Thread: advice on cpu upgrade

  1. #1
    Linguistic Engineer... doubleanti's Avatar
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    advice on cpu upgrade

    Hello all,

    It's been a while since I've posted but I had a question! It's about that time again, time to upgrade my cpu/motherboard/ram setup. Currently I'm running a phenom II x6 @ 3.2 with 16gb of ddr3. Clock per clock an AMD 8150 would give me a 50% increase. I've used AMD for a long time now since Athlon's, but I've heard the landscape is quite different, and I'm not sure what to do. A bit about the application, it's a lot of number crunching and scientific computing, numerical analysis, etc. How do current gen Intel and AMD chips compare when it comes to computation intensive performance?

    I appreciate any input! Thanks!
    hasafraggin shizigishin oppashigger...

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    All I know is this: Cray uses AMD processors. I'm sure they have a good reason for that choice.

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    C++ Witch laserlight's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Elkvis View Post
    All I know is this: Cray uses AMD processors. I'm sure they have a good reason for that choice.
    I note that their reasons might not apply to doubleanti (who is presumably not looking to compete with Cray's business), or may be outdated, or may have more to do with the larger picture of a business agreement than with technical benefits.
    Quote Originally Posted by Bjarne Stroustrup (2000-10-14)
    I get maybe two dozen requests for help with some sort of programming or design problem every day. Most have more sense than to send me hundreds of lines of code. If they do, I ask them to find the smallest example that exhibits the problem and send me that. Mostly, they then find the error themselves. "Finding the smallest program that demonstrates the error" is a powerful debugging tool.
    Look up a C++ Reference and learn How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

  4. #4
    C++まいる!Cをこわせ!
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    Intel i-series cpu crushes anything AMD has to offer. However, you must be prepared to pay the price, too, as they are much more expensive than AMD. So if you want best performance you can get, get Intel. If you best performance for money, get AMD.
    Quote Originally Posted by Adak View Post
    io.h certainly IS included in some modern compilers. It is no longer part of the standard for C, but it is nevertheless, included in the very latest Pelles C versions.
    Quote Originally Posted by Salem View Post
    You mean it's included as a crutch to help ancient programmers limp along without them having to relearn too much.

    Outside of your DOS world, your header file is meaningless.

  5. #5
    Cat without Hat CornedBee's Avatar
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    What are you doing to your poor computer that a Phenom II x6 3.2GHz cannot handle?
    All the buzzt!
    CornedBee

    "There is not now, nor has there ever been, nor will there ever be, any programming language in which it is the least bit difficult to write bad code."
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    Quote Originally Posted by Elysia View Post
    Intel i-series cpu crushes anything AMD has to offer.
    to say intel crushes amd is being a little over dramatic. most of the benchmarks are very close, and in fact, some of them show the FX-8150 beating the 2600k.

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    When I take a look at benchmarks, the top i7 absolutely crushes all AMD offerings in the benchmarks.
    Of course, the top AMD offering will still crush the low-end Intel offerings.
    Quote Originally Posted by Adak View Post
    io.h certainly IS included in some modern compilers. It is no longer part of the standard for C, but it is nevertheless, included in the very latest Pelles C versions.
    Quote Originally Posted by Salem View Post
    You mean it's included as a crutch to help ancient programmers limp along without them having to relearn too much.

    Outside of your DOS world, your header file is meaningless.

  8. #8
    Lurking whiteflags's Avatar
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    Maybe links to some of these magical benchmarks would be awesome but it wouldn't surprise me if they said something people doctored them to say.

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    Well, let me put it this way: Every benchmark I have seen have told me this story.
    Now, I'd love to be proven wrong, because Intel CPUs are overpriced, and I'd really like for AMD to catch up, because I'm going to get one of their cpus in the next upgrade.
    So if someone--anyone--can find a fair comparison between AMD and Intel offerings showing that the best AMD is not crushed by the best Intel in the benchmark, I'd love to see that.

    Take this with a grain of salt, but two examples of where Intel crushes AMD are:
    AnandTech - Bench - CPU
    AMD Or Intel: Which Offers Better Gaming Performance? : Picking A Sub-$200 Gaming CPU: FX, An APU, Or A Pentium? (and this is just an i5)

    I do not know the best models that AMD and Intel offers (other than sandy bridge and bulldozer) at this point in time, so I don't know how valid those benchmarks are.
    Quote Originally Posted by Adak View Post
    io.h certainly IS included in some modern compilers. It is no longer part of the standard for C, but it is nevertheless, included in the very latest Pelles C versions.
    Quote Originally Posted by Salem View Post
    You mean it's included as a crutch to help ancient programmers limp along without them having to relearn too much.

    Outside of your DOS world, your header file is meaningless.

  10. #10
    Master Apprentice phantomotap's Avatar
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    I'm running a phenom II x6 @ 3.2 with 16gb of ddr3.
    Clock per clock an AMD 8150 would give me a 50% increase.
    O_o

    Keep the "IIx6" or spend the extra money and get an "i7".

    The "8150" is slightly better at some things than the "IIx6", but it is not "more" enough that you should justify spending the cash to upgrade. I've had both in my house. (I still have the "IIx6" as it lives in my server.) The difference in performance just isn't worth spending the cash. Benchmarks be damned, the "8150" just isn't that awesome in comparing the "IIx6".

    If you have a smaller budget, and are willing to consider alternatives, consider a "SSD" drive as an alternative upgrade path if you can't afford an "i7".

    Soma

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    Quote Originally Posted by Elysia View Post
    Well, let me put it this way: Every benchmark I have seen have told me this story.
    you're not wrong. intel's top end stuff blows AMD's best stuff out of the water. on the other hand, like you say, dollar-for-dollar, they're about the same. for the price of an i7-990x, you can get a 16-core AMD Opteron, and with 10 more physical cores, and 4 more threads, it's likely the faster of the two, although there aren't any side by side comparisons of those two that I've found.

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    Quote Originally Posted by phantomotap View Post
    consider a "SSD" drive as an alternative upgrade path
    I agree. I have a dual core T5400 laptop with an SSD that runs faster than my 8-core AMD machine at work that has a standard disk-based hard drive.

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Elkvis View Post
    I agree. I have a dual core T5400 laptop with an SSD that runs faster than my 8-core AMD machine at work that has a standard disk-based hard drive.
    It depends entirely on what you do. If you are doing lots of video editing and encoding, then an SSD likely won't help so much.
    If you are doing I/O intensive work, or using I/O intensive IDEs (I'm looking at YOU, Visual Studio!), then an SSD will help a lot.
    Still, I consider an SSD to be an essential component of any modern computer.
    Quote Originally Posted by Adak View Post
    io.h certainly IS included in some modern compilers. It is no longer part of the standard for C, but it is nevertheless, included in the very latest Pelles C versions.
    Quote Originally Posted by Salem View Post
    You mean it's included as a crutch to help ancient programmers limp along without them having to relearn too much.

    Outside of your DOS world, your header file is meaningless.

  14. #14
    Master Apprentice phantomotap's Avatar
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    If you are doing lots of video editing and encoding, then an SSD likely won't help so much.
    On my server, see above, encoding a rendered scene (tens of thousands of rendered stills) for public consumption is "IO" bound.

    So, yeah, it really does depend on what you are doing; the point though is that the upgrade from standard mechanical drives is generally a solid win.

    Soma

  15. #15
    Cat without Hat CornedBee's Avatar
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    SSDs are awesome. Sub-10-second boots, nearly instantaneous launch of many programs, and massively accelerated compilation. It's the perfect thing for a programmer.
    All the buzzt!
    CornedBee

    "There is not now, nor has there ever been, nor will there ever be, any programming language in which it is the least bit difficult to write bad code."
    - Flon's Law

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