Question re: Multi-Core vs. Multi-CPU

[sloanelliot]

Hello all,

I'm about to build a new machine and have a friend who can get me a great deal on a rack server with 16 sockets, where previously my plan was to just build a workstation with a single Threadripper 2990wx or dual Xeon. I've built many machines over the years, but also have managed to remain somewhat naive when it comes to the nuance of which setups perform better.. My understanding is that there's actually a performance advantage to more cores across fewer CPU's, but he swears up and down that's not the case. Does anybody have any applicable experience in this arena? i.e., All things being equal, for the sake of argument (same number of cores, RAM, m.2 SSD's, etc.), would there be any performance advantages to splitting those cores across 16 separate CPU's vs. a single (or dual) CPU setup with a large core count? I'm speaking to benchmark performance, not energy usage, space, heat/cooling, etc.

I've spent so much cash on render farms over the years that I could have built my own render farm by this point haha.. Ready to invest in a proper setup but really want to be sure I don't make an obvious mistake and blow a bunch of cash on something that comes in lower than expected, performance-wise..

Would love to hear your thoughts!

--Sloan

[Mauricio Ruiz Design]

Hello Sloan!

I can't speak toward the performance of the comparison between Multi-threads vs multi CPU sockets, but I can say that when I spent months researching to build a custom rig for rendering and design, the network rendering yearly fee made a big impact on my decision to build a duel socket motherboard multi-threaded beast all in one box. I also know another professional in the film industry who used to pay the yearly fee to network his two computers together, but eventually moved away from it. If money is was no issue, then I'd make a render farm and design rig separately, so I could have a killer single thread speed and multi threads for keyshot.

I recommend all in one to avoid the fee, but I don't have experience beyond my first custom rig PC. Hope this helps even though it's not directly what you're asking for.

Best of Luck!

Mauricio