Higher base frequency vs higher core number?

[marian_sdraila]

Xeon W-2225, 4 cores, 4.10 GHz to 4.60 GHz vs Xeon W-2245, 8 cores, 3.90 GHz to 4.70

I'm in the middle of setting up a configuration for a new dell precision workstation and I was wondering which of the above CPU's are more suited for Archicad. I'm tempted to go for the W-2225 since it has a higher base frequency but I'm afraid that multitasking will not be great with only 4 cores! Any thoughts?

[SenecaDesignLLC]

More cores for sure

[DGSketcher]

@marian_sdraila Have a look at these pages, they may give a bit more insight. I am on an iMac and stretched my budget for 8 core over 4 at the time. The Apple macOS multicore monitor suggests Archicad's use of the additional cores (4+) is fairly limited. It may be different on Windows and should improve over time.

https://community.Graphisoft.com/t5/Setup-License-articles/Recommended-Hardware/ta-p/304047

https://community.Graphisoft.com/t5/Setup-License-articles/Multiprocessing-and-Archicad/ta-p/303631

[mikas]

Agreed with SenecaD with this. W-2245 is a better fit for Archicad in pretty much every aspect. It seems better with single core, and with multi core too, a lot better. At least according to Passmark software suit tests. Please see pic attached.

I just updated one of my HP Z4 G4 to a W-2195 (added that in the comparison too). It's not nearly in the ballpark of the latest and greatest CPUs out there, but I'm quite happy of the boost from W-2123 four core (in the pic too); with renders, and with background updates of the AC tabs.

[AllanP]

sometimes less cores are better if the core score is higher

it depends on how complex your models are and what needs to be fast.

not everything is multi threaded.

Passmark is the best i have found at rating the CPUs.

Just a laptop:

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10750H CPU @ 2.60GHz 2.59 GHz

16.0 GB

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070

[Miha_M]

Comparing those two you'll see a difference only if you do heavy rendering jobs and even those are utilising the NVIDIA GPU on Redshift. In bare Archicad with openGL driven 3D environment the extra power and cores won't make a noticable difference as Archicad and mutithreading is still in developing progress...

Also take a look at this GS recommendations:

Recommended Hardware - Graphisoft Community

I am running Archicad on three different engines: an old HP Z800 with dual Xeon X5667, HP Z840 with dual Xeon E5-2643v4 and HP Z4 with single Xeon W2245. The only noticable difference is that the first one is slower while loading files and not much more - based on one 150MB sized project file.

[Laszlo Nagy · Accepted solution]

@marian_sdraila Is there any reason you want a Xeon processor?

The latest Intel processors just came out. For example, the Intel Core i9-13900K is cheaper and has much higher single-core and multi-core performance than any of those Xeons.

Even cheaper i9s like 13700 or 12900 or AMD 7000-series CPUs offer better price/performance ratio than Xeons.

[marian_sdraila]

Well, I was looking at a Dell Precision 5820 Tower Workstation! The only I9 available on this workstation is the 10th gen i9 unfortunately.

You can get the Precision 3660 Tower with a core I9-12900K but for some reason it only comes with lower end graphics cards on their official website (that if you can find it at all).

Anyway, a Core i9-10900X is probably better than the Xeon W-2245 and it's also cheaper!

This is one possible configuration:

• Intel Core i9-10900X (19.25 MB cache, 10 cores, 20 threads, 3.70 GHz to 4.70 GHz Turbo, 165 W)

• NVIDIA RTX A4000, 16 GB GDDR6

• 32 GB, 4 x 8 GB, DDR4

• 512 GB, M.2, PCIe NVMe, SSD, Class 40

64GB of ram and a 1TB SSD would be nice but I'm on a tight budget.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

[Lingwisyer]

Depending on the motherboard, why not get 2x 16GB sticks or RAM instead? That way, in the future you can upgrade to 64GB by adding 2 additional sticks when budget allows.

[marian_sdraila]

The motherboard has 8 RAM slots but it might not be a bad ideea to go for 2 x 16GB anyway! I don't know if this configuration has quad channel memory support to take advantage of a 4 sticks settup.