which is faster 2 i7 quad core xeons with mem @2133 or 1 eight core i7 mem @3000MHz

[BirdDad]

for video encoding h.264 L5.2
I would think that the eight core would be faster in this particular area.
What do you think and why?

 

[FiLeZz]

I would vote on i7 due to cost and overclocking headroom. No dual socket board would overclock..

 

[BirdDad]

There I fixed it, they are all i7's two threads per core

 

[SunburstLP]

Depends on the workload. Two separate sockets can provide very little speedup if the code isn't NUMA aware. Or at least that's the impression I got based on the last HSW Xeon article/review here at AT.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

8 core i7, shouldn't even be close (especially if its overclocked), would only be interesting if it was 2 x 6 core xeons

 

[lyssword]

Then this question boils down to: would huge latency (or if the software is aware and allocates properly) added by having cpus on 2 sockets, but having 8 actual physical cores beat 4cores+4hyperthreadcores on faster mem.

If the software is optimized for dual cpu/8cores, in fact I do think that 8 physical cores would beat 4real/4hyper cores, specially considering i7 will only be 1-2% faster going from 1600 to 2133 mhz for example.

In a perfectly optimized software, (and seeing encoding is one of those cases where multithreading actually does work well) 8 real cores having more total cache would definitely beat 4/4

 

[BirdDad]

The post is now updated to reflect the latest Xeons running DDR4 memory running at 2133MHz although I think that it actually runs @2114. I didn't look it up.

 

[FiLeZz]

The 5960x still wins due to overclocking overhead.. Now put it to rest...and stop changing the first post..LOL

 

[crashtech]

If a dual socket board is being considered, it would have the potential to bring more cores to the party through upgrading. But compared to an OCed 5960X, you have use two hex cores before you can win, two locked quads won't come close.

 

[BirdDad]

if I made one I would use 12 cores but I don't have that kind of money yet(wish I did). Looking forward to seeing 18 core xeons.

 

[Lorne]

The dual CPU set up would have more memory bandwidth, You have to weigh that with what software your planning to run.

Cores are always better then HT, But HT helps a lot with low code optimization.