Xeon or i7

[bigbazy]

Hello people of TomsHardware, im a little frustrated at the moment with choosing a CPU for what i need it for. If anyone is familiar with gamersoul (where i got directed from) i needing to run 20 BT's at once which is a lot of applications. I thought that i was decided on picking from the xeon range because it would be better than i7 because of its cores, which means it can handle more at once. Then somebody on gamersoul forums said that it would be bad because aparently the ghz don't stack, so instead of having 4.6 ghz id have two 2.3 ghz processors, they also advised me to go with i7 because of this.

Xeons: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117268 x2

i7 range: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007671&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&ActiveSearchResult=True&CompareItemList=343%7C19-116-491%5E19-116-491-TS%2C19-115-095%5E19-115-095-TS%2C19-115-079%5E19-115-079-TS%2C19-116-501%5E19-116-501-TS%2C19-116-492%5E19-116-492-TS

My question is which is the better option, the xeons because of the cores and that the ghz doesnt matter itll act like 4.6 ghz because of two processors or will it be bad at handling the 20 BT's (like running 20 games at once). Or should i go with something from the i7 range and what should it be, thought i had everything thought out now i have to decide again...

Please help!

 

[mocchan]

"Ghz don't stack" what in the world do they mean?

A person wanting to get a Xeon obviously needs cores and horsepower, not the highest binned chip.

In a workstation environment, I would personally want to get Xeons > i7 due to how many cores are backing me up.

I would wait for more feedback from the people on this forum as I'm not too familiar with BT's or Workstation environments.

 

[amuffin]

What are you going to do with this?

 

[bigbazy]

What are you going to do with this?

im wanting to run 20 maplestory games intergrated with bt (bizarro trainer)
it requires a lot of cpu power aparently and the i7 3930k can only aparently do 15-17.

im wanting to know will the xeon do 20 because of the cores, but the ghz is 2.3...

 

[amuffin]

That setup will have 12 cores and 24 threads, where as the i7 will only have 6 cores and 12 threads. I think more cores and threads in this case will be the best option, compared to less cores clocked at a higher speed.

 

[bigbazy]

That setup will have 12 cores and 24 threads, where as the i7 will only have 6 cores and 12 threads. I think more cores and threads in this case will be the best option, compared to less cores clocked at a higher speed.

but how do the xeon's work do they split the load or something? because they are both 2.3 ghz and other people are saying more ghz the better and more it can operate at once, im just wondering if two 2.3 ghz are better than lets say the intel 3930k for running more games at once

 

[amuffin]

More cores=more operations

 

[Umbongo]

You'd be better with a system with two E5-2630s for what you are wanting to do.

The Xeons would split the load over their 12-cores just as the 3930K splits 15 instances over it's 6-cores.

 

[bigbazy]

You'd be better with a system with two E5-2630s for what you are wanting to do.

The Xeons would split the load over their 12-cores just as the 3930K splits 15 instances over it's 6-cores.

but what about the ghz, so your telling me it would be like having 4.6 ghz because they split the load, i understand more cores more applications you can be running but how does the ghz affect it

 

[InvalidError]

but what about the ghz, so your telling me it would be like having 4.6 ghz because they split the load, i understand more cores more applications you can be running but how does the ghz affect it

It isn't about GHz, it is about total combined processing power.

If each core on the i7 has an absolute maximum throughput of 12 000 MIPs while each core on the Xeon maxes out at 8000 MIPS due to slower clock, you end up with 4x12000 = 48 000 MIPS for the i7 vs 12x8000 = 96 000 MIPS for the Xeon.

So you get about twice the peak performance out of the Xeons even though the Xeons are 33% slower clock-wise.

 

[proton007]

Xeons are designed for parallel processing.
Speed is of no use if your primary application demands multiple calculations to be performed at once. Here you need multiple processing capability.
Secondly, Xeon can be used on dual-cpu motherboards, effectively doubling your processing cores.

 

[bigbazy]

Best answer selected by bigbazy.