New system - Dual Xeon vs i9

[mitchgates]

I will be ordering a new machine next week and have narrowed my choices down to the following two options.

System 1
HP Z840 Workstation - Refurb from a trusted local reseller
1125w PSU
Dual Xeon E5-2969 v3
64gb memory
1tb SSD
5yr warranty

System 2
Falcon Northwest Talon - New
1200w PSU
Intel i9-7980XE (Liquid cooled)
64gb memory
1tb SSD
3yr warranty

Both of these systems come out to almost exactly the same price after tax, shipping etc. I will be adding my own existing GPUs and secondary hdd to them, which is why those components aren't listed. I plan to be doing a heavy amount of VRay rendering on this system which will most likely be a mix of both CPU and GPU engines depending on the scene. I also do lots of other stuff in Max, Agisoft, Zbrush, Fusion, etc. Both the dual Xeon E5-2969 v3 and single i9-7980XE rank on the VRay CPU bench at about exactly the same, approx 32 seconds average. I know the i9 will dominate in single threaded tasks, but I've been using dual Xeons at both work and home the last 20 or so years and a little hesitant to go back to single proc. From what I understand the new breed of i9 and Threadripper CPUs give the dual Xeons a run for their money though. I also considered the Threadripper 1950x but it comes in a little slower in all benchmarking I've seen. Great bang-for-the-buck no doubt, but I'd prefer to pay a little extra for more power.

Any input is appreciated!
-M

[Morbid Angel]

I think the xeons are slower a bit in general. I don't really have preference anymore. Before dual xeon clearly had advantage. And in fact newest dual xeon will always be faster then single i9 or whatever. But they cost worlds apart. In terms of performance I would consider i9, but be sure to read there are no issues with it. I recall some people had issues with bsods etc. You wan't to avoid those kind of scenarios.

[joconnell]

Dual procs are worse for doing sim stuff so the single is gonna be better for phoenix and fume.

[mitchgates]

Right. Exactly why I mentioned the i9 would dominate in single threaded tasks. Here's comparison benchmarks of both CPUs (single vs single).

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare...-v3/3092vs2526

To me the biggest advantage of the HP is the server class workstation design, components, chassis and cooling. But the i9 system would be newer generation chipset and motherboard, not to mention liquid cooled

[Morbid Angel]

Yeah the cpu mark is one piece of info. But it does not consider that you will have 2 xeons, which have more cores then one i9. While i9 has 4.2 ghz clock it still won't match that of xeon during rendering and I don't think it will ever. I do sims on xeons its fine it still will be an overnight sim however you spin it, so a few hours faster won't make much difference

[mitchgates]

Actually the 7980XE does pretty much match the dual Xeon 2696 v3 during VRay cpu rendering according to these bench results.

[Morbid Angel]

some one should run it with vray bench over here. The math to me does not add up

[mitchgates]

Would you expect the Xeon to be higher score than the i9? The 7980XE is about 20-25% faster than a single 2696 v3, but VRay is highly multi-threaded so I would think so too. But perhaps part of the benchmark is single threaded pre-processing of geo, etc?

[Morbid Angel]

Would you expect the Xeon to be higher score than the i9? The 7980XE is about 20-25% faster than a single 2696 v3, but VRay is highly multi-threaded so I would think so too. But perhaps part of the benchmark is single threaded pre-processing of geo, etc?

So far I've run the numbers with Ghz clock speed as reference. It worked out pretty well up until now. I don't have access to these cpus so I can't really do proper analysis of them. But way I do it is just take number of physical cores and multiply by upper clock speed (oc during rendering) So in case of i9 you take 18 cures * 4.2 Ghz you get 75.6 Ghz of total computing power at peak performance. Do the same for dual xeon, and you get 129.6 Ghz that's substantially higher. When you compare core to core they are pretty much equal (or at least used to be) and the only win for xeons has been you can seat 2 of them on one mobo and with i9 you cannot *thanks intel.

[Companioncube]

It might be worth waiting another month for threadripper 2 to be released.

[mitchgates]

It might be worth waiting another month for threadripper 2 to be released.

Yes, I was thinking that too but need to get a new machine asap for a big project.

[JezUK]

I recently upgraded my kit and went for a 7980xe and don't regret it at all.

Regarding BSOD, I've built my own machines for over 20 years, and when I upgraded my kit from a 5960x to the 7980xe I also went from W7 to W10 at the same time. At first I was getting plenty of BSOD and was convinced it was W10 (I'd read about Windows auto updates, something I wasn't used to, and simply didn't like what I was reading).
In the end it turned out it was one of my GPU's which wasn't seated 100% in its slot - not had a BSOD since

I have also used 2699v3 (which I built as well) and the render times of the 7980xe is the same in my experience (though benchmark only, 32s like others have mentioned).

BUT, in my experience, the i-series, even mildly OC'd like mine is, simply feels snappier overall, but esp. in display, opening programs etc (which can only be expected I guess when considering what/xeons are aimed at).

Can't recommend i9-7980xe enough (especially if you get a good deal on a brand new, sealed one on eBay - they do exist, I've seen/ bought one).