, and Jessica Heerboth, SPECapc Committee Chair

The SPEC Graphics and Workstation Performance Group (GWPG) is committed to supporting the Siemens NX user and development communities with reliable, vendor-neutral benchmarks, and 2025 saw the release of two crucial new tools to ensure every component of the processor-intensive design software can be accurately assessed.

SPECapc for SNX 2024 – May 2025

First, SPEC Application Performance Characterization (SPECapc), a GWPG committee, released a fully updated SPECapc for SNX 2024 benchmark.

According to SPECapc Chair Jessica Heerboth, “The SPECapc for SNX 2024 benchmark was rigorously developed to be vendor-agnostic and focus on today’s real-world use cases. To do this, it provides a completely new take on measuring processor-intensive functions critical to Siemens NX. Key tests in the new benchmark include:

  • Processor-Intensive Calculations: Measuring the performance of closest point and mass property calculations (like volume, center of mass, and moments of inertia).
  • Data Handling: Assessing model loading and exports to common file formats like STEP and IGES.
  • Design Review: Testing detailed functions like cross-section cuts, model explosions, and synchronized view rotations.

Because the new SPECapc for SNX 2024 benchmark runs on the continuous release version of Siemens NX, SPEC will be able to update the benchmark more frequently to provide users with the most accurate data for assessing their CPU, memory, and storage performance requirements.

snx-05 Workload in SPECviewperf 15.0.1 – December 2025

The second innovation for Siemens NX users was released by another GWPG committee, SPEC Graphics Performance Characterization (SPECgpc), as part of the new SPECviewperf 15.0.1 benchmark.

The snx-05 workload, based on traces from Siemens NX 2406, utilizes the OpenGL graphics API and stresses standard OpenGL features, including vertex and pixel shaders, textures, and multisampled antialiasing. It allows users to instantly assess pure graphics hardware performance, including rotation, pan, zoom, and anti-aliasing, when running the latest version of Siemens NX.

According to SPECgpc Chair Ross Cunniff, “The new snx-05 workload represents a significant architectural advance for high-end CAD graphics benchmarking because it’s our first "snap-in" workload, which allows us to seamlessly integrate new application workloads without invalidating previous benchmark data. This is a huge time savings for our users.”

With the SPECapc for SNX 2024 benchmark and the snx-05 workload in the SPECviewperf 15.0.1 benchmark, graphics professionals and enterprise development teams relying on the latest versions of Siemens NX have two great new tools for assessing the performance of their application on the latest hardware.