Single-Threaded performance - Intel i5 Vs. Intel i7 Vs. AMD FX-9590

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Amyrro

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Hello everyone

I am considering buying a new machine, and which I am going to use primarily for Engineering CAD. I searched about the software I already use, and turns out that most are single-threaded (Solidworks or CATIA, Ansys Fluent, & maybe Comsol + others).

I had a quick research on CPUs, and I have the option to get one of AMD FX-9590, Intel i7-6700K & Intel i5-6600. Of course the i5 is cheaper than both, and as I have been through some threads on this forum, I found that many recommend the Intel i7 over the AMD CPU.

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2801571/intel-4790k-6700k-amd-9590.html?xtor=EREC-8889

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2669858/intel-4690-amd-9590.html?xtor=EREC-8889

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2691990/amd-9590-intel-core-4790k.html?xtor=EREC-8889

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2196981/intel-4930k-ivy-bridge-amd-9590-processor-video-encoding.html?xtor=EREC-8889

My question is how would the single-threaded performance differ between i7 and i5 in general, considering the same generations of the two processors and same clock speed. Does an i7 processor process data in better, or more efficiently than an i5 processor of the same generation, architecture and clock speed in a single-threaded task ? Or is the single-threaded performance related to the processor itself ?

I found some people online recommending i5 processors over i7 processors for gaming, especially games which do not need many cores, when the difference in the clock speed is minimal (as in the case i7-6700k with 4.2 GHz or i7-6700 with 4.0 GHz, compared to i5-6600 with 3.9 GHz), and does not worth the difference in price (more than 200$).

What about the AMD FX-9590 or FX-8370, with 4.7 and 4.3 clock speeds. Would they yield better single threaded performance than the Intel processors ?

From what I know, single-threaded performance relies heavily on the clock speed, which makes some i5s in many cases better than i7s because of the difference in the clock speed, or in some cases when the clock speeds is comparable or identical, the i5s become a more economic option.

Is this correct, and if not, what would define the single threaded performance CPUs ? Especially when comparing i5 to i7 CPUs ?
 
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mamasan2000

mamasan2000

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https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/CPU-Overclocking-in-Solidworks-2016-747/
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Solidworks-2016-Multi-Core-Performance-741/

https://youtu.be/FbJV3u4TxPE?t=28m24s

Puget builds computers specifically for engineers, scientists and other pros.
I don't work for them, I just like watching Barnacles Nerdgasm.
I hope some of the links provide some insight.
IIRC, fastest single core speed (GHz) Intel should be the best for everything 'cept rendering. Where multicores matter.
 
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Amyrro

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Hi there
Thanks for your replies. How can I estimate the single threaded performance of CPUs ? I got a little bit confused on the parameter that I have to consider when looking at different CPUs and look for single-threaded performance.

From the link which "bignastyid" posted, I noticed that although i5-6600K has a clock speed of 3.5 GHz, it is slightly lower in single -threaded performance than the i7-6700 which has a clock speed of 3.4 GHz, which implies that there are some other contributing factors.

Other than the clock speed, doesn't the lithography and cache memory have an effect on the single-threaded performance of a CPU ?

In this sense, does this mean that the primary difference between i5 and i7 processors is the number of cores and the hyper-threading, plus the cache memory associated with class of processors (i7s tend to carry more cache memory than i5s) ??

I noticed that although the clock speeds of the AMD processors FX-9590 and FX-8370 are way higher than the i7-6700K, i7-6700 and i5-6600K, however, the single threaded performance is lower than the Intel CPUS. Does this imply that the single threaded performance depends on the different parameters of the CPU, with the clock speed being the main one, excluding the number of cores and threads.

Regards and thanks again for your replies
 
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Amyrro

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Thanks for your reply

I will check what this company has to offer, although I may not buy a system from them, but it is going to be good to check about their products.

 
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mamasan2000

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I was linking to them because they've actually done some testing with SolidWorks.

Why AMD isn't as good as Intel? There's other factors other than MHz. Like IPC, Instructions Per Cycle.
I'm not sure if 1 cycle = 1 Hz or what but it's along those lines. And Intel does roughly 30% more work for any given CPU frequency compared to AMD. AMD can keep up in many multi-threaded applications but in single-threaded, the CPU tanks.

Another thing that could be relevant is the fact that Intel also writes the compiler, ICC. So of course the code is optimized for Intel CPUs in cases where it is compiled with Intels Compiler. It probably isn't optimized for AMDs.
Intel could write: If AMD CPU then Waste cycles. Nothing stopping them.
AMD has sued Intel once or twice and won. The 2 companies aren't exactly BFFs.
 
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Amyrro

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Thanks, I see your point, I have given the links a quick look, but I will to go through the details a soon I have time for it within the coming couple of days.
 
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Leaps-from-Shadows

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CPU performance is a combination of many factors. Raw clock speed is one, but also the pipeline length and breadth, how efficient the prediction units are, and other stuff I don't feel like looking up at the moment. Single-thread performance on i5 and i7 are identical at the same clock speed. The i7 is clocked higher and has more cache, and those are the only differences.

The current situation is this:

Intel before AMD, all day every day.
For gaming, get an i5 instead of an i7 and spend the extra on a better graphics card.
 
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dragonvet

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Remember that just because your program may be using a single thread, doesn't mean your computer is. It's still got an OS to run, as well as your email, that browser you forgot to close, Skype, HWMonitor, Adobe autoupdate, bittorrent etc etc.... ok you may not use these, but you see the point, hardly ANYONE is doing just the one thing at a time, your computer is constantly doing a whole host of things. That said, I have a couple of 9590's as well as an 8350. I also have a 17 4770k an I7 3930k and an older I5. I have run those passmark tests from cpubenchmark.com a zillion times with all of those CPU's and and for me at least they order from i5 as the lowest to 8350 not TOO far behind the 4770k and depending on the day and the weather the 9590 usually is a bit faster on passmark than the 4770 but for me not always. They flip flop. The 3930k beats the crap out of them all so let's just scrap that and the I5.

Leaving us with the 4770 and the two AMD's... I can't honestly tell you that I personally see ANY difference with these CPU's in "real world" use. I can say that having more PCI lanes available on the AMD chips is a big bonus since I love doing multi gpu setups, the EXACT reason I bought the 3930k and it's 40 (yes pcie 3.0) pci lanes vs the meager 16 of the 4770. Two liquid cooled Titans score only nominally lower on my 9590 with Asus CVFZ mobo than they do on the 3930k... but I am fond of the x79

Back to topic though. If I were you, I'd get a used LGA 2011 (x79) chip. The 3930 and 4930 can both be found on ebay frequently in the $200 range, a TERRIFIC buy and at the price, these AMD and lga 1150 I7's can't compete....

If you aren't comfortable with used CPU's, and that's a personal choice, than I would still go 8350 AMD every day over the others mentioned. Ya it's not going to score as high on passmark or firestrike as the i7 4770 or 4790 but it's close enough. For my money it's the MOST FUN CPU ON THE MARKET! It's a tank, and can take a lot of abuse overclocking... it's FUN to overclock. AMD boards in general are more fun! I have never felt any significant enough difference between all these chips I own to justify $300 for a 4790k when I can get an 8350 for half the price, or buy 2 and setup a media center :)

The only piece of advice I would give it to forget everything you read about only needing 8gb of ram. That's BS... 16 is the sweet spot. And on the AMD 8350 or 9590 my experience has been that my HyperX Fury 1600mhz runs as fast, more solid, and for less money than my Ballistix Tracer, GSkills Trident and even my Dominator Platinum at 2133. In fact the DP 2133 is my LEAST favorite of those.

anyway this is just my experience using these chips, and what I personally think. Any of those would be great choices... except the i5, don't buy an I5. Why would anyone do that? Save your pennies an extra month and get the i7 for heavens sake. I only have mine cause my room mate was gonna throw it out thinking it didn't work... numbskull ))
 
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Amyrro

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Thanks for your reply

I have gotten an i7-6700K since a while. To be honest, I find it good in terms of performance speed, but my build suffers from some instability on the software side. I am not sure why exactly, but I am suspecting the processor, as I run scientific and engineering software on the computer usually when I experience that. However, I do suffer from minor instability even when I am just doing daily tasks as well.

Overall, the performance of the i7-6700K in terms of speed is satisfactory for me, as I run CFD in Ansys Fluent.
 
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