Single Threaded Apps

[tey112]

I've been asked by a friend to put together a build for a program that is single threaded. I'm wondering if anyone has an opinion on Sandy Bridge vs Phenom vs Bulldozer performance. I've seen the results saying SB is x% faster than everything else clock-for-clock, but would that be manifested in better performance for a program, or only overall handling?

 

[tweakboy]

So you dont want the HT . get a non HT i5 ,,, if hes going to use that app. w gg

 

[podspi]

Sandy Bridge is hands-down faster in singlethreaded applications compared to Phenom, but nobody knows how Bulldozer is going to perform in pretty much anything.

Depending on who you ask, it should either be slower than Phenom per clock, faster than Phenom per clock, or about equal but Turbo and multithread will make up the difference.

When does your friend need a build? Personally I wouldn't buy anything right now, given that Bulldozer is right around the corner (and we've been waiting so long!) but of course as some people point out, there is always something right around the corner, and Sandy Bridge is fast today.

 

[fffblackmage]

SB is definitely what you want for maximum single-threaded performance. Are there even benchmarks for BD out yet?

 

[nonameo]

Yeah, despite how much I want AMD to have a killer CPU, if you're looking to buy now you can't really go wrong with a 2500 or 2600. Though, I can't really see anyone needing more than a 2500 unless they have some professional use for it. Best case scenario, AMD is a tad faster than SB after turbo, etc. for the same price.

So, get a 2500k and be done with it. I personally don't think it's worth an extra 100$ for what you get in a 2600k.

the only OTHER reason to wait is for motherboard features, and save the new hdd caching stuff on z68 motherboards, I think AMD will win.

 

[tey112]

The build is for SolidWorks, which is sadly a single threaded application. It looks like an AMD Phenom build would be about 500$, but going SB would push it to nearly 800$. Although, either would be better than running it on the current 2.2GHz laptop processor.

 

[Accord99]

One of the SPECviewperf v11 benchmarks is based on Solidworks and may be relevant.

http://www.legionhardware.com/articles_pages/amd_phenom_ii_x4_980_black_edition,4.html

 

[Cerb]

If you need value, what about an i3, like a 2100 or 2120? For any single thread, they are generally better than any stock Phenom II, and don't end up too bad as you add a few threads.

If in the US, and buying from Newegg, the 2120 has some pretty good combos with RAM, right now, which could help to close the price gap.

 

[LoneNinja]

The build is for SolidWorks, which is sadly a single threaded application. It looks like an AMD Phenom build would be about 500$, but going SB would push it to nearly 800$. Although, either would be better than running it on the current 2.2GHz laptop processor.

Go with an I3 instead of I5/I7 that is probably in that $800 price tag. Sandy Bridge I3 processors compete well against Athlon II X4/Phenom II X4 in threaded tasks, and is much better for single threaded tasks.

 

[PreferLinux]

Are you going to consider overclocking? If not, look at a high-clocked i3.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Many benchmarks can be set to run just on a single thread - LinX, wPrime, Cinebench, etc. SuperPi from what I remember is solely single-thread, and so is the first pass of a 2-pass X.264 encode.

 

[tey112]

I was contemplating an overclock on the 2500k, but that is the build that is in the 800$ range. From Accord's link earlier, and a couple other SolidWorks CPU benches I found, it looks like the performance gap between the 2500/2600 and other cpus is significant. Thanks for the input everyone, looks like I will probably end up waiting until at least BD, but maybe IB.