So when does a Xeon really shine over an comparable i7? I´m

>>54973543
If the software is written to maximize the potential of a Xeon or an i7, the Xeon will win nearly every time. But writing that kind of software is more complicated so you have to be picky around what you run.

>>54973609
But a lot of the software used for example in audio workstations is not that compatible afaik
So why even bother? Why is every MacPro equipped with a fucking Xeon 1620

>>54973738
Mac Pro is not only for audio work, ya know. Video applications take full advantage.

>>54973738
Also some audio software does take advantage of many cores and hyperthreading. A savvy user will be running that software.

>>54973543
Price, they lose their value dramatically, one of the best price/performance cpu's on the market right now is an 8 core xeon for $60, that will wipe the floor with most i7's.

ITT people that have no idea that xeons are nothing special

Xeon is best for high end severs. It is only slightly better so the price isn't worth it

Xeons are the best price/performance processors out there. Lot of them are above 4 cores, have multithreading support and very good single core performance. Thee things will sell at like $80 a piece, though the newer models will be way more expensive. Server hardware in general is cheap because it's such a dense market right now. Only issue is that xeons are known to be terrible at overclocking and overheat a lot.

>>54975314
Probably bad at overclocking since they have locked multipliers.

What's the point of LGA1151 Xeons, though? As I inderstand it, they have the same cores as the LGA1151 i7s, just with ECC support and somewhat more conservative clocks, or is there more to it?

>>54973543
ECC memory which is useful if your running stuff for long periods of time and dont want some important computation or your porn to screw up due to a bitflip.

>>54975488

There's nothing more to it.

The consumer socket Xeons are literally cheaper i7s without iGPUs. The ones with iGPUs are quite literally locked i7s with more extensions support and ECC memory. Usually cheaper if you don't plan on overclocking.

>>54975378
Lga 1366 and 2011 xeons clock just as well if not better than their i7 counterparts. They're binned higher and have tighter tolerance. Even if you don't already have a dated x series board lying around. You can still get one hell of a system at a fairly moderate price. Once the new lineup of xeons comes out, expect ivy e and haswell xeons to drop in price significantly.

>>54975577
>Lga 1366 and 2011 xeons clock just as well if not better than their i7 counterparts


Seems odd considering Xeons have a locked multiplier. You might be able to do slight BCLK overclock or something similar by messing with buses, but you aren't going to buy a Xeon and just put a 44x multiplier on there and run at 4.4GHz, sorry not gonna happen.

The only Xeons you can overclock are Engineering Samples (ES) and they are very expensive and since its an ES, even if you buy it you technically will never own it (Intel owns ALL ES's for life even if you paid for it, if they ask for it back you HAVE to give it back, or go to court)

>>54976168
Single socket LGA 2011 chips have the 125mhz bclock strap unlocked.
LGA 1366 Xeons since they're more or less identical to their i7 counterparts can be properly FSB overclocked, which gave rise to the monster that was the EVGA SR-2.

>>54973543
More cores, more threads, and they're usually better binned, which, since Xeons are usually locked, directly translates to less power used and less heat generated. For Single systems, this doesnt really account for much, maybe 100W in a 4P system, but when there's fifty thousand plus individual CPUs comprising hundreds of thousands of cores in a data center/supercomputer, that can translate to several megawatts less power directly used by the system, and several more megawatts spent cooling it.

>>54976817
>Single socket LGA 2011 chips have the 125mhz bclock strap unlocked.
k
>You might be able to do slight BCLK overclock or something similar by messing with buses, but you aren't going to buy a Xeon and just put a 44x multiplier on there and run at 4.4GHz

>>54976817
>LGA 1366 Xeons since they're more or less identical to their i7 counterparts can be properly FSB overclocked, which gave rise to the monster that was the EVGA SR-2.
Yeah but buying a 1366 motherboard right now is prohibitively expensive, unless you already own one it'd be pretty dumb to do a Xeon 1366 build. Just get a 5820k on sale instead.

>>54973543
Xeon are better if the software fully utilizes the high threading and in cases of lots of little tasks (these were made for severs after all), they also have ECC to allow for very long up-times.

However many people don't end up using such features so the i7 works very well, making this old debate very complicated as intensive singe thread software (which most software is right now) works noticeably better on the i7 and the GPU is useful in many UI cases.

Workstations are that middle ground that no market wants to support fully, so it could go either way. I am debating that right now. I like the single thread power and clocking options the i7 has, but like the ECC the Xeon brings. Given they are both overkill for me I think it will come more down to long term support options.

>>54973836
have fun buying a $300 motherboard champ!

>>54973738
Mac Pro is a workstation not an 'audio workstation'. ECC support, support for multiple sockets, very large cache, etc. Those are why you buy Xeons. ECC can be had on some mainstream processors, though.