What's the difference between all these Xeon E5s? Which is better and why?

[Supuhstar]

While searching for a CPU for my upcoming ASRock X99 WS, I happened upon this mammoth list of Xeon E5s. I have no idea how to even start comparing. I'm pretty sure they're all compatible with the motherboard, but I have no idea how, for instance, this E5-2680 V3 differs from that E5-2680 V3.

 

Is it all just how much I wanna spend? If that's so then I'd just go with this E5-2660 V3.

[NumLock21]

Both 2680 are the same.
There are some differences

 

@Supuhstar

For start Xeon supports ECC and some can run on dual socket motherboards*. It has a lower TDP compared to the Core i7, more cores, and larger cache.

While most runs on DDR4, some runs on DDR3, but ram speed is limited, like not all Xeon will run on DDR4 2133, some runs at DDR4 1866 or just at 1600.

The other is the price, it cost less than Core i7. Core i7 5960x 8 core CPU is around $1,000 dollars. Xeon E5-2630 v3 also 8 core is around $670 dollars. Difference is the clock and ram speed, but the 5960x is unlocked so you can overclock.

http://ark.intel.com/compare/82930,83356

* Xeon E5-2xxx = dual socket support

Xeon E5-1xxx = single socket support

[Agazed]

If you will be gaming, most games perform better on fewer, faster cores and I would suggest a 5820k. 

[Supuhstar]

If you will be gaming, most games perform better on fewer, faster cores and I would suggest a 5820k. 

 

Why not a Xeon? Also, as Luke showed, those improvements are negligible. Plus, I can just change thje game's exe's core affinity to use fewer cores.

[DJ_Deedahx]

Why not a Xeon? Also, as Luke showed, those improvements are negligible.

Intel Xeon CPUs are not very well overclockable as far as I know...

[Supuhstar]

Intel Xeon CPUs are not very well overclockable as far as I know...

Thanks for the info! I'm not personally looking to overclock, though.

[Comrade_Dave]

Here is a chart comparing performance of each CPU.

 

http://cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

 

You should have a reason for buying a Xeon over i7.  Gaming really shouldn't be the reason. They are more expensive per performance compared to the i7s.

[Agazed]

Why not a Xeon? Also, as Luke showed, those improvements are negligible. Plus, I can just change thje game's exe's core affinity to use fewer cores.

 

10 cores at 2.5 GHZ will perform pretty horribly. 4 cores at 4 GHZ will not only cost less, but crush the xeon you are looking at. In that video the fps stops going up after 6 cores.

[Supuhstar]

Here is a chart comparing performance of each CPU.

 

http://cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

 

You should have a reason for buying a Xeon over i7.  Gaming really shouldn't be the reason. They are more expensive per performance compared to the i7s.

 

Indeed! My reason is robustness. Since i"M not looking to overclock, I'm looking for the longhaul. I want to do terrible things (Run thousands of parallel threads over up to several days at a time) and still have this be my main computer for 10 years, then make it a secondary (render cow, small server, hand-me-down, etc.).

 

 

10 cores at 2.5 GHZ will perform pretty horribly. 4 cores at 4 GHZ will not only cost less, but crush the xeon you are looking at. In that video the fps stops going up after 6 cores.

How about 8 cores at 2.6GHz? And what about my proposed affinity reassignment?

 

I am aware that FPS doesn't go up after 6 cores, but it mostly doesn't go down. When it does, it still stays very high.

Edited June 1, 2015 by Supuhstar

[Comrade_Dave]

It is pretty much just how much you want to spend.

 

The E5-2660v3 can turbo a single core up to 3.3GHz. If you limit it to 6 cores it won't turbo and it will just stay at 2.6GHz.

 

Just be aware that games and other applications that are designed for lower core count and higher clocks will not preform very well.