[QuickQuest.] Most appropriate graphics card for e5-2620 v3?

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Hack_n_Stash

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Hello All,

I recently 'inherited' a couple of redundant e5 2620 v3 PSUs and was thinking of making a system.

Basically, I have 16gb (4x4) of compatible EEC ddr4 ram and two of the CPUs I've already mentioned.

Can I couple that with an ASrock extreme 4 mboard, a seasonic PSU and fans, etc. and call it a day?

If, as I suspect, the answer is yes - what would be the best card to go with this setup?

I've read on here that even a Titan won't be bottlenecked, but, realistically, I can't afford a Titan.

So, can anyone say from experience what they've found works? Gtx 970 I'm thinking? Worth going for 10-series with a 3/4 year old CPU?

Won't lie, the vast majority of what I will be doing with this will be surfing, streaming, watching, downloading, and gaming.

Inb4: I know It'll be like using a maserati as a hearse. I know I won't be getting the most out it and that the CPU will be crying to really be driven, but I just don't do what it's built for.

It's going to be more of an experience build than anything else.

Thanks people!
 
Solution
kanewolf


Yep. As more cores are active the clock speed of all the cores slows to keep the thermals and power usage in budget.
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kanewolf

kanewolf

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If those weren't V3 CPUs maybe. But with the V3 CPUs you are going to need an X99 motherboard to use one of them.

Those are 6 core 2.4Ghz base clock CPUs. They would be significantly slower than an i7-5920x CPU (which requires the same motherboard) .

http://ark.intel.com/products/83352/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-2620-v3-15M-Cache-2_40-GHz
http://ark.intel.com/products/82932/Intel-Core-i7-5820K-Processor-15M-Cache-up-to-3_60-GHz
 
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Hack_n_Stash

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I see. so the AsRock extreme 4 board wouldn't work? I ask because it's listed on amazon as supporting the v3 series.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00N3V0M92/ref=dp_cerb_1

Your latter point, though valid is a little difficult to take on as advice because:
1) that i7 uses ~60w more power than the v3
2) the i7 doesn't seem to have a massively higher base clock speed if you account for the v3's turbo. (Or have I misunderstood how turbo works? When you need it, it's there... right?)
3) I don't have that, or any, i7 - unless you're offering to swap? :)




 
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kanewolf

kanewolf

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There is another Extreme 4 that is an older model. Since you didn't say X99 in your original post I incorrectly assumed you were looking at the older Z77 version.
That X99 should work.

My comparison to the i7, is just don't expect GREAT performance. Those CPUs were intended for servers running a bunch of VMs or web traffic, etc. Not designed for CPU intensive tasks. If you have a single core, the max turbo on the Xeon is 3.2 the max on the i7 is 3.6. But if you have multiple cores loaded, the Xeon will run 2.4 and the i7 will run 3.3Ghz.
Current games are likely to use 4 cores. Your Xeon will probably run in the 2.6Ghz maybe 2.4Ghz. That is how the wattage of the CPU is kept low. The i7 would run 3.3 on all cores.
 
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Hack_n_Stash

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Ahhh ok. My apologies, I hadn't realised there were two different models - should've been more specific.

Wow. So the more cores running on the v3, the lower the clock speed gets. So game code written to try to take advantage of more cores to get faster/better performance will actually make it slow down.
Oh damn - so I had misunderstood turbo.

Thanks for explaining - I'm assuming you know of no way to get around that? I know, or at least I think I know, that xeons are locked, but you're essentially saying that this isn't a problem, it's by design.

So that makes the answer to my question: what card would be best? basically gtx 1050 ti?
 
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boosted1g

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That extreme 4 is compatible as it is a socket 2011 motherboard.

However kanewolf is right that an i7 is better.
Server and gaming systems are designed for very different needs (just like a 500 hp sports car engine vs a 500hp diesel truck engine).
Gaming CPUs are designed for heavy load across the entire CPU.
Server CPUs are designed for many many smaller tasks usually being stretched across virtualized servers

Turbo upclocks only 1 or 2 cores of the CPU, not the entire CPU, so while the Xeon is close to the i7 in turbo clock, the other 4 cores will be significantly slower.
 
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Hack_n_Stash

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Thank you, for this extremely useful PDF.
one question that I can't seem to find here though, is: once the last few cores are being used, does the clock speed of the whole CPU then come down to the speed of the lowest core?
I'm assuming it does, right?
 
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kanewolf

kanewolf

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Yep. As more cores are active the clock speed of all the cores slows to keep the thermals and power usage in budget.
 
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Solution
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Hack_n_Stash

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Wonderful.
Any hints on what to do with these then? Given that socket 2011-3 boards are expensive and redundant without a paired CPU, I needn't bother getting one.

Better yet, what would you do with these things in my position?

And thanks for your help so far!
 
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