1x xeon x5650 or 2x i7 4790?

[miragemig]

Hello

Need help to decide...1x xeon x5650 (24 cores in HT) or 2x i7 4790 (16 in HT)

Anyone know in corona who is faster?

( if xeon faster , probably i will buy 2)

They will only be doing render nodes job, not work station.

Regardz and many thanks for the help....

[Christa Noel]

hi miragemig,
usually i checked www.cinebench.info first before deciding which cpu I would buy. but I don't know if corona will gives equal or different result compared with cinebench. I'm not really sure maybe because amd cpus runs too slow in corona if we compared it with vray. I think juraj will gives better opinion about this.
edit: ah I forgot one thing important, i ask juraj, does old x5650 support embree and some instructions in corona related?

[tomislavn]

I got dual X5650 clocked at 4Ghz on an older (very rare to find) EVGA's SR2 board. Each of them is approx. the same speed as a 4770K or 3770K at the same clock (pretty close to an i7 4790).

In short: If you can get two of those Xeons on a custom board (main problem) and clock them they will probably outperform 2x i7 4790 for like 7th of the price.

Then again, on stock speeds in older workstations (Dell T5500/7500, HP Z600/Z800) they are around 20% slower then my stock i7 4770K (each), but around 50% faster in dual configuration compared to a single i7 4770K.

I am talking about Corona speeds here. Cinebench is about the same.

If you are wondering about the cost - I have paid both Xeons like 100 euros in pair. Got the board from USA for around 220$ (something like 200 euros) and fitted them with AIO water coolers from Antec (single slot radiators, 650) that were like 60 euros each.

This was the project I have done for fun in my spare time since I wanted to see how much performance can one squeeze out of old hardware but I only use them as render slaves sometimes, even though they still perform pretty good :). Hope it helps!

EDIT: And yes, X5650 does support Intel Embree.

[Jann]

Need help to decide...1x xeon x5650 (24 cores in HT)

Xeon x5650 is 6 core cpu, so 12 cores in HT. It's an older generation, so in most motherboards max ram will be 24Gb (48 on some). Also less Usb3, Sata3 and other features if that matters.
When overclocked it can be fast, but it will draw more power than any current gen cpu, and generate more heat.
So unless you already have some parts, or can get them extremely cheap, I'd say invest in a newer platform.

[miragemig]

Jann

Its a z800 it has 2 x xeon 5650x so its 24 in ht,

[Jann]

Jann

Its a z800 it has 2 x xeon 5650x so its 24 in ht,

Ah, that changes everything. The way you wrote it suggested a single cpu ;)
Having dual 5650 xeons will definitely be more pleasant for Interactive etc. Also a single system is easier software wise.
Two 4790 systems are more failure proof if one of them goes out of order, you still have another to work on.
Really can't pick a clear winner, both options are ok.

[Nekrobul]

Need help to decide...1x xeon x5650 (24 cores in HT)

Xeon x5650 is 6 core cpu, so 12 cores in HT. It's an older generation, so in most motherboards max ram will be 24Gb (48 on some). Also less Usb3, Sata3 and other features if that matters.
When overclocked it can be fast, but it will draw more power than any current gen cpu, and generate more heat.
So unless you already have some parts, or can get them extremely cheap, I'd say invest in a newer platform.

We have 3 of those guys in the work stations (dont remember the numbers) one came with 64 gb of ram wich we splited berween two and now they run with 48 gb each. Also got two on the distant blades. Works perfect comparing to i7 3930k it is about 140/150 % faster.

But only if it is two procesors of course.

[tomislavn]

We have 3 of those guys in the work stations (dont remember the numbers) one came with 64 gb of ram wich we splited berween two and now they run with 48 gb each. Also got two on the distant blades. Works perfect comparing to i7 3930k it is about 140/150 % faster.

But only if it is two procesors of course.

There we go, thank you for confirming. Its exactly the same experience as I have :) .. I would say that OP should go for it if the price matters.