Memory Bandwidth requirements for a LGA 2011-3 Xeon with turbo applied to all cores.

[cbn]

Some of the ASUS and ASRock X99 boards are capable of bringing a LGA 2011-3 Xeon up to full turbo on all cores via 5 way Optinzation (ASUS) or MCE (Asrock). This means for the top Xeon SKU (E5-2699 v3) it would be 18 cores at 3.6 Ghz.

At that level of performance I am wondering what would happen to memory bandwidth requirements for a task like video editing? Would quad channel DDR4 2133 still be sufficient or would the user benefit from faster RAM?

 

[ClockHound]

Video editing with 3D motion efx on the timeline is usually better handled by the GPU. Might get about a 1-2% improvement with faster than 2133 memory. But, it's pretty low on the video edit suite spec list - moar cores is first. Is 18 really enough?

The hotter issue is how one cools 18 cores at 3.6Ghz...best to add some big buckets of custom water to the budget and not worry too much about the last 1% of memory performance while the $228 per core cpu is burning more than bandwidth.

Which brings me to the more important point - you are talking about a $4k+ Xeon, yet your tagline features lowbudgettechnology.com and overclocking a $69 cpu...so I'm confused.

Is this a hypothetical question or are you building a system for a high-budget friend who wants to cheap out on ram since the Intel core tax made him faint? ;-)

 

[cbn]

Is this a hypothetical question or are you building a system for a high-budget friend who wants to cheap out on ram since the Intel core tax made him faint? ;-)

This is hypothetical question that arose out of this thread:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2424749&page=4

Here is the question I asked on the next page:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=37268460&postcount=102

Which brings me to the more important point - you are talking about a $4k+ Xeon, yet your tagline features lowbudgettechnology.com and overclocking a $69 cpu...so I'm confused.

The topic has been of interest to me ever since I saw the following:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=37083265#post37083265

The question is will these LGA 2011-3 Xeons become something that depreciates as much as we have seen with the LGA 1366 Xeons or will they keep their value longer?

Lately I have been casually watching (out of the corner of my eye) prices on LGA 2011 Xeons (Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge) in an attempt to get an idea on how fast modern Xeon processors are dropping in price. If I see good enough depreciation (on Sandy/Ivy) by mid 2016 I have to consider if buying X99 on closeout is a good deal for a future Xeon user.

 

[ClockHound]

Ah...ok. I get it. The future bargain bin chips.

I salute your forethought. As a cheapskate that has a Xeon 5660 purchased at 10% of its 2010 value and clocking 60% faster than its pokey server days, it's nice to think about the next big bargain.

Wouldn't worry about the memory bandwidth - at least not for video editing/rendering. It's not a memory-bandwidth-limited task, more disk i/o and processing limited. 68GB/s memory bandwidth will squeak by for a few more years. Especially when pulled from the bargain aisle.

Cooling will be the big hurdle as the top end E5-2699 v3 only supports 2 core turbo at 3.6ghz. Adding another 16 cores at 3.6, despite the larger die size is going to be a difficult thermal and voltage challenge.

I expect it might take until 2020 before the 14+ core Xeons drop into the eBay bargain bin. And it will still be a pricey chip - probably going for $500+ in 5 years.

And by that time, Intel may be selling 8-10core 14nm Extreme chips for <$500. I know, probably pushing the timeline. ;-)

 

[cbn]

Cooling will be the big hurdle as the top end E5-2699 v3 only supports 2 core turbo at 3.6ghz. Adding another 16 cores at 3.6, despite the larger die size is going to be a difficult thermal and voltage challenge.

It would be great to see someone test MCE on these high core count Xeons to get an idea of the cooling needs at various levels (10 core, 12 core, 14 core, 16 core, 18 core, etc.)

With that mentioned, maybe one the 12 core Xeons ends up being the sweet spot for price and cooling? (My thinking is that whatever Xeon ends up selling in the greatest quantity will be the chip that achieves bargain status first)

And by that time, Intel may be selling 8-10core 14nm Extreme chips for <$500. I know, probably pushing the timeline. ;-)

It would be awesome if Intel started selling more cores for less. This, in addition, to more "Big socket" motherboard manufacturers offering some kind of MCE arrangement where turbo can be applied to all cores.

This would help move the upgrade path along and get more folks turning over their chips. More chips being turned over = more bargain opportunities on 2nd hand market.

 

[crashtech]

My limited experience with E3 Xeons on "Z" boards led me to believe that few or none will allow any bin overclocking or max turbo enhancements, or whatever the term du jour is.

 

[cbn]

My limited experience with E3 Xeons on "Z" boards led me to believe that few or none will allow any bin overclocking or max turbo enhancements, or whatever the term du jour is.

What Z board(s) did you have?

AFAIK Only ASUS and ASRock have the feature.

EDIT: Here is a thread over at Linus Tech tips where MCE for E3 v2 Xeon was being discussed--> http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/91356-xeon-e3-1230v2-overclocking/

 

[cbn]

Comparing a stock configuration $4115 E5-2699 v3 (18 cores/36 threads with 3.6 GHz turbo and 2.3 Ghz base clock) to a $2094 Xeon E5-2690 v3 (12 cores/24 threads with 3.5 Ghz turbo and 2.6 Ghz base clock) with MCE I do find it interesting that the ~$2000 twelve core chip would be slightly faster than the ~$4000 eighteen core chip in Multi-thread (although certainly performance per watt would be less on the MCE twelve core).

Still I have to imagine the cooling requirements on a 12 core processor with 3.5 Ghz on all cores wouldn't be terribly unreasonable.

 

[crashtech]

I don't see any meaningful info in that thread other than speculation. Is there any concrete evidence that it has really worked on recent CPUs? we're not in the LGA771 conversion days anymore.

 

[cbn]

I don't see any meaningful info in that thread other than speculation. Is there any concrete evidence that it has really worked on recent CPUs? we're not in the LGA771 conversion days anymore.

If you read the last link in post #3 I did mention speaking to the phone techs at both ASUS and ASRock. They indicated to me that MCE and 5 way optimization (ASUS's term for MCE) would work with E5 Xeons.

Now granted that is not absolute proof, but it seems very reasonable to me that would be true. I have yet to see any info stating that MCE works only on consumer desktop chips and not Xeons.

 

[myocardia]

Someone around here has either an E3-1231 v3, or an E3-1241 v3. If we could remember which regular poster it happens to be, we might be able to talk him into testing it, if he has or has access to an Asus or ASRock Z97 motherboard. BTW, does anyone know for sure whether or not the Asus or ASRock H97 boards have that feature?