Experience with gaming on an AMD Opteron

[LongTimeGamer]

I am planning to build an HTPC/gaming system to serve three TVs (two of them are 1080p, one is 720p). Rather than build two or three different computers, I've been reading about VM solutions such as Xen which permit GPU passthrough so I have been thinking about building one computer with multiple GPUs in it to create the necessary number of "PCs" that I need. I think that, within the next couple of years, multi-core games will be the norm so I estimate that I will need at least a 12-core CPU. Opteron 6172 12-core CPUs can be found on eBay for about $100 and dual-socket motherboards for $275, so I could conceivably have a 24- to 36-core system (enough to run many VMs at the same time). The 6172 runs at 2.1 GHz, and it'll be paired with an R9-280x GPU. Is 2.1 GHz fast enough for modern gaming?

 

[logainofhades]

Those chips will not game well at all. Just get a 4930k and call it good.

 

[LongTimeGamer]

Those chips will not game well at all. Just get a 4930k and call it good.

The 4930k is only a six-core CPU and it's almost $600. It's not even an option, as building two computers would be cheaper than that setup. Do you have personal experience with Opteron CPUs, particularly in gaming? I currently have an AMD Phenom II x3 710 that runs at 2.6 GHz, and it seems to do pretty good, although it's hard to say for certain because it's paired with a HD4850 GPU. Just how important is GHz with today's games?

 

[logainofhades]

The 4930k is a 6 core chip with hyperthreading. The opteron clock speed is just too low and AMD's architecture is so inferior that it needs clock speed to compete with Intel in any reasonable way. An 8 core, 4.0ghz, FX 8350 loses to a 4 core i5 4670k @3.4ghz pretty much across the board.