Would you upgrade from an i7-920 to a Xeon X5650?

[Sheninat0r]

I recently got wind of the $64 Xeon X5650, a 6-core 2.66GHz part that fits in my LGA1366 motherboard. The question is, is it even worth upgrading from my old i7-920? The X5650 has 6 cores, higher turbo, and lower TDP thanks to the die shrink, but how much actual performance is it going to bring over my current CPU? I can't really think of times when I was especially CPU bottlenecked, but I've got the upgrade itch and this Xeon seems like such a good deal.

i7-920
EVGA X58 SLI
12GB OCZ Platinum
GTX 670
X25-M 80GB

 

[MongGrel]

All ready have myself, many months ago.

I take it ya know the thread.

If not it is here, still have a L5639 I haven't chucked into the HTPC using a old 920.

For the start of it.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2335636&highlight=l5639

Personally, I'd say very worth it, if your MOBO supports them.

 

[Burpo]

If your motherboard supports it, an overclocked X5650 trades blows with a stock i7-5820k..

 

[sm625]

I wouldnt go through the trouble for less than a X5670.

 

[Brekyrself]

I wouldnt go through the trouble for less than a X5670.

If you overclock, which most people do with these xeons, you need to balance the multi with bclk. A 5650 at 210blk puts it at 4.2ghz on all 6 cores, perfect. With the 5670 you will have to lower the bclk as the multiplier is much higher and perhaps even turn off turbo since it would constantly try and hit over 5ghz on two cores.

X5650 is the best value if you plan on overclocking it.

 

[Yuriman]

I vote yes. I see no reason not to, since you already have the expensive part - the motherboard.

 

[RussianSensation]

For sure. Sell the i7 920 for $65 and this is a $0 cost upgrade. Alternatively maybe sell your CPU+Mobo+RAM and pick up i5 4690K and a new mobo. Shouldn't be too expensive. The bonus of the 2nd upgrade is a major reduction in power usage and faster performance in most tasks than even the 5650 because most tasks rely on fast quad-core CPU.

i5 4690K @ 4.8Ghz at full load uses 180W
i7 920-960 family @ 4.3Ghz at full load uses ~ 380W.

Normally I don't care about power usage but in this case you'll lose 200W of power and gain performance in 1 shot. That's a decent upgrade.

 

[Burpo]

Except that the 95 watt Xeon doesn't pull near that kind of juice, even overclocked..

 

[Lepton87]

For sure. Sell the i7 920 for $65 and this is a $0 cost upgrade. Alternatively maybe sell your CPU+Mobo+RAM and pick up i5 4690K and a new mobo. Shouldn't be too expensive. The bonus of the 2nd upgrade is a major reduction in power usage and faster performance in most tasks than even the 5650 because most tasks rely on fast quad-core CPU.

i5 4690K @ 4.8Ghz at full load uses 180W
i7 920-960 family @ 4.3Ghz at full load uses ~ 380W.

Normally I don't care about power usage but in this case you'll lose 200W of power and gain performance in 1 shot. That's a decent upgrade.

Well, 4cores/4threads versus 6cores/12threads, that's a massive MT advantage and no hassle of selling anything. IMHO if he wants to do a whole platform update he should get at least an i7. Besides that 4.8GHz is very hard to hit. Probably one chip out of 50 can do that on air cooling with a reasonable voltage. 4.3 for Nehalem is equally high. They normally don't OC that high. I had a Nehalem and it only hit 3.8GHz.

Except that the 95 watt Xeon doesn't pull near that kind of juice, even overclocked..

Even my HW-E pulls that much. Are you saying 32nm Westmere is less power hungry than 22nm HW-E? Of course I have to use AVX instructions to get that high, under the same load as Westmere (no AVX and AVX 2.0) it pulls over 110watts less.

 

[shaolin95]

I recently got wind of the $64 Xeon X5650, a 6-core 2.66GHz part that fits in my LGA1366 motherboard. The question is, is it even worth upgrading from my old i7-920? The X5650 has 6 cores, higher turbo, and lower TDP thanks to the die shrink, but how much actual performance is it going to bring over my current CPU? I can't really think of times when I was especially CPU bottlenecked, but I've got the upgrade itch and this Xeon seems like such a good deal.

i7-920
EVGA X58 SLI
12GB OCZ Platinum
GTX 670
X25-M 80GB

Well I just moved from a 4Ghz 920 to the x5650 @ 4.5Ghz (work in Progress) and I love it but then again, I do video editing, and other things where I can really see the difference.

 

[Headfoot]

100% yes. You get 32nm and it overclocks great

 

[Makaveli]

If your motherboard supports it, an overclocked X5650 trades blows with a stock i7-5820k..

This is not true.

And overclocked westmere system will trade blows with a 6 core SB rig. Ivy and Haswell E are faster. There is no need to cherry pick benchmarks to try and show this. Unless all you do is render the statement is false. And even if all you do is render its still false cause you are comparing an overclocked weremere system to a stock 5820k.

Except that the 95 watt Xeon doesn't pull near that kind of juice, even overclocked..

Also mentioned before once overclocked that 95Watt TDP goes out the window.

The system will certainly use that much power with all 6 cores loaded and HT on.

I've mentioned this a few times aswell as others and you seem to keep ignoring it.

OP this is a drop in replacement I say do it if you can get a good price on it.

 

[Burpo]

The Xeons are binned better/different. Push the Xeon hard it will draw upwards of 200 watts. Push an I7-970 hard & it will draw even more than that.
As i said an Overclocked Westmere trades blows with a STOCK i7 5820 and that's been proven already in other threads (single core performance being the caveat). Never said it could match an overclocked 5820..
I don't ignore squat.. you seem to ignore physics.

 

[Makaveli]

The Xeons are binned better/different. Push the Xeon hard it will draw upwards of 200 watts. Push an I7-970 hard & it will draw even more than that.
As i said an Overclocked Westmere trades blows with a STOCK i7 5820 and that's been proven already in other threads (single core performance being the caveat). Never said it could match an overclocked 5820..
I don't ignore squat.. you seem to ignore physics.

The Xeon's are binned to run at their default clocks! explain to me how Westmere is architecturally from gulftown? Beside Extra qpi paths for the 2p and 4p westmere system.
And if you are able to find any differences explain to me how it matters in overclocking?

And trading blows and showing 1 benchmark doesn't make it so, especially a suicide run screenshot of a not 24/7 stable system.

I'm looking at overall performance not just multithreaded benchmarks to put a the older chips in a favorable position.

Get a killawatt and show me what much load your system will pull at 4.2 Ghz and I will do that same at 4.2 ghz on my 130watt chip and lets see how much of a difference there really is!

 

[Burpo]

Like all the other tests you say you'll do on here and never do?..
That was no suicide run either. It sitting here next to me at the exact same frequency right now 24X7. I am not an intel engineer, nor do I know ALL of the differences in the dies, but an E class Xeon has improvements over a desktop part, else why was the cost $1400 vs $399..
Passmark shows different categories in its performance test. It's clear to see where the Xeons shine over desktop parts..
INTEGER MATH
PRIME NUMBERS
CPU COMPRESSION
ENCRYPTION
SORTING
PHYSICS
Let me push bclk up to where my chip is hitting 130 watts & it will smoke the 130 watt part in these key areas..
Anyone that believes they are binned the same, is fooling himself..

I'm done.. you can lead a horse to water..

set_ignore Makaveli

 

[Makaveli]

Like all the other tests you say you'll do on here and never do?..
That was no suicide run either. It sitting here next to me at the exact same frequency right now 24X7. I am not an intel engineer, nor do I know ALL of the differences in the dies, but an E class Xeon has improvements over a desktop part, else why was the cost $1400 vs $399..
Passmark shows different categories in its performance test. It's clear to see where the Xeons shine over desktop parts..
INTEGER MATH
PRIME NUMBERS
CPU COMPRESSION
ENCRYPTION
SORTING
PHYSICS
Let me push bclk up to where my chip is hitting 130 watts & it will smoke the 130 watt part in these key areas..
Anyone that believes they are binned the same, is fooling himself..

I'm done.. you can lead a horse to water..

set_ignore Makaveli

lol what test I said I was going to do?

what are you talking about?

And you never answered anything I posted which is what I was expecting to be honest.

lol i'm not going to even getting into enterprise pricing vs consumers pricing which will explain to you why the desktop part is priced where it is vs the xeon.

You clearly posted in the other thread those cinebench numbers were not from 24/7 overclocks.

Leading a horse to water really?

What is clear to you and what is reality are two different things obviously.

You can choose to ignore instead of answering my questions its easier then actually trying to prove you are correct.

 

[Burpo]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=36861146&postcount=67

Did you let him know how it plays on your rig?


http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=36749909&postcount=1605

Is it tomorrow yet?

Intel classifies the chips differently:
1 is a Westmere E series @95 watts and 1 is called Gulftown @130 watts.

1 performs better at lower watts in the previously stated areas and provides 2 QPI links.

1 does not. Not the same.

The End

 

[Phynaz]

For $64 it's a no-brainer. Do it!

 

[Makaveli]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=36861146&postcount=67

Did you let him know how it plays on your rig?


http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=36749909&postcount=1605

Is it tomorrow yet?

Intel classifies the chips differently:
1 is a Westmere E series @95 watts and 1 is called Gulftown @130 watts.

1 performs better at lower watts in the previously stated areas and provides 2 QPI links.

1 does not. Not the same.

The End

lol you are really reaching now.

The game plays fine just haven't gotten time to post yet since you know I work i'm an adult and its been very busy month with a new desktop rollout we are doing at work. I will update that tonight when I get home.

*update* I did actually post my results just in the other thread for that game.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=36862410&postcount=123


I will have the killawatt this weekend.

And the QPI links is what I said above only matter for 2p and 4p systems.

Guess what no one in this forum are putting these Xeon's in 2p or 4p boards everyone is using single socket. So how is this going to help with overclocking headroom?

One performs better at lower watts.

Umm that's what I said the Xeon's are binned for the low clock speeds they run at. ONCE YOU OVERCLOCK THAT TDP DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING cause you are no longer running it at the binned clock speed they set at the factory. Which also means power consumption goes up. I don't understand why that is so hard for you to get its logical and makes sense very simple.

 

[Burpo]

I've been in computers since 1980 have owned 6 shops here in Florida & provided networks & servers for business & schools and am more than 6 decades old

As i said, I am NOT an intel engineer, nor do I know the differences, but I know they exist. Heat limits the Gulftown before the Westmere (experienced this personally). Passmark performance test clearly shows the Xeon superior in..
INTEGER MATH
PRIME NUMBERS
CPU COMPRESSION
ENCRYPTION
SORTING
PHYSICS

Gulftown wins in single thread performance, but my rig is either idling or working.
When I put it to work, I'm not interested in 1 worker..
I want 12 busting ass, balls to the wall workers, to get er done.
If I burn it up? I'll buy another one, but it's been a yr & I don't see any degradation yet..

Edit: Just switched PC's to the xeon, no reboot, no change of settings.. This is my current 24X7 overclock.. Anything above 208 bclk, weird stuff happens in some of the programs I use (crash to desktop mostly).. I can go higher (more volts), but not on air..

 

[Makaveli]

I've been in computers since 1980 have owned 6 shops here in Florida & provided networks & servers for business & schools and am more than 6 decades old

As i said, I am NOT an intel engineer, nor do I know the differences, but I know they exist. Heat limits the Gulftown before the Westmere (experienced this personally). Passmark performance test clearly shows the Xeon superior in..
INTEGER MATH
PRIME NUMBERS
CPU COMPRESSION
ENCRYPTION
SORTING
PHYSICS

Gulftown wins in single thread performance, but my rig is either idling or working.
When I put it to work, I'm not interested in 1 worker..
I want 12 busting ass, balls to the wall workers, to get er done.
If I burn it up? I'll buy another one, but it's been a yr & I don't see any degradation yet..

Is there a margin of error in those passmark results?

And are both systems configured the same?

You shouldn't be seeing a huge difference in the results from a Gulftown vs Westmere if everything else is identical in the system when both are based on the same Arch.

And you would have to define clearly superior.

is a variance of 1-3% which may also be in the margin of error within the application to support a clearly superior tag?

Now as for the heat limitation without knowing what your cooling setup,ambient temps, bios settings, this requires more information to support the statement.

But I think this deserves its own thread we shouldn't be going too far into this in the OP thread. However I do think he may still get some useful info from our posts.

I will be creating a new thread on the weekend once I get the killawatt.