Dual Xeon E5-2620 v3 vs i7 5820/30/60k for Vray CPU rendering

[Nuno Luis]

I desperatly need to buy a new workstation as soon as possible.

 

My upmost and first concern is Vray CPU based rendering speed so I figure that a setup with dual Xeon E5-2620v3 (what I can buy for my budget) would beat the heck over a i7 5820k in rendering times.

Is this true? Or i am totally wrong?

 

This new workstation would be mainly for renderings in Vray, because i have a laptop which i'm using to work on AutoCAD and 3Ds Max. My laptop is an Asus G75.

The specs:

Intel Core i7-3630QM 2.4GHz Intel Turbo rated @ 3.4Ghz

32GB DDR3 1600MHz

SSD 256GB SATA 6Gb/s + 750GB SATA 7200rpm

GeForce GTX670MX 3GB GDDR5 @ 1920x1080 (I tried Vray RT with Cuda and it sucked in speed or quality)

 

For the purpose of best bang for the buck in VRay CPU rendering performance solely I made two totally different configurations:

 

 

1# Dual Xeon config

 

Asus Z10PE-D8 WS

 

2x Intel Xeon E5-2620 V3 2.4GHz Intel Turbo 3.2 Ghz 15MB L3 (6c/12t) (24 threads in total)

 

2x Cooler Master Hyper103 for CPU cooling

 

Kingston HyperX Savage DDR3-2133MHz 8GB (x2)

(I think that might be a problem here regarding memory bandwith)

 

SSD Kingston SSDNow V300 240GB - SATA III (6Gb/s) - 450MB/s (SATA III) Write/Read

 

PNY Quadro K620 2GB GDDR3 PCI-e

(If a Geforce would offer me a better performance in 3dsmax viewport/AutoCAD with the same budget I would definately go for that, but still in doubt)

 

Corsair Builder CX500W PSU

 

 

2# Single i7 config

 

MSI X99A SLI PLUS/USB 3.1

 

Intel i7 5820k 3.3 Ghz Intel Turbo rated @ 3.6 Ghz 15MB L3 (6c/12threads) (would a faster i7 5930k or even a i7 5960k(8c/16t) be faster in CPU rendering than my Xeon config?)

 

G.Skill Kit 16GB DDR4 3000Mhz Ripjaws 4 Red

 

Cooler Master Hyper103 for CPU cooling (maybe here i would go for liquid cooling instead)

 

SSD Kingston SSDNow V300 240GB - SATA III (6Gb/s) - 450MB/s (SATA III) Write/Read

 

PNY Quadro K620 2GB GDDR3 PCI-e or PNY nVidia Quadro K2200 4GB DDR5 (if there is a difference in performance)

 

Corsair Builder CX500W PSU

 

 

I don't think that, for now, i would go for Vray RT, because I need noise free high quality renderings in 1080p or 720p still images. Also i don't make any kind of animation renderings in Vray or video editing of any sort.

[Nuno Luis]

Sorry for double posting this thread.

 

I've already tried to build the Xeon setup, but I hit an obstacle and couldn't get the mobo and the RAM ECC Reg is considerably more expensive in my country.

 

So now I am ditching Xeons and considering instead an i7 processor. But my doubt is whether to get the 5820k or go with the 5960x.

If the extra cores/threads really make a difference in, let's say a 8h to 15h CPU render (in a 5820k) would it be somewhat faster in a 5960x???

 

 

Thanks.

[StudioRendering]

Nono,

 

the Dual Xeons 2620's will beat the Single i7 for CPU Rendering (mainly because you have the power of two CPU's), but if these are my options then I like the single i7's a great deal more. Although, I have to say that our studio only uses xeons as we ditched the desktop processors years ago....

 

So, what I would use to make the decision regarding the purchase of one CPU vs. another is CineBench Scores (It's not 100% accurate in comparison to 3DMax but I find this is a good benchmark for CPU renders and i'm wishing autodesk would come out with something soon). http://www.cpu-monkey.com/en/cpu_benchmark-cinebench_r11.5_multi_core-1 this site provides a pretty accurate score when we compared it to our systems inhouse.

 

the Numbers are pretty linear. For example if the score is 11 and another processor score shows 22 it was tested to render twice as fast (we tested this inhouse on a test render but it didn't have alot of meat, just a quick test to see if the numbers held meaning). Let me know if this helps you any

 

Best of Luck

[Nuno Luis]

Thanks for the feedback Sonny,

 

I've been checking some cinebench scores a few weeks ago.

What I see from http://www.cinebench.info is these screenshots:

 

Dual Xeon's E5-2620 v3: score 1553 [almost 18% faster]

 

i7 5960x: score 1318 [only 3% faster!]

 

i7 5820k: score 1275

 

So, the dual Xeon setup has a clear advantage (in benchmark).

And, the 5820k is almost touching the 5960x.

 

The only concern is that cinebench renders a not so complex scene that is relatively fast comparatively to real vray cpu rendering still images that take hours to complete. So if a 5960x is only 3% faster by cinebench scores then the results pretty speak for themselves.

 

On the other hand, if we look to cpu-monkey.com the scores are far more apart from this previous conclusion:

5960x [on Cinebench R11.5, 64bit (Multi-Core)] scores 13.18 [almost 20% faster than 5820k]

5820k [on Cinebench R11.5, 64bit (Multi-Core)] scores 11.05

E5-2620 V3 [on Cinebench R11.5, 64bit (Multi-Core)] scores 9.1 - which would double to 18.2 ??? [that would be 38% faster than 5960x??]

 

Or

5960x [on Cinebench R15 (Multi-Core)] scores 1360 [25% faster]

5820k [on Cinebench R15 (Multi-Core)] scores 1085

E5-2620 V3 [on Cinebench R15 (Multi-Core)] scores 894 - which would double to 1788? [meaning 31% faster than 5960x]

 

I know that these CPU's ain't that far appart regarding performance, but money doesn't grow in the trees these days. Just need the best bang for the buck. I think i'll just settle for the 5960x: they are readily available, are much more future proof, and i'm leaving the option opened for Vray RT down the line with a GTX970 that can be coupled latter IF I'd get a real performance increase using SLI.

 

Better still, I think I could overclock the 5960x to 4.3 to 4.4Ghz easily using Asus software.

Any sense?

 

PS: Sorry, but I think my posts are being moderated so there's a quite significant delay between my posts.

Edited August 4, 2015 by nunoluis

[Nuno Luis]

Finally got my PC:

i7 5960x with Noctua D14 SE2011

Asus X99 Pro USB 3.1

Kingston HyperX Fury DDR4 2133 Mhz CL14 32GB Kit x2

Kingston V300 240GB Sata III

Western Digital 500GB SATA III 64MB Green

Asus GTX960 Turbo OC 2GB GDDR5

XFX Modular Pro Edition XXX 850W

Win 10 Pro

 

Still have to run some Vray rendering tests, but for now I think I can make it stable between 3.9 to 4.3Ghz with 1650 ish scores in Cinebench R15.

There's room for improvement in GPU performance if I decide to/afford to later on.

 

 

[charlieinolas]

I'll also ask You for an advice.

I'm planning to buy a pc that would replace my old phenom 945, and use it mainly for building architecture in Archicad and renderings in 3ds max (vray 3.x).

I found some nice used workstations sets with 2x E5670(or 75) xeons and Quadro 4000 onboard for about 750-800$ and I'm now hestitating if I should go for this a bit oldish set, that will be no longer supported in vray, (no Avx so slower renders) or to go with I7 4770K i.e., overclock and achieve also nice results (quite comperable as it turned out, especially after looking into these numbers.........

http://www.evermotion.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?106109-3DMAX-Vray-benchmark-test ).

 

I'm also wondering if newer card like 960 will be fully supported by such older xeon?

 

Which way would You go?

thanks

[numerobis]

I think as a cheap rendernode the used Xeons could be still ok, depending on the amount of RAM that comes for $800. But then the Quadro is not needed, and they need much more energy than a comparable system today.

 

For a workstation i would go with newer hardware (4770K/4790K, 6700K, 5820K, 5960X), especially if overclocking is an option for you. The E56xx/X56xx is 5 years old and there are already 3 (or 4 in mainstream) newer chip generations with a much higher single core performance, AVX and FM3, better energy and core management, lower power consumption and new features like M.2 (for SSDs), more SATA3 and USB3/3.1 ports, PCIe 3.0, a new RAM generation (DDR4), etc.

There is no chance to upgrade this Xeon system and the components are outdated.

[charlieinolas]

Thanks.

To be honest, I don't believe in good processor upgrades to same motherboard after so many years.

I change my computer each 5-6 years, and even if I buy sthg based on new technology, after that time if I find an used, best processor that would fit to my 5years old motherboard, it will be still very moderate in comparison with the newest ones. So upgrades no, overclocking neither. Overclock speeds up rendering for about 10-15% which means that You gain 15minutes if Your render lasts 100min. Speeding up 200% means stgh, rest is not worth even bothering. I'm not a gamer to fight for 3-4 frames /sec to be able to play more fluently.

 

To answer You question - I get 24GB of ram in the used set for 800$. So it's rather not possible to get a new one with i7 4770k for this price, with same amout of memory. Processor + motherboard + Ram, would be around 1000$ I think (and I don't get the case, power supply and graphics within this price)

 

Anyway, thanks for Your thoughts, I'll have in mind.

Edited August 19, 2015 by charlieinolas

[numerobis]

Overclock speeds up rendering for about 10-15% which means that You gain 15minutes if Your render lasts 100min.

I don't know where you got these values, but my overclocks where more like 25-50% plus. And it is not only the rendering speed, but also a single core performance that is simply not available today without overclocking.

[charlieinolas]

Numerobis, what processor are You using?

[numerobis]

5960X in my new workstation (pretested to 4,5GHz core and 4.25GHz cache - currently it is running @4.2GHz core/3.8GHz cache air cooled until i disassemble my workstation waterloop within the next weeks) - awesome CPU

My farm consists of several 4390K, 3930K, 980X, 970 and some 2600K/2700K, which will be replaced these days with the old workstation 3930K and some new 5820K (all overclocked).

[Nikolaos M]

5960X in my new workstation (pretested to 4,5GHz core and 4.25GHz cache - currently it is running @4.2GHz core/3.8GHz cache air cooled until i disassemble my workstation waterloop within the next weeks) - awesome CPU

My farm consists of several 4390K, 3930K, 980X, 970 and some 2600K/2700K, which will be replaced these days with the old workstation 3930K and some new 5820K (all overclocked).

 

Wow, some nice collection of hardware you have there, numerobis. Jaws down!

[numerobis]

Wow, some nice collection of hardware you have there, numerobis. Jaws down!

 

My little farm... it has been grown over the years and now i keep it at the size of 10 nodes and i will begin to replace the slowest parts (upgrade: ~25,60€/GHz for a 5820K@4,3GHz). It's never enough!

[charlieinolas]

I just took a look at youtube and cinebench results and it seems that dual Xeon 5675 is way faster for rendering that even 4930 OC to 4ghz.

I7 has about 10000points whereas xeon has 12500 points..

[Nikolaos M]

Which Cinebench version are you looking at? These scores remind me of CB R10 which was a 32-bit only (if I recall correctly) old version. Try to search scores of Cinebench R11.5 and 15 which are much newer.

 

And yes, 2xXeon 5675 (12c/24t) could be faster in rendering than a single oc'able hexacore, but, as numerobis already said, this system would be much slower in single thread tasks (which constitute the 95% of everyday use), and it offers no upgradability in the future. And judging by the current Xeon's price in sites with used stuff (amazon, e-bay etc), 800$ is quite a high price for this used piece of machinery. You can find these Xeons at under 140$ a piece at the moment we speak. I leave to say about the other parts like the Quadro 4000 and the super old case, psu, ram etc. It would be a tempting offer at about 450-500$ and only as render nodes, not a main Workstation.

 

It is better to gather some more money and head for a new setup which will survive many more years and would offer better chances for future upgrades.

[charlieinolas]

It was cinebench 15.

You're probably right that in most tasks i7 will be much faster, but on the other side I don't believe in upgrades that much. Graphics yes, Ram so so, but not processor.

Usually if I bought a computer it had lasted on my desk for about 5 years and if I wanted to upgrade stgh to make it faster for renders, parts were incompatible or even that newer processor was faster than my old one, it was still way slower than those ones sold at the market at current time..That's just my thoughts.

 

I also found this

 

Looks like i7 is still almost 30% slower.

Edited August 22, 2015 by charlieinolas

[Nikolaos M]

4930K at 3.4GHz? This chip is made for oc'ing. A 4.4GHz oc is consider to be a standard value for these cpus with a good cooler. And why are we comparing the dual Xeons with 4930K? This cpu is not current generation. Compare it with a nowadays 380$ i7 5820K, that could probably surpass the Xeons with a modest oc'ing.

 

The truth is, of course, that s1366 Xeons can be oc'ed too, but with the use of FSB (and base clock straps) and not guaranteed results.

 

Edit: Here's an example of what one could build today as a decent workstation for under 1200$

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor ($378.99 @ SuperBiiz)

CPU Cooler: Thermaltake Water 3.0 Extreme S 99.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($94.85 @ Amazon)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X99-UD3 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($153.98 @ Newegg)

Memory: Crucial 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($169.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($83.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.88 @ OutletPC)

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($97.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ Newegg)

Power Supply: Cooler Master VSM 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($66.98 @ Newegg)

Total: $1176.64

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-22 15:05 EDT-0400

 

All parts are new and good for an entry level s2011-3 system, and the system has a lot of potential for future use and upgrades.

Edited August 22, 2015 by nikolaosm

[charlieinolas]

Thanks Nicolas for the suggestions.

I just didn't want to spend to much and I assumed not to pay more than ~800$ (remember, that here in Poland everything is more expensive - prices/earnings) So I was wondering what to buy for the same price.

And for the price of 2x xeon 5670 I'm able to get: new i7 4770 processor, motherboard and ram only..

Rest parts are not so important as I can get them from my old computer (like psu i.e.).

Edited August 22, 2015 by charlieinolas

[nunocosta]

Viva Nuno. Sera que podiamos falar po PM para trocar umas impressoes sobre a tua nova maquina? Abraço