Dual quads, Xeon only ?

[olson]

Modern processors have the memory controller on the processor itself. So if there's more than one processor in a system they all need to talk to each other to access the memory which requires extra circuits on the processor itself (this configuration is called NUMA). Traditionally multiple processor systems would talk to a chipset to access memory and the processors for multiple socket and single socket were not all that different (like Athlon XP and MP) but this is no longer the case. Short answer is no, you can't use Core i7 in a dual socket system. Cheers!

[earwax69]

Only Xeon, sorry. If you look for the best price/performance ration, get a i5 750, mostly same speed as the i7 but on the cheap.

Also you can wait 2 months until they release the 6 cores i7 but I dont expect a good price.

6 cores make sens to me though because few apps like After Effects prefers 6 than 8.

[olson]

6 cores make sens to me though because few apps like After Effects prefers 6 than 8.

What are you talking about? After Effects isn't even multithreaded, it just spawns multiple instances of After Effects for each "processor" and doesn't share memory. For all it cares it could be 1 core or 32 cores.

[Remoth]

The only real dual quad systems are server hardware or a Skulltrail system. A skulltrail system was made by intel to use dual QX9775 processors in an ultimate gaming rig. 4 PCIx16 slots, etc.

[earwax69]

There is a lot of people reporting crashes while rendering on 8 cores. There is a script out there to limit AE to 6 cores to avoid any crashes. As I only have a dual-core, I cannot vouch for it. If I remember well thoses people were using mostly OS X.

Pretty vague sorry.

[olson]

There is a lot of people reporting crashes while rendering on 8 cores. There is a script out there to limit AE to 6 cores to avoid any crashes. As I only have a dual-core, I cannot vouch for it. If I remember well thoses people were using mostly OS X.

Pretty vague sorry.

Hmmm, I've got CS3 on 64-bit Vista with no issues. The hardware is dual Opteron 2352 (8 cores) with 16GB of memory. Sounds like it might be running out of memory if running on 8 cores and say 4GB of memory or 8GB of memory (since each instance uses more memory). Cheers!

[berniebernie]

AMD vs Intel ? Thoughts I should have ?


Is there something downstream I should worry about specific to each constructor ? faster function calls / hardware problems ? Or just worry about power/money/energy consumption?

thanks for your input!

[olson]

AMD vs Intel ? Thoughts I should have ?


Is there something downstream I should worry about specific to each constructor ? faster function calls / hardware problems ? Or just worry about power/money/energy consumption?

thanks for your input!

The current Opteron products (2400 series on socket F) are end of life and probably not a good idea to purchase right now. Next generation Opteron products should be launching anytime now which would be a good option when available. As far as compatibility the application and operating system will work equally well on either because they offer the same instructions (amd64 architecture on both). It comes down to how much performance can you get at what price. My guess is dollars for dollars you'll get more performance from the next generation Opteron products because the current Xeon products (5500 series) are very expensive for the performance you get. Cheers!

[imashination]

There is a lot of people reporting crashes while rendering on 8 cores. There is a script out there to limit AE to 6 cores to avoid any crashes. As I only have a dual-core, I cannot vouch for it. If I remember well thoses people were using mostly OS X.

Pretty vague sorry.

AE in general is a buggy excuse for an app when it comes to multiple cpus. Its disgustingly inefficient, even if you set it to a max of 1 gig per cpu, it will still chew through 16 gigs til your machine is unusable and needs rebooting.

The mpeg encoder randomly crashes if multi cpu support is enabled

[meleseDESIGN]

My guess is dollars for dollars you'll get more performance from the next generation Opteron products because the current Xeon products (5500 series) are very expensive for the performance you get. Cheers!

You get what you´re paying for.
For the current Xeon (5500-series "Gainestown") products you pay a little bit more, but in the end you get MUCH more performance. I guess it will also be the case for the next "Gulftown" generation. Buying them to produce paid products wont hurt your wallet over a long turn, determined by your business backlog.

I use both, AMD Opteron and Intel Xeon System and both have their pros and cons, performance-related my Xeons beats the Opterons in a REALLY noticeable way.

[earwax69]

Best performance/price ratio right now is the i5.

Yeah, After Effect sadly suck. I wonder how the competition do... is Fusion or Nuke have memory problem like that??

While working in HD, I play a bit with the cache settings and I dont get any crash. However, the renders are slower. I miss the CS3 settings though...

[meleseDESIGN]

Best performance/price ratio right now is the i5.

Let me tell you how I would drive in your situation to stay with only one machine for a longer time periode.

Instaed of buying an i5 or i7 System now, buy a Dual Socket 1366 Board, like the Asus Z8NA-D6 for around 250$. Then buy only one Xeon Processor for this board, if you don´t have the money to buy two right away. If you buy an i5 System, you probably will make an upgrade later anyways. For i5 Systems there aren´t much possibilitys to upgrade, so you probably would switch later to Socket 1366. In this case you would buy and have 2 Systems, 2 CPUs, 2 Boards, aso. But who would buy 2 Systems when he can get the same power inside one System. Think forward and try to calculate your actual financial possibilitys.
If you can afford a Dual Socket System, do it.

I can tell you for a Dual Socket 1366 Board it is a well solution nowadays to be prepared for the future and the Gulftown processors.

[cgbeige]

There is a lot of people reporting crashes while rendering on 8 cores. There is a script out there to limit AE to 6 cores to avoid any crashes. As I only have a dual-core, I cannot vouch for it. If I remember well thoses people were using mostly OS X.

Pretty vague sorry.

Sorry, I've been running AE on an 8-core (16-thread) Xeon Mac Pro with OS X and it's not crashing. It's rendering fine untweaked.

but ya, it's awful software and mostly uses one core anyway. I use Nuke mostly now since it eats up extra cores with no complaints.

But an SSD is amazing for a system disk. If you want an instant "my machine feels twice as fast" upgrade, go with a good SSD boot volume. I have an OCZ Vertex 120GB and stuff launches so quickly, it's crazy. If I'm holding alt while opening Firefox (to hide other apps behind me in OS X), I can't let go fast enough before it's launched so it gives me the safe mode prompt. crazy

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