Workstation CPU

[cathlabrob]

Hi all, i do a lot of adobe apps (illustrator, priemier, & encore) and CAD software like Solidworks & Inventor. While shopping various vendors for a new desktop, they seem to be steering me towards a duel Xeon system. Will i see a performance increase with these programs between a duel Xeon workstation and a higher end I7 system? Also, i do play an occasional game, will I be able to play most of todays games on a xeon system? I am not sure if the added expense is worth the performance.

Thanks for any advice.

[Emkryan]

If you also want to game, an i7 will suit you. Go LGA 2011

[Samdb]

Xeons don't really provide the best price to performance ratio as they are more oriented towards server use. Something like an i7-3960X would be a better choice as there are a lot more compatible motherboards which could save you money which could be used to purchase a higher end graphics card for all of the programs that use GPU acceleration.

 

Sam,

Intel Response Squad member

http://bit.ly/IntelRally

[TheSLSAMG]

LGA 2011 is great, a 3930K is a nice processor, and unlike the 3960X, isn't extremely expensive. What's your budget?

[Glenwing]

The i7-3930K is where you want to be, if you overclock it (which Xeons are incapable of) it's not really overshadowed by a dual Xeon system.

 

No need to waste money on the 3960X or 3970X; they are the same CPU as the 3930K (just cherry picked for overclocking competitions, but you won't take advantage of the difference unless you're using liquid nitrogen for cooling)

[target39]

Hi all, i do a lot of adobe apps (illustrator, priemier, & encore) and CAD software like Solidworks & Inventor. While shopping various vendors for a new desktop, they seem to be steering me towards a duel Xeon system. Will i see a performance increase with these programs between a duel Xeon workstation and a higher end I7 system? Also, i do play an occasional game, will I be able to play most of todays games on a xeon system? I am not sure if the added expense is worth the performance.

Thanks for any advice.

Multiple Xeon's will destroy an I7 in multi-threaded applications, while still being able to compete with a high end I7 in gaming. An overclocked I7-3970X at 4.5GHZ might beat 2 E5-2687W's at 3.1-3.8GHZ by about 5-15% in games. But 2 E5-2687W's will destroy an overclocked I7-3970X in programs that utilize most, if not all cores and threads. Cinebench R11.5, a benchmarking program that utilizes all cores and threads, has shown that 2 E5-2687W's will score about 90-100% greater than an overclocked I7-3970X. Cinebench R11.5 uses Maxon's Cinema 4D engine to render a photo-realistic scene, so it can be viewed as a real-world application benchmark.

Xeon's will cost you about 4-8 times more for twice the performance (in some programs), so if you are looking for better value-to-performance, consider the I7-3930K, or if you can wait 1-2 months, the I7-4930K.

[Glenwing]

Multiple Xeon's will destroy an I7 in multi-threaded applications, while still being able to compete with a high end I7 in gaming. An overclocked I7-3970X at 4.5GHZ might beat 2 E5-2687W's at 3.1-3.8GHZ by about 5-15% in games. But 2 E5-2687W's will destroy an overclocked I7-3970X in programs that utilize most, if not all cores and threads. Cinebench R11.5, a benchmarking program that utilizes all cores and threads, has shown that 2 E5-2687W's will score about 90-100% greater than an overclocked I7-3970X. Cinebench R11.5 uses Maxon's Cinema 4D engine to render a photo-realistic scene, so it can be viewed as a real-world application benchmark.

 

It depends on which Xeons you pick of course, if you spend $4000 on CPUs I would hope that they do much better.  For about double the performance of a $500 i7-3930K he could go for double top of the line Xeons but it depends on if he is willing to spend 8x more for 2x improvement.  For the cost of it, the performance improvements are pretty marginal, and the difference only starts to become notable once you start looking at huge spending for the very best Xeons.

[s3ns3]

Yes. you will see. that is the reason they are made. for ppl like you . ecc ram and you are set. but the price... 

 

and ofc you can game on them . pretty good if the xeon is clocked at 2.6 at least.

[s3ns3]

It depends on which Xeons you pick of course, if you spend $4000 on CPUs I would hope that they do much better.  For about double the performance of a $500 i7-3930K he could go for double top of the line Xeons but it depends on if he is willing to spend 8x more for 2x improvement.  For the cost of it, the performance improvements are pretty marginal, and the difference only starts to become notable once you start looking at huge spending for the very best Xeons.

8x more you pay once. 2x of your time (or productivity) is a lot more for a long time

[target39]

It depends on which Xeons you pick of course, if you spend $4000 on CPUs I would hope that they do much better.  For about double the performance of a $500 i7-3930K he could go for double top of the line Xeons but it depends on if he is willing to spend 8x more for 2x improvement.  For the cost of it, the performance improvements are pretty marginal, and the difference only starts to become notable once you start looking at huge spending for the very best Xeons.

That's what I said in the last statement of my post.   Sorry, I edited the post after you had already pressed the quote button, but before you posted. I didn't see your reply since the thread doesn't update automatically, but it looks like we both agree.

[Glenwing]

That's what I said in the last statement of my post.   Sorry, I edited the post after you had already pressed the quote button, but before you posted. I didn't see your reply since the thread doesn't update automatically, but it looks like we both agree.

 

Indeed