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Author Topic: System configuration check please  (Read 4748 times)

Toll

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System configuration check please
« on: September 07, 2017, 11:00:14 PM »
Time has come for us to invest in a few more processing nodes.  I'm still tied up as to whether to go for high GHz i9 or stick with dual 2687v4.  We intend to equip with 4x1080. As you can tell Pryce isn't really an issue, but any decrease in processing time is key.

Would really appreciate some suggestions on cpu, as I have read so much here now I don't know which way to go!

Dual 2687v3 ( or i9 7900x , i7 7820x, i7 7740x,)
128gb ram
4x1080

I am concerned that not having enough CPU cores will affect when we enable 4xgpu.

We process with a custom script with the below job settings

Photos: 200-1000
Res,: 20mp
Alignment: high
Dense cloud: medium

Any help you could give would be great please

SAV

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Re: System configuration check please
« Reply #1 on: September 08, 2017, 05:17:31 AM »
Hi Coalisgood,

Here some of my thoughts:

Dual Xeon 2687 v3
12 cores each = 24 in total
Max clock speed: 3.5 GHz
Price: 2 x US$ 2445 = US$ 4890
Price per core: US$ 203.75

Single i9 7900x
10 cores
Max clock speed: 4.3 GHz
Price: US$ 970
Price/core: US$ 97

(All prices from www.newegg.com)

As you can see from the comparison above, the i9 is definitely better value for money. Moreover, it has a much higher clock speed (GOOD). It also supports up to 128 GB RAM. If you need more than 128 GB RAM, then you'll have to choose the XEON. But based on your posted job settings, you should be fine with 128 GB of RAM.

Regarding not enough CPUs and the effect on a machine with 4 GPUs. In the past this was a bigger issue, especially for the image alignment step (computation of tie points etc). But since version 1.3 PhotoScan uses not only CPU but also GPU power for this step, hence you should be fine.

You might actually be OK with just using 2 or 3 high end graphics cards (NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti instead of standard GTX 1080) which will open up 1 or 2 more CPU cores.

To sum it up. The system I would choose/build (right now) looks like this:
  - Intel i9 7900X (water-cooling if possible)
  - 128 GB of RAM
  - 3 x NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti - all good things come in threes  ;)

Nice side-effect: It is much cheaper than a XEON setup. I would only go for XEON if I needed more than 128 GB RAM. If that's not the case, the extra cores/power are not really worth the MUCH higher price. Also consider that XEON cores run lower clock speeds compared to their i7 or i9 counterparts.

I hope that helps.

Regards,
SAV

« Last Edit: September 08, 2017, 01:25:42 PM by SAV »

Sirius

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Re: System configuration check please
« Reply #2 on: September 08, 2017, 05:46:53 AM »
Might be worth considering waiting for the 18 core i9 that is on the way September 25 (like everything new it will probably be late though)
More cores - slower clock speed though.