Dual Xeon E5-2697v2 vs Dual Xeon E5-2687Wv2

[Venom]

I wonder which would be the more preferable all around CPU?

I do some gaming and a lot of Maya (VRay, etc.)

I am wondering if I should go dual E5-2697v2 (for more cores), or E5-2687W v2 (for higher clock speed)?

[David (PassMark)]

I would take the E5-2687W v2, if my choice was restricted to these two CPUs.
The single threaded performance is way better, and many tasks are still single threaded.

Very few games (none I expect) will use the 48 cores in dual 2697 v2.

[Venom]

I would take the E5-2687W v2, if my choice was restricted to these two CPUs.
The single threaded performance is way better, and many tasks are still single threaded.

Very few games (none I expect) will use the 48 cores in dual 2697 v2.

Thanks for the reply!

Yes, I was thinking the same thing...

However... Do you have an alternate choice that you would recommend? Or do you think dual E5-2687W v2 will be the best bet for me?

I will be using Maya and 3D rendering the majority of the time... So I do think more cores will be important... But when I get into some gaming, I want to feel high power performance! I also will be using 64 gigs of DDR3 1866 RAM, 3x SLI Titan Blacks with nVidia surround on 3x ROG Swift monitors.

So in your opinion, will dual E5-2687W v2 still be the best choice for me? This has the highest clock speed for the Xeons I saw, plus dual 2687s seems to outscore dual 2697v2, AND still has 8 cores for a total of 32 threads when I have both CPUs.

OR...

Do you think there is a CPU that would perform better at doing what I need for both workstation and gaming purposes?

[David (PassMark)]

The "V3" chips are out now. So dual Intel Xeon E5-2690 v3 (or Xeon E5-2699 v3) is about the best multithreaded solution.

A dual Xeon E5-2699 v3 would support 72 threads and DDR4 RAM. Plus have excellent single threaded performance. It would also support 40 PCI-E lanes.

But this is the super high end of CPUs at the moment. You end up paying a lot of extra money for fairly small incremental speed improvements.

[Venom]

I already bought all my parts (even the 2697v2 CPU), so I am kinda stuck with the DDR3 memory.

And by the sound of it, the dual E5-2687W v2 might be the best choice based on price.

So my only challenge now is I need to sell my factory sealed 2697v2 (have not opened it, but ordered it in May so can't return)... so I can pick up a pair of 2687v2... Any ideas? Would you just recommend ebay?

[Venom]

And just a few more thoughts...

The 2697 has more cache 30MB vs 25MB
The other thing is I will be running the chips in Turbo and water cooling
the 2697 has a higher Turbo jump that the 2687 (and runs cooler)...
Turbo speed of 2697 is 3.5 (vs 4.0 of the 2687) bringing the difference from 25% to only about 15%

This may start to make the 2697 more attractive? Or will dual 2687Wv2s still out perform with games and hang close with Maya and 3D rendering?

Also with my 64gigs of DDR3 1866 Ram and 3x SLI Titan Blacks, where will my bottleneck be? And is there anyway to help improve it?

And just to add another option into the mix... The Xeon E5-2667 v2 @ 3.30GHz also runs at 4.0GHz in turbo and is cooler at 130W (the 2687 runs at 150W)... and has more max memory (although I don't expect to ever exceed the 2867's max of 256 gigs....

[David (PassMark)]

Very few people overclock the high end Xeons. (Very few people even purchase the high end Xeons to start with). So who knows how well they will overclock.

If you might want to post in the Maya forums for better answers. It is nearly impossible predict the behaviour of specific software on unusual hardware setups without actually running the benchmarks. Results would also very like be different for different versions of Maya as well. With newer releases having more functions with GPU acceleration. For example I have no idea at all if Maya can effectively use 3-way SLI.

[Venom]

Very few people overclock the high end Xeons. (Very few people even purchase the high end Xeons to start with). So who knows how well they will overclock.

If you might want to post in the Maya forums for better answers. It is nearly impossible predict the behaviour of specific software on unusual hardware setups without actually running the benchmarks. Results would also very like be different for different versions of Maya as well. With newer releases having more functions with GPU acceleration. For example I have no idea at all if Maya can effectively use 3-way SLI.

Yeah great point...

What I also find interesting is that the score of dual 2687Wv2 is higher than dual 2697v2 (24432 to 23756):

http://cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=...009&cpuCount=2
http://cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=...045&cpuCount=2

For the SLI I believe you are right... Last I checked there was no benefit for SLI with Maya. So my main reason for the SLI was to still perform well with games, plus I will need the extra power (and display ports) to run nVidia surround on 3x ROG Swifts.

Do you think my CPUs will bottleneck my GPUs on gaming?

[David (PassMark)]

Do you think my CPUs will bottleneck my GPUs on gaming?

Will depend on the game.
Some can only use 1 or 2 CPU cores. Some don't load the CPU much at all. Some, maybe even many, won't get much benefit of a 3rd GPU, as compared to 2 way SLI.

One thing is certain however. The more unusual your hardware setup the more likely you are to encounter quirks and bugs in games and other software. Many software developers, us included, can't justify spending $6000 on a single machine, just to do compatibility testing.

[Venom]

Will depend on the game.
Some can only use 1 or 2 CPU cores. Some don't load the CPU much at all. Some, maybe even many, won't get much benefit of a 3rd GPU, as compared to 2 way SLI.

One thing is certain however. The more unusual your hardware setup the more likely you are to encounter quirks and bugs in games and other software. Many software developers, us included, can't justify spending $6000 on a single machine, just to do compatibility testing.

Good point…
Let me run my build by you and see what you think:

• Cooler Master Cosmos II case
• Corsair Professional AX 1200 Watt Power Supply
• Samsung 840 EVO-Series 1TB SSD Drive (for main partition)
• 3x WD 4 TB Enterprise Hard Drive(for storage)
• Sound Blaster Z PCIe Gaming Sound
• ASUS Z9PE-D8 WS Dual LGA 2011 Motherboard
• 64GB CORSAIR Dominator Platinum DDR3 1866 RAM
• 3x SLI Evga Titan Black Hydro
• 3x ASUS ROG Swift PG278Q (running nVidia surround 2650x1440ea)
• 2x Xeon 2687Wv2 (OR 2x Xeon 2697v2 - still pending)

Does this sound too crazy? Am I wasting money? Ultimately I need to be able to run Maya and play games, and I want to do both with as high performance as possible.

[David (PassMark)]

Does this sound too crazy? Am I wasting money?

Undoubtedly yes.

Especially as you don't really know if Maya and your games can effectively use the 3rd GPU and 2nd CPU.

Plus, there is already significantly better stuff already on the market. (DDR4 RAM, and PCI-E based SSDs with NVMe as an example).

It isn't want you want to hear, but I would spend half as much, then with the money you save do a major upgrade in 12 - 18 months.

[Venom]

Undoubtedly yes.

Especially as you don't really know if Maya and your games can effectively use the 3rd GPU and 2nd CPU.

Plus, there is already significantly better stuff already on the market. (DDR4 RAM, and PCI-E based SSDs with NVMe as an example).

It isn't want you want to hear, but I would spend half as much, then with the money you save do a major upgrade in 12 - 18 months.

Yeah, it is a bit discouraging to hear... I actually bought these parts months ago and just have not finished building the system yet.

I think it's too late to turn back now... But... I think I can still adjust the CPU...

I purchased one Xeon 2697v2 and was about to get the second when the question about the 2687Wv2 came up... so at this point I think the CPU is about the only thing I can really change...

I could sell the 2697v2 and get two 2687Wv2... Or live with the 2697v2 and just purchase the second one as I originally planned.

So that's my big question right now.