What do you think about Xeon E5 2630V3 vs Haswell-E for sculpting and texture baking?

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BigLouis1971

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I have a Micro Center really close and they have the Xeon E5 2630V3 at the affordable price of $572 with taxes and I was hoping to find out how will it compare against the Haswell-E line of CPUs. That price is $400 less than i7-5960X's price and they are close in almost every spec except stock speeds. Also the Xeon can't be overclocked which I wasn't planning to do anyway.

Taking into account the task I plan to perform and the fact that the Xeon is an 8 core CPU, which one will you choose:
1) i7 5820K $345
2) i7 5930K $540
3) Xeon E5 2630V3 $572
4) i7 5960X $972

I might also be doing some rendering and gaming, but mostly sculpting and texture baking.
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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The problem with that XEON is that it's got a max Turbo of 3.2GHz and is not overclockable.

update: this refers to the XEON listed at the top (the 2630v3)

It may have eight cores but it will lose out to a 6C/12T processor that's clocked higher, or at least get similar performance for less money such as the i7-5820K. It's hard to say without knowing the program you use and seeing benchmarks to see how the cache/threading works.

The i7-5960X might be hard to justify. You would never get 33% higher performance (maybe 20% max?) in even well threaded programs compared to the i7-5820K because:
a) it likely doesn't overclock as well, and
b) even well threaded programs don't usually scale perfectly if averaging total work time as many parts of the process aren't well threaded.

You should also carefully looking at what GPU to get for the software you use. Does it use NVidia CUDA, and if so where is the diminishing returns? (i.e I've seen some programs where a Titan X was only 10% faster than a GTX750Ti but it varies a lot)

There are also the workstation cards but unless the program uses them well they could be a big waste of money.
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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update:
That is a $1500USD CPU. It's 12C/24T I believe but I think Intel's site is mistaken (unless the V1 or non-V version was 8-core).

Other:
I would suggest benchmarking NOW (or just time render completion or whatever), then find some benchmarks for some of those CPU's and see what times savings you are talking. Would 2X the time savings for example be worth a $1500, twelve-core XEON vs a $345 i7?

Let's say it takes 60 seconds for something now, you can get 30 seconds on an i7, and down to 15 seconds on the $1500 XEON. Where is the price justified?

You do need better help from someone else though, and again you need to find out about GPU support for those programs.
 
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cdabc123

cdabc123

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i was refering to the original 8 core e5-2670 that goes for $70 used. and for reference it gets a 1800 single core score and a 13000 multi core score in passmark two of them pulls around 22K.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-5820K+%40+3.30GHz
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-5930K+%40+3.50GHz
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+E5-2630+v3+%40+2.40GHz
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-5960X+%40+3.00GHz
of course it is about 10% slower for the single core than a i7 but kills every cpu listed in multi-core makeing them one of the best preforming combos and the best value by far with $140 in cpus and a $3-400 mobo.
 
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BigLouis1971

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It also passed through my mind to get one of those E5 2670, but is difficult for me to find a LGA 2011 motherboard on the cheap. Where can I find an affordable one?
 
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cdabc123

cdabc123

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BigLouis1971

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The dual CPU idea has me seriously thinking, but LGA2011 is an aging platform and soon will be out of production. Despite that is not a bad idea to save some money in used CPUs to get a dual socket motherboard and end up with 16 cores and 32 threads.
 
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cdabc123

cdabc123

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yes its a older platform but it will be easily upgradable if need be you could install dual 2695 v2s in it for 24 cores and 48 threads if you wanted
 
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BigLouis1971

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Dual 2695 is too expensive for me. I think I'll settle for dual 2670. I need information about what memory to use and also PSU wattage that can supply enough power for the dual CPUs and two GTX 1070s.
 
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BigLouis1971

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cdabc123

cdabc123

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not with the motherboard i listed their are mobos that would support the dual xeons and normal desktop ram however you will pay a premium of $100-200 and it is not worth the money. all you will need is alot of ram not faster ram or that name brand ram. and ddr3 ecc ram is by far the best value available despite it being labeled for "servers"
 
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BigLouis1971

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One last question. What PC case should I use? Reading the reviews I learned that the motherboard doesn't fit any type of case.
 
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BigLouis1971

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I found this beauty. Will it fit the same CPU and memory that you mentioned? Will it also fit into a regular E-ATX PC case?
 
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cdabc123

cdabc123

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it will fit the same mem and cpu however it will be MUCH more difficult to install than the supermicro board. with that board i dought even one of the screw holes will line up and dell mobos will not turn on by jumping the on and ground pins you will need to buy a front io panel to start it. the only mobo that will actually fit a standard case without modding are a evga sr-x which is like a unicorn to find (i would sell mine but the price would be approaching a grand) or a ASUS Z9PE-D8 which is a ssi ebb form factor and their are many cases that support that.
 
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BigLouis1971

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That sounds like too much trouble for an un-experienced user like me. I just noticed that the motherboard that you posted doesn't have audio and I found this one with HD audio which will be a better choice for me!
 
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cdabc123

cdabc123

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yes that board looks very nice and if their are any other features you want supermicro sells MANY different boards
 
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BigLouis1971

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On a second thought, maybe LGA2011 motherboards still have some life. LGA1366 is older and there are motherboards still available. I'll start thinking about the dual E5-2670 more seriously and start saving some money to get the parts.
 
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cdabc123

cdabc123

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personally I love my dual e5 2670 build cpu advancements have slowed down in the past years and i think 2011 is the sweet spot for performance to price. and if a program can use 32 threads i dont believe their is a i7 in existence that can beet it. on a side not i have a gaming rig with a overclocked x5677(lga 1366) and it games fantastic it also was very cheap to get however lga 1366 is rising in price now
 
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BigLouis1971

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I kept browsing Ebay for CPUs and found this beauty. As you can see is a 14 core Xeon that works with DDR4 and X99 chipset motherboards. Just 2 cores less than the dual e5 2670 setup. I did some math and at the end the price for CPU/RAM/Motherboard is really close. I also did my own advantage vs disadvantages analisis and reached the conclusion that is more convenient to build around the E5 2695 V3 and I'll list the reasons why I think that.

reason 1: they are roughly the same price but the E5 2695 V3 is a newer CPU and platform.
dual e5 2690 cost
a) 2 cpus = $140 used
b) motherboard = $472 new (Super Micro server motherboard)
3) 32 GB RAM = $65 used
Total = $677

single e5 2695 V3 cost
a) 1 cpu = $360 used
b) motherboard = $190 (Asus X99 motherboard) new
c) 32 GB RAM = $150 (DDR4 3000 Mhz RAM) new
Total = $700

The cost of a single e5 2670 is just about $70, but the motherboards are scarce and are too expensive. $472 for a motherboard with a feature so basic as onboard audio is just too expensive. Come on, that's more than double the cost of the newer and feature rich X99 chipset motherboards. Even the new Broadwell-E procesors work with that platform (i7 6800K, 6850K, 6900K, 6950K). Used ECC RAM is cheap, but also old and slow and I don't care that much about ECC.

reason 2: LGA2011 is an aging platform that lacks new features like USB 3.0 and 3.1, SATA3, M.2 sockets
with the server board I'll need a bunch of add-on cards for features that the X99 chipset already has, I also heard that drivers are scarce. X99 also uses newer and faster ram.

reason 3: I can use a cheaper PSU with only one CPU connector. The system will also use less wattage.

reason 4: I won't need an extended ATX PC case. X99 chipset motherboards are ATX size and there are lots of cases compatible with that.

reason 5: the performance of the dual e5 2670 is not that great in software like Adobe Premiere among others acording to some youtube videos I was watching.

reason 6: X99 will be easier to upgrade if something breaks or I'm not satisfied with something. there will be also just one used component in the build, the CPU.

I don't think there will be much of a difference in performance between dual 8 core CPU and single 14 core CPU, but the LGA-2011 V3 platform is newer and feature rich platform and I like it better.

Just my opinion!
 
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cdabc123

cdabc123

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you are correct however i am almost 100% certain the E5 2695 V3 you are looking at is a engineering sample. a few things you should no about that. first it is illegal to buy and sell them. second it is a pre-production sample. if you could link the exact one i can tell you how early of a design it was. this can mean it is a buggy cpu it is missing features some common features lacking are intel turbo boost(NESSISARY unless you want a cpu locked at sub 3 ghz) and vd-t(nessisary for virtualization) if you link the cpu i can tell you abit more
 
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BigLouis1971

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You're right, it is a engineering sample. I wasn't aware that it's ilegal to buy or sell them. The link to the CPU is in the phrase "this beauty", but all they listed is the CPUZ screenshot and I'm not sure if it belongs to the exact CPU they will ship me. Most of the used discounted CPU on Ebay are engineering samples. If it's illegal to buy and sell them, I wonder how they were able to put their hands on them in the first place.
 
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cdabc123

cdabc123

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they were able to get them from stealing them from oem companies. and this particular one looks kinda risky. the steping of it is NOT a production chips steping. this means intel changed some major part of the chip from this sample and often the samples have no turbo boost. this chip also has a diff clock rate from the other ones which is again concerning.for the 2695 v3 the stepings you should try to find are QG7R(es) QGN4(es) or SR1XG(production) and cpu-z will still show what cpu it is because technically it is still a 2695. however notice that cpu-z dosnt show the revision and shows stepping at 1 this shows that this cpu is before the production es and retail cpus. a es cpu of the latest steping will show up like this
http://media.bestofmicro.com/xeon-e5-2600-c600-2687w,T-3-328935-13.jpg
 
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