Xeon e5 2690 v2 for gaming?

[fahim5001]

hey guys, i am looking forword to upgrade my PC, looking for something with good workstation performance plus bit of gaming...
should i consider Xeon e5 2690 v2 ??
i know its workstation performance is great and i can render my work lot more faster with it but can i play high quality games with it??
playing game is my favorite time pass so i wanna know if its performance is good enough for gaming as well as workstation before i buy...
thanks in advance

 

[DarkSable]

You would probably want to overclock it a little... but that's a $2000 processor. There are probably options that provide much, much better value.

 

[mapesdhs]

You can't oc post-X58 XEONs.

Decide on your priority: for gaming, a K-series desktop chip is best, as it'll offer 4+ cores (which many games like)
plus an IPC that's way better than any XEON once the K chip is oc'd.

For workstation tasks, the XEON's multiple cores may be an advantage, though note that it needs to be a damn
good XEON to have a chance of beating a typically oc'd 6-core K-chip. The XEON you've mentioned is a 10-core;
with all cores active it'll run at 3GHz. An oc'd 3930K will probably be faster because of fewer cores at a higher clock
(eg. mine runs at 4.8) and with faster RAM will be quicker overall (every time any part of the threaded processing
reaches a 1-core bottleneck, the XEON's cores will hold it back, eg. very nasty for the Shatter plugin in AE).
A 4930K will be faster still, but I mention the 3930K because it's available for a lot less 2nd-hand (the one I
bought recently only cost 255 UKP, which I'm in the process of fitting to an ASUS board that was only 180 UKP).

If you have that kind of budget to spend, I'd say just get a very good X79 board, 4930K, Corsair H110 cooler,
good PSU, suitable case (8 to 10 slot expansion at the back) and you'll have oodles of native PCIe lanes to
support both heavy workstation tasks and 3/4-way SLI/CF for uber gaming. I use the ASUS P9X79 WS for
various reasons, but there's the Rampage IV series of course, or the newer E-type WS (depends on what you
want to do with it whether or not the WS features might be useful, but remember they all have the same oc
potential, though I think the WS will work better with large RAM).

There are other X79 models from Gigabyte, etc., but I really like the ASUS BIOS, and they do work very well.

Here's the CPU-Z of my system before I upgraded it recently:

http://valid.canardpc.com/zk69q8

ie. back then it was @ 4.7GHz, 64GB RAM @ 2133MHz, four GTX 580 3GB cards, 1475W PSU, etc.

Ian.

 

[Bugatti9449]

It would be much better to spend maybe 1k on the 4960k, because the many cores of a xeon are not necessarily utilized as well as an extra 1k for a GPU. Take the extra 1k and spend it on the GPU.

 

[CTurbo]

Officially, the 2690v2 would be fine in gaming, but I have to wonder why you would ever consider a $2k cpu like this for gaming.

 

[Mac266]

It would be much better to spend maybe 1k on the 4960k, because the many cores of a xeon are not necessarily utilized as well as an extra 1k for a GPU. Take the extra 1k and spend it on the GPU.

^this. or wait for the haswell E cpus and x99 coming this year

 

[mapesdhs]

It would be much better to spend maybe 1k on the 4960k, ...

This reminds me of something I forgot to mention - although the 3930K is low-cost 2nd-hand, the 3960X
version (and likewise the 4960X bugatti9449 mentions) does have 15MB instead of 12MB cache, ie. the
extra cache might help for pro tasks. Depends on what you're doing.

Also, I meant to give an example of the RAM speed issue. XEON systems typically have low memory
speeds, eg. 1333 or 1600, whereas the AE system I built last year has 64GB @ 2133 (the RAM is
actually 2400-rated, but I didn't have time to try and set it up at 2400). Anyway, the guy who uses it
did a test for me yesterday, he tried dropping the RAM speed from 2133 to 1866 - this increased the
RayTrace3D render time by 10%, so at least for AE having high clocked RAM really helps.

By contrast, very few games benefit much from fast RAM, except for scenarios involving multiple
screens and high detail. Indeed, for gaming, high-clocked RAM is one of the worst ways of wasting
one's money. 😀 Since you're balancing pro & gamer tasks though, I'd say go for 2133 speed, that
should be optimal. Also, note that I found 2400 RAM was actually cheaper than 2133, so although
I bought two GSkill TridentX 32GB 2400 kits, my target speed was actually 2133. It just cost less
than buying two native 2133 kits. Supply & demand issues I suppose.

Mac266 has a point about HW-E, but that will be really expensive at launch. For the price
difference involved, a used 3930K would leave a major amount of spare cash you could plough into
a better GPU setup, eg. being able to have two 780Tis instead of one, and with two such cards
it means a lot more CUDA power for pro apps like AE. Or of course a 4930K if you can get one,
though they seem to have quite a bit higher used value than 3930Ks atm.


The case I used is an Aerocool XPredator Evil Green (NOT the later X1/X2/X3),
because it has a rear 10-slot configuration. It's a pity one can't position the mbd
in a lower position (slidable I/O shield) as it means an H110 with 4 fans on the
inside of the case isn't possible, but never mind, what I did was ditch the top panel,
fit the H110 on top of the case, but the lower two fans are inside the case. It looks
kinda industrial & weird, I like it. 😀 Pics later if anyone's interested. I used to use
a HAF 932, but that doesn't have enough rear slots to support four 2-slot GPUs,
while at the same time having room underneath for a hefty PSU.

Either way, good luck!!

Ian.

 

[logainofhades]

I would stick with a 4930k and use the nearly $1500 saved toward other things, like SLI GTX 780 ti's. Depending on the software used, you might be better off going that route if the software is capable of working with GPU.