Planning my next upgrade

[StormriderStudios]

Hi peeps,

 

I'm currently running a 6700k and I'm looking at my next upgrade (and handing my current machine down to my son for gaming).

 

My needs however are not quite typical. I tend to play games that support multi-boxing (running multiple copies of the client at the same time) and I'm also getting further and further into AI and Machine Learning (currently studying my MSc planning to go for a PHD). I run Manjaro Linux if that makes any difference and will be looking at nvidia GPUs (for the ML work) - currently have a 1060 6Gb but will upgrade that also and look at multiple cards if it helps my research. Gaming wise the games I play aren't GPU intensive and I'm looking at supporting more clients rather than upping the graphics settings. Currently I can run 6 clients (at 1080p windowed on a 4k monitor) with the cpu maxing out - I'd love to be able to up those rookie numbers!

 

So all that taken into account, what should I be focusing on for CPU/chipset features? I'm assuming more cores/threads. What would be the pros and cons on going from Ryzen to Threadripper to Epyc and should I be considering Xeons instead? I'm open to using server components too, obviously the step from a 6700k to threadripper is a big price step up and I'm a poor student - but looking for the best bang for buck (or pound, I'm from the UK!)

 

Not in a hurry to upgrade but probably some point this year rather than later - any advice hugely appreciated!

[Stu_Bear]

I'd look at a 3950x...just for the threads and IPC...if by clients you mean virtual machines?  A used server with two CPUs can be found on the cheap...installing multiple GPUs might be an issue of course.  Guess we need more info on why you are running lots of clients.  

[boggy77]

i'd go for a ryzen 3950. it's better than gen 2 threadrippers and also better in gaming with high single core speeds. for gpu, the 2070 super seems to be best value at the moment.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 9 3950X 3.5 GHz 16-Core Processor	£685.98 @ Aria PC
CPU Cooler	ARCTIC LIQUID FREEZER II 360 56.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	£100.43 @ Overclockers.co.uk
Motherboard	Asus ROG Strix X570-E Gaming ATX AM4 Motherboard	£244.99 @ AWD-IT
Memory	G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	£182.28 @ Amazon UK
Storage	Sabrent Rocket 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	£119.99 @ Amazon UK
Storage	Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	£49.98 @ Aria PC
Video Card	Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB WINDFORCE OC 3X Video Card	£449.99 @ CCL Computers
Case	Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case	£89.99 @ Currys PC World
Power Supply	Corsair TXM Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	£69.98 @ Amazon UK
Case Fan	ARCTIC P12 PWM PST(5-pack) 56.3 CFM 120 mm Fans	£29.37 @ Amazon UK
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	£2022.98
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-02-07 15:12 GMT+0000

 

[StormriderStudios]

5 minutes ago, Stu_Bear said:

I'd look at a 3950x...just for the threads and IPC...if by clients you mean virtual machines?  A used server with two CPUs can be found on the cheap...installing multiple GPUs might be and issue of course.  Guess we need more info on why you are running lots of clients.  

By client I mean literal instances of the game, so not VMs but programs. I could be wrong but my understanding is that more threads will help with this, even though processes go through a thread pool.

As for why I'm running lots of clients, that's just the nature of the game. The more clients you can run at a given time, the more money you can make (so long as you can still control them all - input broadcasting to multiple clients is bannable). I've seen people running upwards of 30 clients which is very unwieldy but if you're only carrying out simple actions in game then it's still worth it. I'm aiming for ~10 clients as a sweet spot and I'd like to be able to have youtube/netflix running on the other screen (right now with 6 clients I can't watch youtube, it lags chronically, but 4 clients is fine).

[Stu_Bear]

Yeah if 10 clients is your aim...a 3900x might you get you by, but a 3950x would be better.  If these aren't heavy loads...again a used server with >= 12 cores (24 threads) would do the trick...bought a DL380 G7 w/ 2x x5690 + 144gb ram along those lines for $450 shipped to my door....putting a high end (read high power demand) card in it might be a real concern though.  Old servers with gobs of ram might be a benefit ?  You could install the game application itself in a ramdisk to boost performance ?  I'm interested to know how you make money with providing game clients  

[StormriderStudios]

LOL I mean I make money IN GAME. It's EVE Online, a space MMORPG. Costs £15/month per account but you can buy game time with ingame money too so I farm money ingame to fund all the accounts and make a little for myself to buy ships and go blow them up fighting for fun.

I'll certainly look at the servers, as long as the board has the PCI-E lanes to support high end GPUs and the power supply can support it that's all I should worry about right?