I know...I'm not trying to start a Intel vs AMD debate, but I looking into building a new system for rendering. ! item I'm sure I'm getting is an Nvidia GPU soley for the cuda and open CL support, and 64gb ram. But....

given the choice between the 2....Would  I see better performance from a Intel Core i7-3930K, or a AMD FX-8350. Things are changing so damned fast it's hard to keep up. I know the intel proc runs 6 physical for a total of 12 threads and the AMD is running 8 physical. So.....which proc will I see the best results from. Keep in mind these are my 2 choices as my budget got chopped due to the GPU.

I don't game much, as my workstation will prodominantly run

Poser

Daz Studio

Vue 10

3Dsmax 2012

Adobe After effects

Adobe Premiere

The i7 has two more floating point cores (the FX has four floating point cores and eight integer cores) and the i7 has hyperthreading, which the FX lacks.  I'd hunt for reviews with 3DsMax benchmarks and compare.

The i7 also costs almost three times what the FX costs, so your performance/$ is a factor as well....

EDIT: here are Passmark scores, for whatever they are worth...

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

Only reason I bring this up is I started in poser back in the day running an old Athlon XP3200 and my renders took days to render or they all had to be render in preview mode if I wanted them done in less than 8 hrs.

Now I'm running an AMD Phenom II 965 BE with 16 gbs ram and now my renders are fantastic. BUT they still take over 5 hrs with max settings.

So...I'm leaning towards the new AMD solution as that would bring my cost down, but after going over tons of benchmarks (which are mostly biased towards gamers)...would I get a noticable difference in render times with the new Intel/ AMD delema.

I know either new proc will boost my render times from  what I'm seeing now, it's just hard to make a decision based on reviews and reviews which are all gamer based.

But as always thanks for the input

Re i7 - hyperthreading doesn't give more core time it just makes switching between threads quicker. If you don't intend to use the system for anything other than rendering then possibly an i7 is overkill. There are a number of tech channels on Youtube that review hardware (eg Tek Syndicate - I know they did a review for 8350). They are mainly interested in gaming but there could be something in their review which might help with the decision.  

Quote - Keep in mind these are my 2 choices as my budget got chopped due to the GPU.

There is nothing in your software list that will benefit from a super high end GPU. Get a mid end gaming GPU and spend the money on the Intel.

Quote - > Quote - Keep in mind these are my 2 choices as my budget got chopped due to the GPU.

There is nothing in your software list that will benefit from a super high end GPU. Get a mid end gaming GPU and spend the money on the Intel.

As I use an i7 in both my systems so any advice I give would be biased.  However irrespective of what CPU you go for I should do some research on the benefits of the GPU.  From what I have done so far it appears to be early days for the use of GPU and when I tried it with Luxrender my system will bluescreen when it is fine with anything else.

Like the CPU debate it appears to be difficult to get an unbiased view in some cases, but it might be useful to have feedback from someone actually using the GPU for rendering on a regular basis.  I would be interested as well as, while my first tries have been a disaster I do have and open mind so I could be convinced it is the way to go.  In fact I am probably already convinced it is, I am just not sure now is the right time.

Here are some  MAX benchmarks:

8350

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/amd-fx-8350_7.html

 3930K

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i7-3820_7.html

The i7 is significantly faster in these tests.  The performance/dollar will be the deciding factor in your judgement...

 Disclaimer; I have an AMD Phenom II X6 on my render machine...

Thank you for finding those max scores. Just as I thought. There is a difference, but not really that much considering the price/performance ratio. THink I'll stick with the AMD choice, and hopefully the new FX-9590 will make it that much faster.

As for the GPU issue, I chose the higher end mainly for the CUDA support as well as open CL for other programs that I run. And when I say higher end, I not breaking the 500.00 mark.