Octa Core vs 2 Quad Cores?

[kumarsrimali]

I'm building a computer for 3d rendering and just compared the price of an octa core processor 88,000 rs. ($1467) vs quad core 30,000 rs. ($500). Isn't it better to get 2 quad core instead ? Infact I can build 3 quad cores for the price of one octa core. Need best configuration for my purpose but want to know how could those parts help?

[numerobis]

how about a hexa core?

5280K or better in a few weeks 6850K -> http://www.overclock.net/t/1599068/6850k-vs-5820k/140#post_25128792 (Computex is May 31 - June 1)

[John Dollus]

I'm building a computer for 3d rendering and just compared the price of an octa core processor 88,000 rs. ($1467) vs quad core 30,000 rs. ($500). Isn't it better to get 2 quad core instead ? Infact I can build 3 quad cores for the price of one octa core. Need best configuration for my purpose but want to know how could those parts help?

 

The latest tech is always at a premium so, yes, the quad cores operating at the same clock speed will be discounted. If you have the space and power available for multiple systems (3x power supply, ram etc) and you can utilize distributed computing then go with the older cpus.

 

Greatly oversimplifying but you need to keep in mind that when working, you can only use 1 system for the GUI so 2/3 of your horsepower would only be utilized during rendering if you go with multiple systems.

[kumarsrimali]

how about a hexa core?

5280K or better in a few weeks 6850K -> http://www.overclock.net/t/1599068/6850k-vs-5820k/140#post_25128792 (Computex is May 31 - June 1)

 

It's not about settling between the two. I'm asking what is better decision when you can get better power for lesser money ? I'm not a hardware expert that's why I'm asking if octa core is still better by any means.

 

The latest tech is always at a premium so, yes, the quad cores operating at the same clock speed will be discounted. If you have the space and power available for multiple systems (3x power supply, ram etc) and you can utilize distributed computing then go with the older cpus.

 

Greatly oversimplifying but you need to keep in mind that when working, you can only use 1 system for the GUI so 2/3 of your horsepower would only be utilized during rendering if you go with multiple systems.

 

It's fine to have more machines. I want to know what technology peoples are using whose outputs are insanely real. I understand it's about skills but we do need good machines for proper review of the scene. I'm also gonna need this machine for rendering only. I'm just confused why the price is triple when the power is just double ? Is it wrong to get 2 quad cores (will be same power) and save some money ? or is it gonna cost same when I build the entire unit ? so what is better decision here; octa core or quad core ?

 

Please also tell me the configuration that I should use

Edited May 10, 2016 by kumarsrimali

[inpow watir]

Consider to pick the highest clock of the quad core cpus

[kumarsrimali]

Consider to pick the highest clock of the quad core cpus

 

okay, so you suggest quad core but with maximum power ? You're suggesting this for the cost or for any other reason ?

[inpow watir]

I said that based on assumption that you are choose quad cpu. I sense that you are..

If you are about to decide to choose the quad, then try to pick the highest clocked one, cheers.

Edited May 12, 2016 by inpowwatir

[kumarsrimali]

I said that based on assumption that you are choose quad cpu. I sense that you are..

If you are about to decide to choose the quad, then try to pick the highest clocked one, cheers.

 

oh, ok.

[kumarsrimali]

No expert suggestion regarding the specs as of now ?

[joelmcwilliam]

http://forums.cgarchitect.com/80150-cheap-16core-xeon-node-pros-cons.html

 

You want a powerfull rendering pc only, so you should look for a dual xeon pc. If prices of current xeon and matching motherboard scare you of then you should look at older xeon. Have a look on youtube as well for dual xeon build.

 

Use the links given in topic below to educate yourself in how much performance a particular cpu will give you while rendering a scene:

 

http://forums.cgarchitect.com/80159-regarding-build-pc-xeon-2630v3-vs-5960x.html

[kumarsrimali]

http://forums.cgarchitect.com/80150-cheap-16core-xeon-node-pros-cons.html

 

You want a powerfull rendering pc only, so you should look for a dual xeon pc. If prices of current xeon and matching motherboard scare you of then you should look at older xeon. Have a look on youtube as well for dual xeon build.

 

Use the links given in topic below to educate yourself in how much performance a particular cpu will give you while rendering a scene:

 

http://forums.cgarchitect.com/80159-regarding-build-pc-xeon-2630v3-vs-5960x.html

 

can I ask why you are suggesting xeons ? I was going for 5930k because it's best value for money. I'm obviously not very sure about this one though. Can you suggest why you are suggesting xeon over i7 ? and which model of xeon did you mean ? I was also planning to get 8 GB RAM and no GPU because it's specifically for rendering. I'm not sure why people go for 64 GB RAM

[John Dollus]

can I ask why you are suggesting xeons ? I was going for 5930k because it's best value for money. I'm obviously not very sure about this one though. Can you suggest why you are suggesting xeon over i7 ? and which model of xeon did you mean ? I was also planning to get 8 GB RAM and no GPU because it's specifically for rendering. I'm not sure why people go for 64 GB RAM

 

Amount of ram depends on what you are doing but I typically use around 12 GB for most scenes during rendering so 24 GB is where my sweet spot happens to be. If I were to render an exterior animation populated with tons of evermotion trees and vehicles, I'd likely run out of RAM if I tried to render it without using proxys

 

Xeon only comes into play if you build a multi-cpu system. the 5930k does not support multiprocessing. You get the most bang for your buck by using a multiprocessing system so you don't have to spend double the RAM/Power supply, HD, etc to achieve the same processing power.

 

All other things being equal, 2x 4 core 3.5 xeons would perform better than a 6 core 5930 3.5 when rendering using vray.

 

This thread below would have been very useful for you if anyone had bothered to participate:

http://forums.cgarchitect.com/77667-cpu-benchmark-vray-max.html

Edited May 17, 2016 by John Dollus

[kumarsrimali]

Amount of ram depends on what you are doing but I typically use around 12 GB for most scenes during rendering so 24 GB is where my sweet spot happens to be. If I were to render an exterior animation populated with tons of evermotion trees and vehicles, I'd likely run out of RAM if I tried to render it without using proxys

 

Xeon only comes into play if you build a multi-cpu system. the 5930k does not support multiprocessing. You get the most bang for your buck by using a multiprocessing system so you don't have to spend double the RAM/Power supply, HD, etc to achieve the same processing power.

 

All other things being equal, 2x 4 core 3.5 xeons would perform better than a 6 core 5930 3.5 when rendering using vray.

 

This thread below would have been very useful for you if anyone had bothered to participate:

http://forums.cgarchitect.com/77667-cpu-benchmark-vray-max.html

 

Thanks bro, My budget was around $2k but I think I need to increase it. Which xeon CPU would you suggest btw ?

[kumarsrimali]

Peoples are suggesting dual xeons, not sure if it's because they have only heard about it. I mean why not dual i7s? some suggesting dual Opteron too but they are no where in the benchmarks. Everybody says Intel is much better in performance. Is it true?

 

Actually I'm not behind anything specific like Xeon ,i7 or amd. I just want to to know why I'm getting it before actually getting it.

 

The machine is gonna be for rendering only. So small Ram and no gpu is fine.

[John Dollus]

My main system is a single cpu i7-4960x running at 3.6. My primary render system is a dual xeon e5-2630 running at 2.4

The dual xeon at the lower clock renders anywhere from 20-30% faster than the single cpu i7.

 

They were purchased a year apart so can't really compare what i paid for them and I really don't have time to come up with complete build specs based on what's available this week.

 

Back in the day, it was said that mixing Intel and AMD chips together in a pipeline would lead to small variations in the output. Personally, I never experienced that but My AMD system is an old dog at this point and my daughter uses it for minecraft now so it's not part of the render club anymore.

 

In a couple years, expect whatever you buy to be functioning as a music server or some other mundane task a phone can do.

[kumarsrimali]

My main system is a single cpu i7-4960x running at 3.6. My primary render system is a dual xeon e5-2630 running at 2.4

The dual xeon at the lower clock renders anywhere from 20-30% faster than the single cpu i7.

 

They were purchased a year apart so can't really compare what i paid for them and I really don't have time to come up with complete build specs based on what's available this week.

 

Back in the day, it was said that mixing Intel and AMD chips together in a pipeline would lead to small variations in the output. Personally, I never experienced that but My AMD system is an old dog at this point and my daughter uses it for minecraft now so it's not part of the render club anymore.

 

In a couple years, expect whatever you buy to be functioning as a music server or some other mundane task a phone can do.

 

okay, thanks for your specs. Can I see your outputs friend ?

[Matt Sugden]

I'm comparing systems at the moment too. And trying to weigh up the difference between dual xeon systems and i7. My research is telling me that in spite of the savings from a dual mobo system (i.e. only one hard drive, OS, rack box, etc between two processors) the i7s are still more cost effective than the Xeons per processor cycle. I've been using CPU benchmark and Tom's Hardware to get an idea of performance differences. This cost difference gets compounded if you need around 6 Render servers as I do.

 

The performance per price sweet spot seems to be the i7 6700K and i7 4790K chips at the moment, they'll get you 11k cycles for around £300 per proc, the next best seems to be the i7 5820K / i7 5930K, they are giving about 13K cycles for around £330-£480, but have the added downer of needing the upto date DDR4 RAM which is more expensive. (I already have 6 lots of 16Gb DDR3 I can re-use). Then at the top of the pricing seems to be the i7 5960K, which is giving around 16K cycles, but the proc is £875.

 

It's a case of diminishing returns. The i7 5960K chip for instance cost almost 300% more than the i7 6700K, but only provides 50% more performance in simplistic terms. Or at least that's what I'm making of these numbers.

 

Then there's the Xeons, an E5 2620 system, will give me 8k cycles each chip, so for two you're looking at 16K cycles at a cost of £700. But the dual motherboards alone are £300.

[Francisco Penaloza]

If you only consider budget, i7 will be a better option hardware wise, it could be a little slower compared to a dual Xeon at same speed but you also have the option to O.C that will compensate or give you more bang for your Bucks.

 

Having said that you also have to consider, space, heat and software. In that case having dual CPU at a lower speed it will be more pocket friendly than buying 2 or 3 i7s

 

I personally have an i7 work station and two 2 generations old Dual 6 cores Xeon (refurbished HP works stations) rendering power it is pretty darn close to the latest i7. but I only payed $700 for each by then, plus software. To have the same rendering power I would have to buy 5 i7, that's x5 windows, x5 Vray/Corona licenses.

[kumarsrimali]

If you only consider budget, i7 will be a better option hardware wise, it could be a little slower compared to a dual Xeon at same speed but you also have the option to O.C that will compensate or give you more bang for your Bucks.

 

Having said that you also have to consider, space, heat and software. In that case having dual CPU at a lower speed it will be more pocket friendly than buying 2 or 3 i7s

 

I personally have an i7 work station and two 2 generations old Dual 6 cores Xeon (refurbished HP works stations) rendering power it is pretty darn close to the latest i7. but I only payed $700 for each by then, plus software. To have the same rendering power I would have to buy 5 i7, that's x5 windows, x5 Vray/Corona licenses.

 

did you just mention dual xeon system is more powerful than 5 i7s ?

[kumarsrimali]

I'm comparing systems at the moment too. And trying to weigh up the difference between dual xeon systems and i7. My research is telling me that in spite of the savings from a dual mobo system (i.e. only one hard drive, OS, rack box, etc between two processors) the i7s are still more cost effective than the Xeons per processor cycle. I've been using CPU benchmark and Tom's Hardware to get an idea of performance differences. This cost difference gets compounded if you need around 6 Render servers as I do.

 

The performance per price sweet spot seems to be the i7 6700K and i7 4790K chips at the moment, they'll get you 11k cycles for around £300 per proc, the next best seems to be the i7 5820K / i7 5930K, they are giving about 13K cycles for around £330-£480, but have the added downer of needing the upto date DDR4 RAM which is more expensive. (I already have 6 lots of 16Gb DDR3 I can re-use). Then at the top of the pricing seems to be the i7 5960K, which is giving around 16K cycles, but the proc is £875.

 

It's a case of diminishing returns. The i7 5960K chip for instance cost almost 300% more than the i7 6700K, but only provides 50% more performance in simplistic terms. Or at least that's what I'm making of these numbers.

 

Then there's the Xeons, an E5 2620 system, will give me 8k cycles each chip, so for two you're looking at 16K cycles at a cost of £700. But the dual motherboards alone are £300.

 

You're right but Xeons are made for continuous run too, I don't know if it makes any difference because my current i7s never showed any big problem on crashin, I'm fine if it happens couple of times. Xeon 2620v4 is 8c @ 3GHz and i7 is 4c @ 4.2 GHz so I think xeon is still faster