i7 5930k vs E5 2630v3

#1

Hello everybody,

I would like to buy some render power so I can speed up the renders. I am deciding between two variants - 2x i7-5930K or 2x Xeon E5-2630V3 [in one box].

Xeon is slower by frequency but Has more cores and more L3 cache so its performance is little bit better than 2x i7 5930K setup. If I put two processors in one box it also costs 500 euro less than two boxes with iSevens inside.

I have never owned any xeon setup. So I don’t if there is some catch which i don’t see now. For example overclocking may work differently in this setups.

I would like to hear some opinions on this two choices so I can easier make final decision.

#2

Yes, very much, it is not supported. Intel did everything they could to prevent a user from overclocking the Xeons, while they did their best to make it easy with the K series i7.

#3

Unless you are getting dual xeons and doing a lot of rendering or have a need for more than 64gigs of ram, stay away from the xeons.

#4

i7 cpu’s do not support dual socket setups. They have no QPI links. Have a look at the intel ark, it says “Max CPU Configuration 1” under your cpu:
http://ark.intel.com/products/82931/Intel-Core-i7-5930K-Processor-15M-Cache-up-to-3_70-GHz

You could go cheap btw, with dual Xeon X5670 from ebay at 100 euro each and a dual-socket 1366 board at ~200 euro. So 400 euro in total. Those are 6 core, 12 thread 2,94ghz cpu’s. Your E5-2630V3 runs at 2,4ghz but is a couple generations newer. I bet core for core they are the same speed. So you get 25% less speed due to 25% less cores (6 vs 8). The old Xeons are DDR3 instead of DDR4, you might already have DDR3. It can handle up to 288 GB ddr3.

I don’t know if server boards are good overclockers, but I if you buy a gamer dual 1366 socket board, then those cpu’s should reach 4,4ghz on air. They go for about 350 euro though. However then it’s pretty much just as fast as your dual 8 core setup on stock.

#5

The newer xeons do use ddr4…not that the memory type or speed really means much in CG production

Xeons don’t overclock. Well, there’s some xeon motherboards that offer minor overclocking features, but it’s hardly a speed gain.