Advantage of 8 cores versus 4 cores w/ 8 threads

[spokes]

I use an engineering modeling application which is able to run (using Argonne National Labs MPI-2) on up to 8 parallel processes (the vendor has limited model execution to 8 cores or threads). My question is whether an 8-core CPU, such as a Xeon E5-2687 (8 cores/16 threads) would run this application faster than a 4 core/8 thread Intel i5 CPU or 6 core/12 thread i7, assuming each CPU option is operating at the same clock speed. i.e., will having an actual 8 core CPU be faster than running less physical cores, but with hyperthreading?

 

[Quaddro]

real (physical) core always do better than virtual (threaded) core *in the same processor technology*

 

[loneninja]

I5 is a 4 core/4 thread processor, you seem to have that confused.

The program should run better on the 8 core xeon if it uses 8 threads, having 8 real cores is going to perform better than a 4 core with hyperthreading. Evidence of this can be seen where the 4 core I5 out performs the I3 which has 2 cores/4 threads.

 

[spokes]

Best answer selected by spokes.

 

[qzyxya]

How does a quad core i7 with hyperthreading compare to an AMD Fx with 8 cores?

 

[NoUserBar]

8350 is on par with the i5 generally.

Unless you are doing something suited for the 8350/i5. Then either is better than the other at that. har