Dual Opteron or Dual Xeon Need Help to choose Render rig

[iammohan]

Hello geeks,
Old post but still i couldnt find a best solution.


Iam looking for a Dual opteron/Xeon workstation dedicate to rendering animation in 3ds max+vray.


Some websites posted Dual Opterons (6272) equalling X5670(little old).
Cost of opterons now came down & pulling me to choose them.


For cost of one E5 2670 processor, i can take two opteron6376 & complete the setup within 3000$ whereas intel estimates around 5000$.
Saw several reviews over other forums & concluded some pros & corners for opteron rig:


pros:
50%less cost
less heat & stable running than xeons
can run multiple tasks(while render i can model another work)


corners:
low clock/performance in single threaded app or linear scaling applications,
more rendering time due to poorly coded programs like OS, 3dmax etc. not suitable to run NUMA architecture?


someone guys telling that "windows & working software are not programmed properly to use this 'advanced' architecture(even benchmarking software? ). if properly coded, they equal performance of xeons in single thread or linear scale applications"
is that true?
if so will they provide proper updates? if i take opteron rig now, will i get benefit in future?
or should i go for intel product? seems these intel people are really greedy selling at huuuugeee price an altered i7 to thrice & more price
if anyone here having experience in these two could share your rendering experience, it will be more helpful for me. if difference is not more, i can go for opteron. Thanks.

[David (PassMark)]

> 50%less cost

I haven't checked exact pricing, but it seems unlikely to me that dual 6376 with a dual socket motherboard would be half the price of a single E5-2670

> less heat

I would think it is impossible that two inefficient 6376s, which pull 115 watts, each produce less heat than one E5 2670 ?

> & stable running than xeons

Rubbish. Two CPUs gives you twice as many things to go wrong.

> can run multiple tasks(while render i can model another work)

Both CPUs can handle heaps of threads. It is true that dual 6376 can handle more threads, but each of the threads runs more slowly. Even with a single core you can run multiple tasks. So this is a bogus claim.


> low clock/performance in single threaded app

Correct.

> not suitable to run NUMA architecture?

Maybe. Hard to comment without knowing the internals of each program.

> if properly coded, they equal performance of xeons
> in single thread or linear scale applications"

It is a vague claim. So the answer is also vague. In general the Xeon is far better in single threaded tasks. You might be able to find some rare exceptions. It is true you can write code for NUMA, and it is true in some cases that this will improve performance.

> if so will they provide proper updates? if i take
> opteron rig now, will i get benefit in future?

Who knows what they will include in future releases. What is sure is that there always scope for more optimization. Particularly in the area of GPU usage and SIMD instructions on the CPU.

> seems these intel people are really greedy

I agree with this. If there was better competition I would imagine some of these CPUs would drop dramatically in price.

Are the Xeons really any faster than an i7 for 3DSMax? Why not get the i7?