Richard wrote:dmeyer wrote:Richard wrote:Sorry my dumb! What is it?
This.
Sorry can you excuse my dumb again but have to ask whilst I have the ear of people who know what maxwell wants!
The board you have there 4 sockets can take the new AMD 6100 opteron processors, though they are termed a server processor - does that mean that a setup like that can be used as a workstation?
I get lost a little bit in jargon! Will this be a render system for you or will it be your principle rig?
Richard, that is actually a very good question. I'm not a computer geek but have read quite a bit over the years. I'm sure anyone reading this will add their corrections if I'm not on track here.
A server is set up to handle multiple applications at once and tends to have lower clock speeds in the 2Ghz range. AMD has targeted this market with their Opterons with 8 and 12 core cpu's that do NOT have hyperthreading. With for instance a quad 8 (or 12) core machine like in this thread, for a server this gives you either 32 or 48 physical cores with excellent scalability (i.e. not much loss due to multiple cores) for being able to process many applications at the same time. If you throw enough cores at Maxwell Render, even if they're clocked in the low 2Ghz range, you've got a very powerful machine, but for most of us we have to consider the higher cost (double the amount of processors).
Workstations are designed to handle a single application like for instance Maxwell, with cpu's that have a higher clock speed like up to 4Ghz and use Intel's processors that have hyperthreading. Maxwell uses hyperthreading very effectively. For instance, a dual 6 core (12 total cores) with hyperthreading is going to give you very close to the output of 24 physical cores, but that applies when using it for a single application like Maxwell Render. Add to that the much higher clock speed, and you've got a great machine for Maxwell Render. Intel is coming out in the 3rd quarter of this year with a lower priced 6 core version of the i7-980...if I was going to build a machine as cost effective as possible, I would wait for that, overclock it to 4Ghz (or close to) and put a couple of those on an EVGA SR2 Classified motherboard. I would love to see the Benchwell score on that machine. I would expect it to be close in performance in a Benchwell test to an AMD system with four 12 core cpu's at around 2Ghz each.
There are other factors that play into it having to do with the architecture of the system which have also a significant effect on the performance of the system (it's one of the reasons why the Intel i7 processors perform so well), but all that is way over my head.
- By Matteo Villa