Puget Systems

10/31/2026

Happy Halloween from all of us at Puget Systems! 💚💙

10/30/2026

You CAN run Puget Bench on an ARM-based Windows system, but there's a few caveats.

Our benchmark launcher and scripts are already ARM-native. The complications usually come from the applications being tested: missing features, GPU detection, or bugs that prevent a particular benchmark preset from completing.

Matt Bach put together a current support guide for Snapdragon and NVIDIA RTX Spark devices.

A few things to check before testing:
🔹 Photoshop: No known issues with the application and benchmark versions covered in the guide.
🔹 After Effects: The latest beta fixes the Advanced 3D bug that blocks the Extended preset in the current Windows release. The guide lists no known issues for either device platform with the specified beta versions.
🔹 Premiere: The latest beta is required, and only the Standard preset can run because Sony X-OCN support is still missing.
🔹 Lightroom Classic: Runs under emulation and the results reflect that experience; not native ARM performance.
🔹 DaVinci Resolve Studio: Some devices may need a longer benchmark timeout, particularly for Extended tests.

If youʼre planning an evaluation or review, the guide lists the application versions, benchmark versions, and device-specific caveats to check first: https://hubs.ly/Q04CR0vJ0

10/27/2026

CorridorKey 2.0 is out, and it goes after the thing that has made green screen painful for decades: the pixels that are part subject, part screen. Hair, motion blur and glass are where traditional keyers tend to fall apart.

The hard part is that every one of those pixels is a mix. Version 2.0 looks at the whole clip instead of one frame at a time, which targets the flicker and chattering mattes that frame-by-frame keying leaves behind.

Puget Systems has built Corridor’s workstations since 2016, and the original CorridorKey was designed and built on one. Watching it grow from a GitHub project into an official plugin for Resolve, Nuke, After Effects, Premiere and Blender is a great thing to be a small part of.

The best AI tools in VFX are the ones aimed at one specific, painful problem. Corridor’s video walks through how they got there, and it's worth every minute if you’ve ever fought with a tough green screen shot.

10/26/2026

Not every GPU can run Topaz's Starlight models. And the ones that can crush it.

We tested eight professional GPUs against Topaz's diffusion-based Starlight models in Topaz Video 1.6.1; used for restoring degraded archival footage, recovering detail in distant faces, or cleaning up AI-generated footage that looks a little too plastic.

A few things stood out:
🔹 Only the NVIDIA cards ran three of the four Starlight variants we tested. The AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 and Intel Arc Pro B70 only ran Starlight Precise 2.5 and did it slowly: 54 and 107 seconds per frame respectively, versus

We tested the performance of current-generation professional graphics cards from AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA with Topaz Video's Starlight models.

10/12/2026

When we tested Noctua’s first 240mm liquid cooler against our previous Asetek OEM unit, the initial results were substantial enough that we reran the tests.

On our Ryzen 9 9950X test system, the hottest CPU core reached 96°C with the Asetek cooler and 86°C with the Noctua during our combined CPU and GPU stress test.

The repeat testing added important context: the Noctua briefly peaked at 91°C before settling back to 86°C. Across the evaluation, cooling improvements ranged from 3–10°C.

Then we moved Noctua’s upgraded fans onto the Asetek radiator. Temperatures still peaked at 96°C, suggesting the fans alone weren’t responsible for the bulk of the improvement.

A good first result is interesting. Checking it is the part that matters.

Patrick Eaton walks through the testing, pump-noise observations, and qualification process in our latest article.

Read the full evaluation:
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/noctuas-debut-240mm-aio-cooler-impresses/

10/06/2026

Wow, what a fantastic night! 🙌

Thank you to everyone who came out to the Future Experience Showcase! Seeing everyone all immersed in the LED vignettes and experiencing real-time tracking and integration in person was exactly what we had in mind when we built this event.

And the PLAY vignette? Let’s just say the Greedo shot first 👀

If you missed this one, make sure you’re following us, because there will be a next one.

Huge thank you to our co-host and title sponsor for making this all possible, and to our incredible supporting partners:

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We couldn’t do it without you. 🙏

09/24/2026

What happens when a customer needs software Puget Systems hasn’t tested before?

Recently, a reseller came to us with a customer who needed a 1U rackmount server for StorageDNA’s DNAfabric platform. It was a new use case for us: our Labs team had not benchmarked DNAfabric, and our consultants had not previously configured a server for that workflow.

So we started where we always do: with the actual environment.

We worked with the reseller to understand the customer’s current setup, requirements, expected growth, and budget. Then we went directly to StorageDNA’s technical team to understand how their software would perform best on the hardware we carry.

That collaboration produced two viable paths:
🔹 A lower-cost configuration that met the immediate need.
🔹 A higher-performance option designed to grow with the customer’s workload.

The customer chose the scalable option: a Puget Server E100-1U with an AMD 8-core processor, 96GB of DDR5 memory, mirrored M.2 boot drives, mirrored SATA SSDs for local storage, and an ATTO 8-port external SAS/SATA controller.

When a workflow is new, the right response is to listen closely, validate the requirements, and collaborate until the hardware fits the work.

09/21/2026

Topaz Video's Starlight models are some of the most demanding local AI workloads we've tested and until now, there was no public data on how well consumer GPUs actually handle them.

We ran our own benchmarks across all four Starlight variants (Mini, Sharp, Fast 2, and Precise 2.5) on NVIDIA and AMD's current lineup. A few things stood out:
- The RTX 5090 leads every single variant, and on Starlight Fast 2 it's over 10x faster than the 5080, 5070 Ti, and 5060 Ti which all land within a couple seconds of each other, likely due to a VRAM bottleneck
- Starlight Sharp and Fast 2 both require at least 16GB of VRAM, which knocks the RTX 5070 out of contention entirely
- AMD's Radeon RX 9070 XT is only compatible with one variant (Precise 2.5), and its processing time was roughly 3x slower than the weakest NVIDIA card we tested

If your workflow leans on Starlight, VRAM capacity matters just as much as raw compute.
Full breakdown in the comments.

09/14/2026

Preparations are in full swing for The Future Experience Showcase on Sept 24th-26th!

If you’re in the LA area come check us out! We’ll be opening our doors and showcasing LED applications for film/Tv, live events, brand activations, and more! See it, Touch it, Experience it.

📅 Sept 24th-25th Private Demo - Reach out directly to book!

📅 Sept 26th: Open House - limited tickets available on Eventbrite, Link in our Bio.

Huge thank you to our partner, and our main sponsor for making this possible.

09/09/2026

We've been sitting on this for a few weeks: we've launched a NEW PODCAST!!!

Built Different goes inside the studios, labs, and workspaces of people doing the wildest, most demanding creative and scientific work out there and the hardware built to keep up with them.

Episode 1 is personal: our own founder, Jon Bach, on 25 years of building this company, why we publish our benchmark data for the whole industry to see, and the values behind it all.

We make the machine. You make the magic.

Link in bio to watch or listen. New episodes monthly!