Hey guys,

A friend of mine is building a new rig for his shop which does high end photo restoration and video editing... Honestly, this is over my head, but I figure some of you UberPimps might have some good suggestions.

What he's trying to find out is:

A) In applications such as Premier, PhotoShop (you know, your average runn of the mill apps) will the performance difference be obvious (Compared to, let's say, a P4 3.2 Extreme edition... I know.... duh, yeah)? You know, will these take full advantage of the 64-bit architecture... I'm pretty sure everything they're running will.

B) Most importantly which of would provide the best all around performance? A dual Xeon, a dual Itanium 2 or a dual Opteron. Which ever he chooses is going to be the highest clocked model.

and (most important to me) C) Which one will provide the best results when Folding?! Yup.... I get to run F@H on it!!!!!!

oh yeah, and D) anyone know how a dual or quad Athalon64 might compare? If at all?

Thanks!

i would think the opterons would be best, but thats just me

Well, ok.... But, why?

Well Opteron's can cycle between 32-64bit programs.

What red said, and it beats out the Mac G5 in photoshop too, so Id imagine it be great for video editing too. Those Intel server chips are just too slow

Hawklen, where are the benches you're referring to? I've seen a couple and the Xeon pounded the G5 just as well and frequently. Also, i was under the impression that the Xeon, like the Opteron, was also capable of running 32-bit.

Quote: Originally Posted by CRE Hawklen, where are the benches you're referring to? I've seen a couple and the Xeon pounded the G5 just as well and frequently. Also, i was under the impression that the Xeon, like the Opteron, was also capable of running 32-bit.

WHat Ive heard, the Xeons take a major hit in performance, when running 32bit, since its software driven, unlike the Opteron, right on the CPU. I could be wrong, was along time ago since I read that.

As to that benchmark, damn, forget which. Memory sucks for remember crap, as you can tell.

Lets just say the Opteron is cooler Plus, it runs as fast as faster clocked Intels, ie 2ghz, running as fast as a 3ghz for a rough example. And superior pipeline, and arcitchure (spelling sucks right now, too tired to care lol )

The dual Itanium is an awesome beast ... (Quad is even better!) But good luck finding an aftermarket motherboard.

Ok, so, here's what i gather the concensus is....

Itanium 2 is kick @$$ but doesn't support 32 bit apps.

Xeon is kicks the P4's @$$ (how's it compare to Athalon 64 though?) but not as strong in the 32 bit support arena as the Opteron.

Opteron just kicks @$$.

Ok, now I just need some benches/documentation..... especially since he hates (which a capital HATE), hates AMD. Well, with it limited between XEON and Opteron I'm sure i can find plenty. Thanks guys.

My school AV manager uses a dual Xeon at 3.2 GHZ a piece. Runs incredible with Premiere Pro and Photoshop. I dont have any benches for you either though.

AMD's as a general rule of thumb run F@H faster.

Unfortunately, I can't just tell him to go with the Opteron so that I can run F@H faster.....
But, I'll look aroung the net and see if I can't find some trustworthy benches.... Anandtech's probably got something.

I dont know if this has allready been explained to you or not, but it doesnt seem that it has in this thread.

Xeon's are 32 bit only. For simplicity's sake, I'll say they're allmost identical to P4 EE's.

Itaniums are intel's 64bit chip. They will run 32 bit software, but so slowly that it might as well be exclusively 64 bit.

Opteron's are 64 bit, and they run 32 bit software very well, as well as 64 bit. I believe they're the fastest cpu out there right now. Opteron is probably the way to go.



G5: WTF are you thinking? Get the hell back to the pc side, and dont go over there again. If you get too close to those evil things, you might get infected with a severe case of the gay.

Quote: Originally Posted by M.D.K. Xeon's are 32 bit only.

Yeah, I was reading a comparison on Tom's Hardware which explained that. I honestly didn't know. But thanks.

Quote: Originally Posted by M.D.K. G5: WTF are you thinking? Get the hell back to the pc side, and dont go over there again. If you get too close to those evil things, you might get infected with a severe case of the gay.

I wasn't thinking G5 at all, Hawklen was just pointing out that the Opteron creamed it. In the graphics field (at least from my work experience) it does still have a lot of fans.

As for the gay thing..... grow up.

edit: dammd typos

Having built some computers for the military
Intel has the duribility advantage over most prossesors
The Itainium2 can be set in a dual prossesor enviroment and can also run both 32 bit and 64 bit applications using a Windows 64 bit OS.
As for the G5 heh heh apple should stick to making their
stuff see through since it can be uses for anything else.

Quote: Originally Posted by CRE Yeah, I was reading a comparison on Tom's Hardware which explained that. I honestly didn't know. But thanks. I wasn't thinking G5 at all, Hawklen was just pointing out that the Opteron creamed it. In the graphics field (at least from my work experience) it does still have a lot of fans. As for the gay thing..... grow up. edit: dammd typos

Well, mac cases are fruity, bent toward the fruity interior decorator in mind, imho.