Choosing the right CPU for 3D tasks

[anMori]

Hi,

 

I´ve been doing my research but the more I look into it, the more I feel overwhelmed by the amount if information out there.

 

Primarely, I´m looking into buying myself a complete new workstation for professional 3D related tasks with multiple applications (Maya, Photoshop, Unreal Engine, rendering etc.) usually running at the same time.

My currently chosen seller offers primarely intel and I boiled it down to choosing between:

• Intel Core i7-6850K 6x 3.60 GHz
• Intel Core i7-7700K 4x 4.20GHz

According to what I´ve found out so far is that for gaming, the 7700K with it´s higher clock speed would be better but as my professional applications are more important to that, the 6850K with its extra 2 cores would be the better choice although coming with a smaler clock speed.

 

Which one should I go for? Is there a better choice? 

 

I´m very thankful for any input!

[Guest]

Why not Amd threadripper?

[Ashleyyyy]

i don't know much about rendering, or 3d apps, never use them. 

 

i've heard they like cpu cores, especially if you are multitasking. 

also, a 6850K is overclockable, hence the "K". you could probably OC it to the speed of the 7700K. however, the 6850 is a 6th gen chip. this means it's approx 8-10% slower than a 7700 at the same clock speed with the same amount of cores, if that makes sense. 

[LordMMX]

7 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

...however, the 6850 is a 6th gen chip. this means it's approx 8-10% slower than a 7700 at the same clock speed with the same amount of cores, if that makes sense....

You can't really notice speed difference if it's under 10%. unless you benchmark it

[Kenzer161]

Forget about gaming and focusing on the more professional tasks, I would look into how your applications handle multi-core workloads. Also keep in mind that the 6850k is based on the broadwell-e architecture whereas the 7700k is based off the kabby lake architecture with more Instructions Per Clock (IPC). I would probably say the 7700k because the better efficiency and IPC and the lga1151 socket will be relevant longer.

 

Keep in mind the 6850k does not have an integrated gpu so a GPU would be MANDITORY.

[RileyTheFox]

35 minutes ago, anMori said:

Hi,

 

I´ve been doing my research but the more I look into it, the more I feel overwhelmed by the amount if information out there.

 

Primarely, I´m looking into buying myself a complete new workstation for professional 3D related tasks with multiple applications (Maya, Photoshop, Unreal Engine, rendering etc.) usually running at the same time.

My currently chosen seller offers primarely intel and I boiled it down to choosing between:

• Intel Core i7-6850K 6x 3.60 GHz
• Intel Core i7-7700K 4x 4.20GHz

According to what I´ve found out so far is that for gaming, the 7700K with it´s higher clock speed would be better but as my professional applications are more important to that, the 6850K with its extra 2 cores would be the better choice although coming with a smaler clock speed.

 

Which one should I go for? Is there a better choice? 

 

I´m very thankful for any input!

An 8700k would be alright. However a Xeon with its higher core count would be much better. 

[Kenzer161]

3 minutes ago, LordMMX said:

You can't really notice speed difference if it's under 10%. unless you benchmark it

You will be able to tell when rendering 3d cad files and other 3d work. 

[anMori]

Thanks for the input! Reading trough everything right now.

 

Just realised my seller also offers AMD CPUs so one of the new Ryzens like the "AMD Ryzen 7 1800X 8x 3.60GHz 95W" would also be possible to put into the configuration if that helps the discussion.

 

 

[Jurrunio]

You see, Maya and PS favour single core performance while rendering software generally prefer a ton of cores. Either way dont get Kaby Lake (or Skylake) new. They are so expensive despite not being upgradable to future CPUs anymore that it's more like a ripoff.

 

6800k (just 6850k with some PCIe lanes removed, doesn't matter to you) or Ryzen 7 1700 will be my pick. One has higher single core performance after overclocking but the other platform will receive new CPUs in the future.

 

Neither X99 or Ryzen have integrated graphics, but for a workstation graphics card is mandatory anyway.

11 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

i don't know much about rendering, or 3d apps, never use them. 

 

i've heard they like cpu cores, especially if you are multitasking. 

also, a 6850K is overclockable, hence the "K". you could probably OC it to the speed of the 7700K. however, the 6850 is a 6th gen chip. this means it's approx 8-10% slower than a 7700 at the same clock speed with the same amount of cores, if that makes sense. 

Extra cores on X99 is the major selling point. Slightly less single core performance doesnt matter

7 minutes ago, Kenzer161 said:

I would probably say the 7700k because the better efficiency and IPC and the lga1151 socket will be relevant longer.

 

It's already irrelevant since 8th gen doesn't support 6th and 7th gen motherboards.

[Kenzer161]

Just now, anMori said:

Thanks for the input! Reading trough everything right now.

 

Just realised my seller also offers AMD CPUs so one of the new Ryzens like the "AMD Ryzen 7 1800X 8x 3.60GHz 95W" would also be possible to put into the configuration if that helps the discussion.

 

 

AMD RYZEN would be the more cost effective choice, however with amd you will want to ensure that the applications in your workflow will adequately utilize the multi-core performance. The 1700x (8 core 3.4GHz) would be the ryzen chip in the same price range.

 

[anMori]

5 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

It's already irrelevant since 8th gen doesn't support 6th and 7th gen motherboards.

Would it make sense to wait for 8th generation?

[i_build_nanosuits]

14 minutes ago, anMori said:

Thanks for the input! Reading trough everything right now.

 

Just realised my seller also offers AMD CPUs so one of the new Ryzens like the "AMD Ryzen 7 1800X 8x 3.60GHz 95W" would also be possible to put into the configuration if that helps the discussion.

 

if you can get your hands on a Ryzen 7 it's the best price for an 8 core/16 thread CPU and will serve you better.

[Jurrunio]

7 minutes ago, anMori said:

Would it make sense to wait for 8th generation?

It does, unless you cant wait that long. The ideal time will be the first quarter of next year. That's the US time though, maybe you have to wait even longer.

 

EDIT: 8th gen is already out but is as expensive as [profanity] due to low supply.

Edited November 1, 2017 by Jurrunio

[Ashleyyyy]

31 minutes ago, LordMMX said:

You can't really notice speed difference if it's under 10%. unless you benchmark it

render times maybe? 10% on 10 minutes is still a minute. 

[Ashleyyyy]

22 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Extra cores on X99 is the major selling point. Slightly less single core performance doesnt matter

yes, but the OP was concerned about clock speed for gaming. 

[Jurrunio]

8 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

yes, but the OP was concerned about clock speed for gaming. 

In that case the lower overclocking headroom of X99 should be mentioned first

[Guest]

I have the 1700 (8cores 16 threads 4ghz) and in my workflow it is around twice as fast as 7700. If you have the budget go with a threadripper 1920x, because it has four more cores (12 cores 24 threads)