AMD Opterons VS Core 2 Duo

[bdahlinger]

We've recently setup a home-made machine to test the render power of a single core 2 duo against the once flagship AMD dual-dual core opterons for VRay netrendering. Something is confusing us and maybe someone here knows the answer?

Computer A: Opeteron 270's (4 cores) ($4200US at time of purchase)
Computer B: Core 2 Duo (single 2.13ghz, 2 cores) overclocked to 3ghz ($750US)

Max 8 | Backburner 3.02 | VRay 1.47.03

Rendertimes (test scene):

Computer A: 42 minutes
Computer B: 44 minutes

So we could buy 5 single core 2 duos for the price of one opteron??? This just doesn't make any sense...Even with the vast improvement of the Intel core 2 duo, should it be that close in render time?

We're starting to wonder, perhaps there is something wrong with our opterons...so we installed the AMD proc drivers and tried the processor affinity script (from splutterfish forum)...it actually got slower!

Is there something about the way VRay is compiled for INTEL that is making the Opterons not perform the best that they could? Or are the core2 duos just that good? I seem to remember something about bugs in the vs compiler that slows down opeterons.

Anyone have any insight on this?

Bill

[re:FORM]

What scene are you rendering? Are you using displacement maps?

[dlparisi]

We're starting to wonder, perhaps there is something wrong with our opterons...so we installed the AMD proc drivers and tried the processor affinity script (from splutterfish forum)...it actually got slower

No, that seems almost exactly right based on the times in the benchmark thread (http://www.chaosgroup.com/forum/phpB...2220&start=500). I'm thinking of adding to my small renderfarm with a C2D e6400 on a gigbyte 965G ATX motherboard. I've been considering a mATX board based on the 945G chipset to save space but I am concerned about overclocking-what's the rest of your setup if you don't mind? Right now I've also got a dual 270 so I'm looking to match that speed with the intel and everything I can see implies that I need to overclock to about 3050 mhz in order to get the same speed (3ghz would be ine though).

[Paul Oblomov]

Conroe performs well!!! It can beat Opterons. Surely can.
Just look here (http://www.chaosgroup.com/forum/phpB...ghlight=conroe) at my posts... Think of it.

[bdahlinger]

What scene are you rendering? Are you using displacement maps?

nope, just a teapot with blurry refractions cranked up with some GI...

[bdahlinger]

someone had asked, but I don't see the post any longer...

the config for the core 2 duo overclocked was:

silverstone sst-st60f 600w power supply
corsair xms2 2gb (2 x 1gb) 240-pin ddr2 sdram ddr2 800 (PC6400), unbuffered
DFI infiinity 975x socket t (LGA 775) with Intel 975 atx mother board
intel core 2 duo e6400 conroe 2.13ghz (overclocked to around 3ghz)
fans and some other stuff

Bill

[cpnichols]

Actually what you guys really should be looking at are the new Xeons... The core Duos with the 1066 FSB, the the 5100 Xeons have the 1333 FSB and are a whole new thing.

That IS even faster. The 5100 series kick ass, and are still cheaper then the Opterons and kick butt.... They run on half the power, twice the speed, etc... amazing.

http://www.2cpu.com/review.php?id=112

BTW... you can get them at Boxx

[bdahlinger]

Actually what you guys really should be looking at are the new Xeons... The core Duos with the 1066 FSB, the the 5100 Xeons have the 1333 FSB and are a whole new thing.

That IS even faster. The 5100 series kick ass, and are still cheaper then the Opterons and kick butt.... They run on half the power, twice the speed, etc... amazing.

http://www.2cpu.com/review.php?id=112

BTW... you can get them at Boxx

Yeah we called Boxx today, the 5100's are on backorder for 3 weeks :\
They are pricing out a bit high at $4k US (5160's) You could build 4 single consumer-level core 2 duos for that price...so for user machines, xeon's for sure...for render machines the core 2 singles are starting to look better.

[unknown]

get them. i havea dual 5140 and they are really quick. exactly twice as fast as the older dual 3.2ghz zeons.
well worth the money. not sure when you will be able to get them in rack mount for farms tho. dell offer the slightly older dual core xeons, but not these new babies!