one cpu or two?

[Krisztian Gulyas]

Do you think it's worth buying a dual socket motherboard and two opteron processors or a 6 core i7, a water cooler and overclock it a bit?

[shauncarollo]

You can only use Xeon processors in dual socket motherboards.

[numerobis]

Opterons are also available for dual, quad or octo socket systems...

 

But Xeon would be the better choice if you decide to build a dual socket system. They are more expensive than Opterons, but also much faster especially for single threaded tasks.

If it is worth to buy a dual system is a question only you can answer...

If you wan't the maximum performance in one box and money doesn't matter that much, get a dual 8-, 10- or 12-core Xeon E5 V2 system.

If you want the best bang for the buck, if can use network rendering, if you want the highest possible single thread performance, i think then one or more overclocked i7 hexa core is the way to go.

[AJLynn]

This is a business decision and there's no always-correct answer, but I would tell you that there are two kinds of CPU speed:

 

1: Single-thread speed, which determines how quickly your computer can perform most tasks that are not actually rendering. This is driven by the speed of each core. For example, the Max user interface really only uses one CPU core so when you're editing in Max a 2-core 3GHz box is faster than a 6-core 2GHz box from the same line of CPUs (which is important because GHz are not comparable when looking at different CPU product lines) because Max can use one 3GHz core, vs. one 2GHz core. So a multi-CPU Opteron box could have, say, 24 cores, but each one might be slow.

 

2: Total speed (adding all cores together). In most current render engines, multiple cores are used very efficiently in parallel so that 6-core 2GHz (12GHz total) is about twice as fast as that 2-core 3GHz (6GHz total) when used to render.

 

Since you need both kinds of speed, the many-core Opteron boxes are usually not practical as a workstation.

[Tommy L]

Depends on the machines intended purpose. If you are working on a workstation now that you can get by with but the render speed is killing you then just buy a render node. Then the research is easier, how many GHz per dollar. My research came up with the i7 3930 as the most cost effective render solution, I dont think Haswell has changed that conclusion.

[kevinolsen]

You can only use Xeon processors in dual socket motherboards.

 

The E3 and E5 platform Intel Xeons support single socket configuration on LGA 1155, LGA 2011 and LGA 1150 platforms. It's not necessarily worth the cost for rendering but the option is out there.

[shauncarollo]

Opterons are also available for dual, quad or octo socket systems...

 

But Xeon would be the better choice if you decide to build a dual socket system. They are more expensive than Opterons, but also much faster especially for single threaded tasks.

If it is worth to buy a dual system is a question only you can answer...

If you wan't the maximum performance in one box and money doesn't matter that much, get a dual 8-, 10- or 12-core Xeon E5 V2 system.

If you want the best bang for the buck, if can use network rendering, if you want the highest possible single thread performance, i think then one or more overclocked i7 hexa core is the way to go.

 

Sorry Krisztian. I had only ever seen Xeon's. Listen to Numerobis--He knows what he's talking about!

[shauncarollo]

The E3 and E5 platform Intel Xeons support single socket configuration on LGA 1155, LGA 2011 and LGA 1150 platforms. It's not necessarily worth the cost for rendering but the option is out there.

 

Yes I know that, I meant out of the CPU's he had listed. I was wrong regardless, I hate spreading false information!

[RyderSK]

Before deciding to go dual Xeon route for one machine, I was looking into opterons as they are extremely good price/power from paper sheets, and are very popular choice for "folding" guys (just check out the threads at extremeoverclockers). But in further research, I found they perform quite miserably in current rendering packages such as Vray because of some architecture choices (confirmed by Vlado itself of Chaos forum). And no, its not because of poor single-thread performance.

Because of this, Opterons are largely out of question.

 

Now Xeon, esp. the new V2 ivy bridge versions out right now, are quite good performance/price in actual workstation (you can't only count the cpu price, you do save on components slightly because you're buing vga, rams, etc. only once), with sweet spot around the 10 core at 2.8/3.0 ghz version (2690 V2 ? Not sure from head..)

 

Anyway, unless one can afford it, 4930k (same price as 3930k) as Tom mentions is great solution for both workstation and nodes currently, with 4770k for nodes only as good counterpart.

[numerobis]

Now Xeon, esp. the new V2 ivy bridge versions out right now, are quite good performance/price in actual workstation (you can't only count the cpu price, you do save on components slightly because you're buing vga, rams, etc. only once), with sweet spot around the 10 core at 2.8/3.0 ghz version (2690 V2 ? Not sure from head..)

 

I'm currently considering to replace my 3930K (@4,6GHz) with a Xeon E5 2690 V2 10-core (3GHZ / 3,6GHz turbo). I have seen someone stating that he is running a dual Xeon E5 V2 with 112MHz BCLK. If this is really true and possible for all E5 V2, then this would mean 4GHz single core turbo for the 2690 and maybe 3,5GHz all core turbo (just guessing that the all core multi is 32, not sure about that).

So these 4GHz wouldn't be so far away from my current 4,6GHz including the few percent ive-E improvement that i could live with it. But the multi core performance should be maybe 30% better.

I just have to check if my P9X79 WS is already supporting the new Xeon.

[RyderSK]

I'm currently considering to replace my 3930K (@4,6GHz) with a Xeon E5 2690 V2 10-core (3GHZ / 3,6GHz turbo). I have seen someone stating that he is running a dual Xeon E5 V2 with 112MHz BCLK. If this is really true and possible for all E5 V2, then this would mean 4GHz single core turbo for the 2690 and maybe 3,5GHz all core turbo (just guessing that the all core multi is 32, not sure about that).

So these 4GHz wouldn't be so far away from my current 4,6GHz including the few percent ive-E improvement that i could live with it. But the multi core performance should be maybe 30% better.

I just have to check if my P9X79 WS is already supporting the new Xeon.

 

You're in luck, it does :- ) But seems like rather odd choice to me. I have strong doubts about the overclockability with ivy bridge architecture might have just been some "lucky" piece. You sure you don't want to just build additional workstation out of it ? Instead of 30perc. additional power, you would keep 3930 plus 2x2690, which altogether would be very nice combo.

[Krisztian Gulyas]

Right now I dont have the money to buy a dual socket, but I was curious if its worth it, because i was reading about them and the fact that you have two good CPUs on one MoBo sounds good. So thank you for your relpies. Hopefully your answers helped other people too, not just me.

[numerobis]

You're in luck, it does :- )

yes, i found it too on the Asus website... now i have to find some info if it is really possible to run them with 110-112MHz...

The info of the number 3 in this list says 112MHz: http://www.maxwellrender.com/index.php/benchwell )

The all core turbo of the 10-core is 33, so this means 3,7GHz for 112MHz. Combined GHz would be 36,7GHz compared to 27,6GHz for the 3930K (or 28,2GHz for 4,7GHz).

 

The 3930K will go into another render node in the basement if i change the workstation cpu.