One 8-cores i7 processor, or two 10-core i5 processors?

I got a few different advices about choosing the components for my PC. Help me please understand the situation better, to make the best decision.

What would you choose (for work with 3D and visual effects) - one 8-cores i7 processor, or two 10-core i5 processors? One i7-6900K or two E5-2630 v4?

What is the difference between the i5 and i7 processors, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of each of these options?
Thank you very much in advance!

You can have two processors, but it is more common and cheaper for a motherboard to have one processor socket, so I wouldn’t recommend the two processors. Also, the i5 processor wouldn’t be compatible with a dual CPU socket motherboard because that technology is quite dated which means the CPU sockets on the board wouldn’t match the sockets on the processor and having two processors would ultimately be ineffective because latency would be an issue (caused by the additional CPU which would have to communicate with the other CPU.) Make sure that you have a LGA 1151 processor socket motherboard for the Intel Core i5/i7 Skylark processor, the newest processor Intel has out right now. The biggest difference between i7 and i5 are the cores. The i5 is mostly dual-core, but there are quad-cores. And of course, the i7 is quad-core, going up to six-core. Hopefully in the future there will be 8 to 10 cores, but for right now they don’t exist. :rolleyes: The i7 is indeed more powerful than the i5, but the i5 should still be enough to do whatever modelling you’d want to do. When it comes to computers, the CPU alone isn’t what makes your computer faster or stronger. GPUs speed up the rendering of information (image) for a display by altering memory. A good GPU will help a lot. Also, the amount of RAM will help. 8GB of RAM is good, 16GB is better, but not necessary. The cooling of your entire PC also makes a difference. I recommend watching NCIX tech tips and Linux tech tips on YouTube, you’ll learn a lot from them. :eyebrowlift: As for the advantages and disadvantages of the processors, the i7 being more powerful, it’s also more expensive, but with the i5, less powerful, but takes less of a bite out of your wallet. Take the i5 processor, you’ll be ok. And always look for a good deal on Hardware. I hope this helps!

Are you talking about CPU rendering? In terms of overall rendering capacity (since rendering is multithreaded it is fairly safe to use cores * clock speed in same architecture) :

One E5-2630 v4 has 10 cores x 2.2GHz (fully loaded) for 22GHz rendering capacity, or 44GHz over 2 processors.

The i7-6900K has 8 cores x 3.2GHz (fully loaded) for 25.6GHz.

The i7 is more expensive than 1 Xeon, however, how much does the Motherboard + CPU + RAM cost for each, then compare the $$ vs performance.

@Render4Blender
@Render4Blender Thank you very much for the detailed explanation!
Until now I have been working on a mac, but now I’m going to move to the PC (this would allow me to build a more powerful and cheaper at the same time computer, and makes the repair and replacement of components easier). So I have a lot of questions :slight_smile: (Btw, it turns out I was wrong, E5-2630 v4 is also i7) At the moment I have to build powerful computer for work with 3D graphics, for many years, and most likely I will not make upgrades in a short time, so I have to make the right choice of components. Thank you very much again for your advices and thoughts, they are very helpful!

@zeealpal
@zeealpal Thank you for the explanation, it helps a lot!
And if we compare these two options (one i7-6900K or two E5-2630 v4) in terms of modeling, animation and simulation (fluids, smoke, cloth) - which option is best?

The problem is that, in addition to Blender, which I love very much, I also work in other 3D packages. And, as I understand, some of them involve in the work process (not render, but simulations, modeling, animation) all processor cores, and some of them - only a few cores. As far as I understand it, in the latter case, the main thing is the CPU frequency, but not the number of cores. This makes the choice very difficult for me …

I work in Blender, Maya, Houdini, ZBrush, Mudbox, Realflow… Which CPU would you choose if you would work with these programs? Which of the two options (one i7-6900K or two E5-2630 v4), or maybe you would have chosen the other option?

It’s best to just refer to them as Xeons with the core/speed /hyperthreading rather than i5/7’s.

For single threaded applications, clock speed of a single core is the most important, and an i7 will have higher per core clock speeds.

Often a decent amount of simulation and other non rendering tools will at least be bottlenecked by a low single thread speed.

I personally would go with a 8 core (or greater) i7 with a mild over clock given your usage scenarios

I was considering about this also. I’m trying build workstation which is lot of multitasking. At the same time I’ll compositing many time try small render in blender with 20 million vertex, GIMP, other Image editing for PBR and open browser watch tutorial youtube with other 20 tabs in linux OS with Virtualization open Windows for others video editing software

so for using heavy task above which one suitable for Dual Xeon 2630 v4 or i7 6960X ?

please if someone have experience with it let me know