xeon vs i5/i7 gaming

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Vaslina

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i am building a PC mainly for gaming
iam planing on getting dual Xeon x5550 2.67 in a Hp Z600 workstation plus getting a Zotec GTX 950 AMP
i was told that Xeon processors preform generally poorly in gaming in comparison with i5 and i7 and i should be looking for a 3rd gene. i5 or i7 for a better gaming performance
should i ?
 
Solution
DonkeyOatie
The Xeon W3690 is substantially faster at over 3.4Ghz. The CPU will be good for 5-ish years of game development, especially with six cores and Hyperthreading. Add in a good GPU, and, assuming your PSU is big enough, you will have a great system. (What OS? Win 7?)

Here's the specs. http://www.cnet.com/products/lenovo-thinkstation-s20-4157-xeon-w3690-3-46-ghz-monitor-none-series/
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kanewolf

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Most of the cores on your computer will be unused for gaming. The clock speeds of Xeon's are generally lower than i5 or i7 parts. RAM speeds tend to be lower also. Xeons are intended to run 24/7 with 100% reliability. It is a different set of requirements.
 
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kanewolf

kanewolf

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The KEY to his above statement is "equivalent speed". Your x5550s are only 2.66Ghz which is similar to the 45W i7 processors. Not many people buy the lower power CPUs...
 
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DonkeyOatie

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Yes, because the price/performance is crud. I need to know why the OP is even thinking of that rig. If it is cheap enough it will still be decent.

 
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DonkeyOatie

DonkeyOatie

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The vast majority of the problems are cause by shoddy ports and those running top-top end GPUs or at super-max-ultra effects.

To survive in the market, games must run very well at 1080p on i5s.

 
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Vaslina

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Yes iam getting a deal on a used HP z600 with that 2 processors
iam not plaining for overclocking in general .. and if iam going to have dual processors it would seem useless for gaming according to Kanewolf or i should go for a i7 or i5 from the start ?
 
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kanewolf

kanewolf

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If you are getting a good price, then it should work. It is really a question of for X amount of $$$ (whatever the z600 is costing you) what can you get with an i7? If you can't assemble a new system with a quality case, power supply, MB, CPU, OS, etc then the z600 is a better value...
 
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Vaslina

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the x amount is close to 300$ ( without a GPU ) and yes i saw that i cant assemble anything near that with a new i5 or i7, mb,
2nd que. would i really benefit fom adding the second processor or it wouldnot affect the gaming performance ??
 
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Sanic

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When I first started to build a gaming computer in October I asked alot of questions about many different types of components and my first rough draft included the Intel xeon processor. After much more research I found that it isn't that great for gaming and much more suited for server use as alot of ppl in your thread above have said. I then moved to a 3.5ghz intel i5 CPU for a great CPU that could handle my heavy gaming needs while still keeping it in a decent budget. After much deliberation and pooling from as many resources as I could I decided to expand the budget a few hairs and spring for the i7-4790k 4ghz 4rth gen CPU with hyperthreading that could do alot more for future games coming out as well do anything I needed and more for today. This is now my build I'm buying tomorrow with all the black friday deals, you can just take out the peripherals you dont need:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/4zf3P6

the CPU is 340$ normally and tomorrow it dropping to 250$ :D
 
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DonkeyOatie

DonkeyOatie

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You cannot get a decent case, CPU, memory, motherboard, PSU, storage, and operating system for $300.

This system is super cheap and I would not recommend that anyone tried to use it, but a 'real' system would be more expensive.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($159.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($30.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Pipeline HD 500GB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive ($34.95 @ Newegg)
Case: Enermax OSTROG ATX Mid Tower Case ($22.00 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($13.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (32-bit) ($79.90 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $371.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-25 18:18 EST-0500

Your $300-ish should be getting you something significantly better, but a little slower.
 
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Vaslina

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iam confused ! i would get an upgrade .. after 2 or 3 years right now i just wanna get the new games t operate well ...
also iam geeting another offer for s2 thinkstation with w3690 processor 375$ (??would it be better than t use it for gaming ??
 
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DonkeyOatie

DonkeyOatie

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The Xeon W3690 is substantially faster at over 3.4Ghz. The CPU will be good for 5-ish years of game development, especially with six cores and Hyperthreading. Add in a good GPU, and, assuming your PSU is big enough, you will have a great system. (What OS? Win 7?)

Here's the specs. http://www.cnet.com/products/lenovo-thinkstation-s20-4157-xeon-w3690-3-46-ghz-monitor-none-series/
 
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Solution
Sanic

Sanic

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No games currently on the market fully utilize multi cores and their for a dual or a quad with a higher clock rate will be more beneficial than more cores and slower speed. 6 cores would only benifor you if you were doing a lot of multi tasking, photoshop, rendering etc. For gaming the I7s got the Xeon beat and I would even pick a I5 3.5ghz over a Xeon and use the saved money for a better gpu.

Hyper threading does little to nothing for all games currently on the market.
 
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DonkeyOatie

DonkeyOatie

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Xeon = i7 at the same clock speed, and some are cheaper than i7s. The OP can get a 3.4Ghz 6 core Xeon with hyperthreading IN A SYSTEM for under $400! That is a bargain!! We are not talking about general cases where a 6 core Xeon would cost a lot more than a four core i7 and perform worse, we are talking about something very specific.

This costs about the same, uses an i5 and is significantly worse.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($159.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($30.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Pipeline HD 500GB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive ($34.95 @ Newegg)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H21 ATX Mid Tower Case ($22.00 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($13.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (32-bit) ($79.90 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $371.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-25 20:12 EST-0500

and this i7 system is about as powerful, and a lot more expensive.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($276.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($30.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Pipeline HD 500GB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive ($34.95 @ Newegg)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H21 ATX Mid Tower Case ($22.00 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($13.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (32-bit) ($79.90 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $488.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-25 20:14 EST-0500

Would I recommend a new Xeon W3690 over a new i7 4770 NO. (A single W3690 costs over $1000) The Price/performance of most Xeons is crud because of the price side of the equation, not the performance side.

Although old now, it was a $3500 system, comes with 12Gb or memory and a 625W PSU and is designed to support a good GPU.

I'd buy one for $375-ish if I could inspect it or get it from someone who takes returns if it were defective.

Should come with Quadro 4000 graphics too,
 
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B

bystander

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Dec 9, 2009
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Most AAA titles these days seem to like at least 4 cores, and a few do show improvements beyond. Granted, they don't "fully" use all the cores very often, but they do use them. The primary draw call thread is almost always on 1 thread, but DX12 and Mantle are fixing that.

An i5 would be fine, but I thought I should tell a little more about what is happening now and on.
 
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V

Vaslina

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Nov 25, 2015
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from where iam i can get used w3960 for 150$ and as well i can get I5 used for the same money
so giving my budget the choice is to get a workstation (8g ram, ps 450w, SSD 250g like T3500 or z400 ) either with w3960, or an i5, i7 on its x58 chip ??
 
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