[SOLVED] Suggestion requested for replacement of Xeons

[merroe]

I am looking for some advice regarding an upgrade of CPU’s I am considering to do.

Iam using a workstation for graphical and video applications. It’s got an ASUS Z10PE-D8 WS motherboard with two Intel 2011-3 sockets, currently equipped with 2x Intel Xeon E5-2680 V4 CPUs, along with 128GB RDIMM DDR4 2133.

Especially for Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro, this unit is still somewhat too slow for intensive professional graphics and rendering.

Having noticed that Xeon CPUs for the aging 2011-3 socket have sharply dropped in price, it might be sensible to consider replacing the current ones.

I noticed how these applications favour a higher clock speed to a higher core number.

Could anyone suggest which would be my best option as replacement CPUs?

Thanks for reading me!

 

[Lutfij]

According to your motherboard's CPU support list;
https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z10PED8_WS/HelpDesk_CPU/
You could go for the E5-2699 V4 but you're going to have to make sure you can cool that much CPU horsepower in your build.

 

[SamirD]

The increased core count of the 2699 should help quite a bit if the software can fully utilize the additional cores:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-Xeon-E5-2699-v4-vs-Intel-Xeon-E5-2680-v4/2753vs2779

If you don't have a gpu or two, I believe that those applications can also take advantage of gpus as well. That's another avenue for speeding things up.

 

[merroe]

Thanks, Lutfij and SamirD!

The use of GPU is certainly a very valid point.

As regards the CPUs, the E5-2699 V4 is an expensive option, particularly for software like After Effects which is notoriously bad at using multiple cores. A high frequency would be preferable, I think.

Strangely, under sustained full load the current E5-2680 V4 CPUs don't clock higher than apr 2.9 GHz although they are rated (in turbo mode) at 3.3; I wonder if that is normal...!?

 

[SamirD]

Thanks, Lutfij and SamirD!

The use of GPU is certainly a very valid point.

As regards the CPUs, the E5-2699 V4 is an expensive option, particularly for software like After Effects which is notoriously bad at using multiple cores. A high frequency would be preferable, I think.

Strangely, under sustained full load the current E5-2680 V4 CPUs don't clock higher than apr 2.9 GHz although they are rated (in turbo mode) at 3.3; I wonder if that is normal...!?

For what you are doing and needing, it's not going to be cheap unfortunately. If you want cheap, you can move to a rack mount server which will get you more power at a cheaper price, but it will have a lot more noise.

Typically the factory turbo modes are only for a single core or two. You might be able to unlock an all core turbo mode using software or your bios, but that's not an area I am familiar with.

 

[kanewolf]

Thanks, Lutfij and SamirD!

The use of GPU is certainly a very valid point.

As regards the CPUs, the E5-2699 V4 is an expensive option, particularly for software like After Effects which is notoriously bad at using multiple cores. A high frequency would be preferable, I think.

Strangely, under sustained full load the current E5-2680 V4 CPUs don't clock higher than apr 2.9 GHz although they are rated (in turbo mode) at 3.3; I wonder if that is normal...!?

WIKICHIP answers your trubo boost question -- https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/xeon_e5/e5-2680_v4
All core boost is 2.9Ghz. The CPU is working as designed.
The E5-2667v4 would be the higher clock -- https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/xeon_e5/e5-2667_v4 alternative and they are probably fairly cheap.
Just incase, double check your DIMM placement on the motherboard slots to ensure you are getting maximum memory bandwidth.

 

[merroe]

Thanks for all the answers, I learned quite a lot now!