Thanks for all your replies. As for benchmarks, they are generally game-oriented and I feel that they don't reflect everyday reality...
The GPU could be a possible update, but I don't think this could overfill the technological gap between my CPU and a new A10 - FX8300. I' ve run darktable on a friend's A8 with 8GB DD3 (with on-cpu graphics) and it went significantly better than on my system. The tech gap is simply too big, that I find it meaningless to keep investing on the same machine... As for the power supply, this will not be a problem as I have a fairly reliable 650W PSU that I intend to keep. I think that the bigger matter here it the technological standards: FX 8300 is a powerful monster, but it represents a technology almost 5 years old - and this reflects to DDR3 and the (obsolete now) AM3+ socket, both forbidding future updates. Although I am intending to keep the new system another 10 years maybe, it is fairly different to invest to a technology that is ending rather to one that is rising. This is my biggest concern. With a budget increase of ~100Euros, a Ryzen 5 1400 would seem as a great choice (I can find it at ~200 Euros here in Greece), but I am not sure if I can afford that. Thanks again. Vasilis Yiannakos www.yiannakos.gr Sent with [ProtonMail](https://protonmail.com) Secure Email. -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [darktable-user] Cores or power per core? Local Time: April 7, 2017 9:07 AM UTC Time: April 7, 2017 6:07 AM From: [email protected] To: [email protected] On jeudi 6 avril 2017 22:00:21 CEST Ariel Kanterewicz wrote: > You could maybe look at some benchmarks? Although what I think is more > important is the performance of the new CPU vs the GPU you plan to keep. > Another option is to upgrade the GPU and buy extra RAM for the main system, > if you only want DT to work faster (an SSD would help too). > > I have a Phenom II X4 945 with lots of RAM (started with 8 GB, have 16 GB > now), I used to have a NVIDIA 460 and the switch to the Radeon 460 was a > change between night and day. The NVIDIA perofrmed more or less equal to > the CPU, the Radeon goes WAY faster than that. I even switched on the full > sample option on export, it's still way faster than before. > > On Thu, Apr 6, 2017 at 6:50 AM Vasilis Yiannakos <[email protected]> > > wrote: > > I am using Darktable on a 10-year-old-linux-based AMD Athlon X2 64, 8GB > > DDR2, GeForce GT 640 2GB RAM ram and it runs pretty usable, but I am > > considering a system upgrade, something with 8GB DDR3 and the same GPU. > > The > > question here is from which CPU would darktable benefit the most: AMD FX > > 8320 (8 cores), AMD A10 (4 cores) or maybe an Intel i3 (2 cores) (these > > are > > the top I can get at my budget). The catch is in the memory standard: currently, we are at DDR4, DD3 seems on its way out already. So upgrading memory might be quite difficult for DDR2. Not sure how those changing standards influence the GPU or SSD choice (entry models use SATA III). And SSD is still quite a bit more expensive per TB... Also, you compare two GPUs of different generations (NVidia 460: ~2012, Radeon 460: 2016). Although NVidia seems to have some trouble with openCL (except the latest series, 1060 and above, but that's a higher price class). Some other things to be aware of: - I see DT use all available cores (4 on my machine) when switching directory in light table mode (i.e. when DT has to generate a lot of thumbnails). The rest of the time, all cores seem used as well (though in my case, at low intensity even when using profiled denoise). I didn't check GPU usage for this. - you'll need OpenCL to actually use the GPU, and in practice that requires the proprietary drivers (both for NVidia and for AMD). - AMD CPUs absorb more power, and thus generate more heat, than current Intel CPUs (120W for AMD vs. 65-95W for Intel). Also a larger GPU requires more power. and the PSU has to be able to provide that power (not really a problem for a new system, upgrading is different). - perhaps pay attention to the sockets used by the different CPU's you are looking at: the AMD cpus seem to use a fairly old socket, abandonned for the latest Ryzen CPUs, which could limit potential future upgrades. The I3 uses the 1151 socket, which still seems current. Remco ____________________________________________________________________________ darktable user mailing list to unsubscribe send a mail to [email protected] ____________________________________________________________________________ darktable user mailing list to unsubscribe send a mail to [email protected]
