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i7-3970x vs Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2

pugheaven

pugheaven

pugheaven

Soldato
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Ok, here's a question. I'm running my i7-3970x @ 4600mhz on all 6 cores. However, I know that the Xeon 2697 has 12 cores running at 2.7ghz (1 core I believe turbos to 3.5ghz) and will plug straight in my x79 board.

However the multiplier is locked... for gaming, I'd expect that the 3970x is the better choice? The only way you could clock the Xeon is BLK upping which is hit and miss at the best of times...

What you guys think? I'm so tempted to pick up the Xeon and just see how it reacts... or peole think it'll be a waste of time?
 
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For gaming that 2011 generation only the Q series Xeons with unlocked multi are worth it even then I'd put the money towards a newer setup though saying that you can tune the 2011 Xeon/Ivy-E setups for very low button to pixel latency in gaming which is one of the reasons I've stuck with my 4820K.
 
Rroff said:
For gaming that 2011 generation only the Q series Xeons with unlocked multi are worth it even then I'd put the money towards a newer setup though saying that you can tune the 2011 Xeon/Ivy-E setups for very low button to pixel latency in gaming which is one of the reasons I've stuck with my 4820K.
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Yeah was looking at the 8 core Intel Xeon E5-1680 v2 which had the multi's locked... as these can hit 4600mhz as well... was just contemplating cheap way of upgrading but the 1680's command around £200 quid which is way more than I'd want to spend, where'as the 12 core 2697 can get fro £100, a lot of power for the money meaning I can keep all my other gear...

Just wondered whether anyone was running a 12 core Xeon 2697...
 
no idea what said:
Edit: Misread post, thought it was a Threadripper 3970x!

Wouldn't bother with an Xeon for gaming, the 3970x is a far better choice.
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I wish I could afford one hahaha yeah I've just realised they called it the same, amazed Intel didn't have something to say about that lol.
 
For general gaming no. The most you will get the 2697 v2 to run at is ~3.4Ghz and that is by running the BCKL at ~113Mhz. If you using any game that can take advantage of the 12 cores then it will be an improvement but they are few and far between.
 
pandem0nium said:
The 8 core unlocked 1680 V2 is the one I would be after.

Have a look at tech yes city on youtube, he's done some good videos with that CPU.
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Yeah was looking at that one as well, 8 cores and if could hit 4600mhz, gives me another 30% hahaha. Might be keeping an eye out for one but they hold their prices pretty well tbh.
 
pugheaven said:
However, I know that the Xeon 2697 has 12 cores running at 2.7ghz (1 core I believe turbos to 3.5ghz) and will plug straight in my x79 board.
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You'd be lucky to even see single core turbo in normal operation, with the amount of background processes in Windows these days there's often more than 1 "busy" thread so single core turbo never seems to function (well certainly my Xeon 2690's at work never seem to hit single core turbo)
 
Well, ended up picking up a cheap E5-Xeon 1680V2 and switching the i7-3970x out and will sell on if this proves a good chip, currently runnung 4,500mhz on all 8 cores now, 100% stable after an hour, temps within reason, so lets see how far this Xeon can go... I'm excited... hahaha basically if I sell the i7-3970x it means I've got another 2 cores for free :)
 
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Well, seem to be getting some speed out of this badboy at minute... just hit 4,700mhz. The weird thing is with these chips is, you can run 4,500mhz on 1.310v... to hit 4,600 and above requires 1.385v and the temps start climbing by around 10C on max load after 10 minutes ish... so will put some new 2,300rpm fans on the heatsink tomorrow and see what I can do... be nice to run 4,700mhz, but I'm not having the temp in 85c plus range, always like my Intels in the 70's even if it's high 70s!
 
Yeah they often clock well and with a bit of RAM tuning you can get some pretty decent system latency as well.

EDIT: Just watch out for the VTT (or whatever your board calls it) too high on that can kill them in months even though they can take a fair bit of vcore OK.
 
Rroff said:
Yeah they often clock well and with a bit of RAM tuning you can get some pretty decent system latency as well.

EDIT: Just watch out for the VTT (or whatever your board calls it) too high on that can kill them in months even though they can take a fair bit of vcore OK.
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Yeah got it running stable topping out 4,[email protected] which is perfectly acceptable or 4,600mhz @1.385v which is quite a leap, I can't hit 4,600mhz with anything less... so for me, really, for the sake of 100mhz... and lower temps, stress etc, other than for benchmarking may as well just use 4,500mhz and be a happy man!

Under load, at 4,600mhz, the vcore is 1.368v, however, not sure I fancy rocking that 2/47 tbh as this is a 24/7 machine... so, reckon I'll keep this this week, make sure all is good which I'm sure it is then sell one of these spare chips, sitting on an i7-3820 quad core and an i7-3970x six core processor, may as well get up for sale soon I think.

tell you what though, have to say these X79 boards are absolutely stunning really and been looking are commanding mental money nowadays...

CPUID.jpg
 
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I can't remember off the top of my head is there any difference with AVX/AES extensions, etc. to your old CPU that might have an impact on some newer software?
 
Rroff said:
I can't remember off the top of my head is there any difference with AVX/AES extensions, etc. to your old CPU that might have an impact on some newer software?
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Yeah originally I thought the same, however, judging by this (ok it was the model lower than the i7-3970x, however same series), however it seems the Xeon seems to have more, how reliable this is is another matter and doesn't match up with INTEL site.

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Settled on [email protected] as my 24/7 setting, however, it will run and benchmark at these speeds on all cores! WOW! Not that far behind the Ryzen there tbh, makes you wonder how far we've really come, however that's me done. This chip is a keeper!

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