OT - AMD x2 AM2 -vs- Intel Duo Core 2

Cliff Etzel wrote on 10/11/2006, 5:22 PM

I'm posting for a colleague as I can't seem to find where the rubber meets the road type of information.

A friend/colleague of mine has asked me to research which way to go - I know this has been beaten to death, but he want's real world answers from other users out there. Is Opteron worth it?

I'm very happy with my AMD setup and have recommended highly he go the same route (He's editing with PPro 2.0 and AE7) - I run Adobe's apps along side SONY's on my AMD setup with no problems - but he's sure that somehow Intel is just "Better" because it is Intel. So I convinced him that Opteron is spec'd on quite a few high end AE workstations and that he would see similar performance out of X2 processors but at a lower cost - am I correct? Also, trying to find any useful information about using Opterons in a workstation is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. He's now thinking maybe doing a dual dual core Opteron setup. I think it is overkill but maybe he's just wanting to make sure he doesn't have to buy again for awhile.

Any thoughts? Is Intel REALLY that much better for the amount of money they charge? Or is it spin-doctoring from the companies and websites looking for something to write about.

I spec'd the following AMD parts from NewEgg:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+(65W) Windsor 2.4GHz Socket AM2 Processor
GIGABYTE GA-M55SLI-S4 Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard
XFX PVT42EYDF3 Geforce 6800XT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel
Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 ATX12V 550W Power Supply

He has parts he want's to recycle but will eventually add new HD's when he goes HD editing.

Any changes, recommendations???

Cliff

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Comments

Bill Ravens wrote on 11/21/2006, 12:30 PM

LOL..i rest my case.

BrianStanding wrote on 11/21/2006, 12:41 PM

I've always thought that was part of the point of PCI-E. You only use the portions of the interface you need. So, you should be able to stick a PCI-E x4 card into a PCI-E x16 slot and have it work just fine.

More info here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI-E

MH_Stevens wrote on 11/21/2006, 3:27 PM

You can, just as current x16 cards will be compatible with PCI 2.0, but I still don't see the relevance for Vegas as I thought Vegas couldn't take advantage of the graphics card processing. Has something changed? Am I missing something?

dhill wrote on 11/21/2006, 6:02 PM

new Apple MacBook Pro
2.33 Intel Core 2 Duo
3GB RAM
100GB 7200 RPM drive
Vegas 7b
bootcamp obviously

Ran this render test: These results are for the original rendertest.veg, not the new one. You can download it from:
http://www.vasst.com/resource.aspx?id=35443070-0b67-4a2e-807c-a7f431ebd02d

I couldn't find instructions for settings, so, I rendered to .avi and selected "best." I believe that's what I was supposed to do. So...

Dynamic RAM set to 16MB-39 seconds
Dynamic RAM set to 512-28 seconds
Dynamic RAM set to 1024-1 second (one second)

I want to try some of these tests using my external SATA from G-tech with my firmtek SATA interface via the express card34 slot too to see if that makes a difference. In other words, I'll put the files on the external drive and render to it, and vise versa etc.

Derek

fldave wrote on 11/21/2006, 6:14 PM

Derek, Obviously I question the one second. Why don't you set Dynamic RAM to 1024, reboot, then run again :)

dhill wrote on 11/21/2006, 6:27 PM

When you're right you're right! Sorry!

I rebooted like you said and rendered it with dynamic RAM set to 1024 and it was 28 seconds.

I rendered it again right after that and it was 1 second, so, you were correct in telling me to reboot. I guess after you've already rendered it, it's stored in RAm or something? I don't know...I'm not a complete tech geek. Someone else can explain why that happens. Derek

dhill wrote on 11/21/2006, 6:31 PM

by the way...tech geek is of course a compliment on this board. Just so no one thinks I'm calling them names. haha Derek

BrianStanding wrote on 11/21/2006, 7:24 PM

Go back and re-read Bill's post above. Bill's talking about using the PCI-E x16 bus for other things, not graphic cards. Things like capture cards, enhanced audio cards, etc... things that WOULD speed up Vegas.

fldave wrote on 11/21/2006, 8:16 PM

Re: one second Vs. 28 seconds: Yes, I believe it keeps it as a RAM render and just reads from there.

At least you saw my concern with 16 RAM Vs. 512 RAM. Big difference. I won't set my Dynamic RAM to 16.