Shiv1234 :
I have a z800 workstation with 24gb RAM, 3.5ghz 6 core xeon CPU, nvidia quadro 6000 GPU
It currently shares 18gb Memory and i have performance issues on some of the latest games coming out. I was told windows 10 utilises multi core cpus for performance? i then feel i am to add a 2nd CPU and more RAM this would help in running some better qualities for current games? and now is it worth adding a 2nd GPU or CPU these days?
Shiv1234,
The HP z800 was a high performance, high quality, extremely reliable dual LGA1366- the top HP workstation. The Dell equivalent was the Precision T7500.
Games vary substantially in their ability to utilize multiple cores- there are apparently games in which each core runs a character, but a fundamental of a versatile gaming system must be that the CPU has a strong single-threaded performance in combination with a powerful 3D GPU. It's unlikely though that there will be a value in running a dual CPU though. Even many workstation applications are not great at dual CPU utilization- Adobe CS /SS seem to peak efficient use at 5-6 cores and actually decline in performance using two CPU's.Premiere is improving multi-threading as are Iray and Mental Ray Autodesk do well with dual CPU's, also good news for Maya and 3ds and the situation is improving. Solidworks rendering and Matlab athough are scalar and the more cores the better. A lot of rendering is GPU or will use any core available- CPU or CUDA. CPU's that are configured to run in a pair have slightly lower performance than the single version. The W3690 6-core is for single use and has a Passmark CPU rating of 9512 while the X5690 with the same clock speed- 3.47 /3.73GHz averages 9242. In the case of a z800, the best single- threaded CPU is the Xeon X5687 4-core @ 3.6 / 3.86GHz.
The Quadro 6000 was and is an amazing, device, in it's day, the most expensive GPU ever made to that time- $4,000. It was designed for 3D CAD and was one of the first GPU's that could model and navigate entire aircraft and ships. It was also the successor to the Quadro FX5800 4GB that was the king of video processing.
Together, with a pair of the top LGA1266 and a Quadro 6000 would make a great 3D or video editing /processign system and superb scientific simulation system. However, the single threaded performance may make the gaming qualities not any better than a mid-level 2nd generation i7. A pair of X5687's has a CPU mark averaging 12325- very good while a single CPU scores
7195 and the single-threaded score is
1579- as far as I know the highest for LGA1366. I use dual X5680's in a PRecisio t5500 and that single threaded is
1520. For comparison, an I7-2600K averages
8610, and the single-threaded rating is
1944- still decent today with anything over 2000-2100 being in the top tier.
Likewise, the Quadro 6000 averages a 3D score of 3444 , where a GTX 970Ti rates 3685 and is 106W instead of 225W. The 6000 is 384-bit and 6GB so in it's world it would run rings around the 750 Ti, but in games they would seem similar - except the room with the 950Ti would be somewhat cooler. The Quadro driver too is image quality oriented, whereas the GeForce driver is an image quantity driver- FPS at a "good enough" rendering quality.
If you are using the z800 as a workstation and need high core count fro rendering or editing and the Quadro driver qualities and bandwidth for work, I'd say that the gaming performance will
not be improved with dual CPU's, but rather by a faster Quadro. For example, an M4000 8GB has a 3D rating of
6392 where a GTX 770 is
6150 and GTX 960 is
5812. The M4400 is at the point where it could do about anything but a new M4000 is $800 and used $700.
If you don't need the Quadro driver, add a Xeon X5687 and perhaps a new GTX 1060 which is said to be running at near GTX 980 level and will quite soon have non-reference overclocked models for as little as $250. Combine that with a decent SSD- a Samsung 750 Evo 250 GB is only $75 and the z800 can still have a foot in both worlds with the Quadro or as a gamer with the GTX. If you're video editing, I'd say the GTX 1060 will be good at it the GTX 970 is an editing favorite the way the GTX 580 was a few years ago.
If you need a fast workstation and want to game, you might sell the z800 and cjange to an HP z420 or Dell Precision T3600 and a Xeon E5-1600 like the 1650 V2- Passmark
12446 and single-threaded
1959. There's infinite combinations but the choice depends on the level of workstation use. A great gamer and great workstation can be managed, but you might want o move to Xeon E5 and at least to Quadro K or Firepro W.
Cheers,
BambiBoom
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