Jump to content
IGNORED

Best CPU for hqplayer


sbenyo

Recommended Posts

I honestly don't know why people are writing about severe hardware requirements. My Xeon E3 1231v3 can do DSD512 poly-sinc-ext (non -2s) perfectly fine (at max. 47% cpu utilization, no CUDA offload). It can, however, not do DSD 512 xtr, but it can do xtr-2s at mentioned frequency.

 

It's a mid to low tier Xeon from 2014 (Haswell). It has four Cores (with HT) and runs at 3,6GHz continuously on all cores if sufficent heat can be dissipated, the L3 Cache Size is 8MB. You can buy them used for around 180€ and since you will not be overclocking that CPU, a H97 Motherboard is fine, which can be found used for around 80€. I only run my RAM at 1600MHz CL10 and HQ-Player doesn't use more than 250MB of it. So 8GB is plenty (buy used for around 50€, dual sticks for dual channel). There might be even cheaper ways of achieving mentioned presets, I am almost sure of that.

 

However, I am thinking about upgrading to do DSD512 with poly-sinc-xtr and therefore, I am looking at used Xeons since they present a much better value than new CPUs. The E5-2690V2 seems to be a good option since it has a very large Cache of 25MB and 10 cores (and HT for 20 Threads) at 3GHz (Ivy-Bridge though, so lower IPC). They go for around 350€ + MoBo. A 2667v2 (8 cores at 3,3GHz, Turbo to 4GHz, 25MB Cache) costs about the same and might be even better. Some of the used Xeons even have warranty for a year or so. They do however not have an integrated GPU (iGPU) so you would need a dGPU (dedicated GPU) to get a Display output.

 

@Mr Wensleydale1) Building a PC is VERY easy. You only need a screw driver:

 

2) 8GB is plenty. You can cheap out on other components, such as the case or the motherboard, however, a case is what you build in and what you touch and does insulate from sounds. I would go with the fractal design define series (buy a used r4 or something like that if you want to save money or a new defince c) or a be quiet silent base or pure base, ... A Motherboard is what connects your components and they do fail more often than cpus. I would pick something from a well known brand such as ASUS, Gigabyte, ASRock or MSI. Some of them, though usually the higher end boards, have special DAC features such as USB DAC-UP from Gigabyte, which you might want to take a look at. The Power Supply is important for audio applications, so do not cheap out here, but don't overestimate how much power your system needs.
Look here to calculate the potential power requierement for a pc: http://enermax.outervision.com/

Look here to see, what PSU to buy (go for tier 1 if you can): https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/631048-psu-tier-list-updated/

and if you want to make an educated buying decision, look for the reviews on http://www.jonnyguru.com

I have had no trouble running my files from a HDD, but you might prefer a SSD for it's reduced noise. Go for a 2,5" SATA based SSD, there is no need for a M.2 based.

 

I hope this helps. Sorry for the long post.

Link to comment

@sbenyo

 

Sure, you are right about that. Though with the little IPC improvement (maybe 20%) from Ivy Bridge to Broadwell I realy do not see a reason, why older Xeons should not work-I might try it. Since the 6950X can do DSD512 poly sinc xtr and the e5 2690v2 has 10 cores at 3GHz as well, it should in theory be only about 20% slower. That might still be sufficient. And 350€ vs 1500€ is quite a big difference.

 

Anyway: Can confirm, that the 1920X does DSD512 with poly-sinc-xtr without CUDA offload? Did you overclock? Is there a big difference in poly-sinc-xtr vs xtr-2s or poly-sinc-ext according to you at DSD512? Thank you!

 

Also, since you asked, My 1231v3 can do 44.1kHz to DSD512 using poly-sinc or poly-sinc-ext or similar settings. It does fall short on poly-sinc-xtr, it can however do poly-sinc-xtr-2s.

Link to comment

I do not want to repeat myself, however, if was not clear before I will try to clarify now:

 

Yes, I did try 44.1kHz poly-sinc-xtr to DSD512 and the same with poly-sinc-xtr-mp, but it DOES NOT WORK.

DSD64 and above to DSD512 DOES WORK with poly-sinc-xtr-mp and poly-sinc-xtr:

 

DSDtoDSDXTR.jpg

 

Since I do buy most of my records at nativedsd.com or rip from SACDs, the limitation is not a big issue.

 

I do wonder, however, how much of a difference is there between poly-sinc-ext and poly-sinc-xtr when oversampling redbook to DSD512, could you elaborate on that?

Link to comment
  • 8 months later...

As far as I can work out the most important thing is to maximize cache. It is confirmed that the 6950X can do DSD512 poly-sync-xtr and there are some people that state their AMD Threadripper 1950X does the Job as well (others did not confirm). The 6950X has 25MB of cache, 10cores with 3GHz base clock and is a fairly recent design (14nm and decent IPC). The 1950X has 32MB of cache and 16 Cores at a base clock of 3.4GHz, however (although the same CMOS manufacturing size of 14nm) lower IPC and hence lower performance per frequency/clock speed.

 

Hence if you want to do DSD512 poly-sync-xtr you will need a very powerfull processor. I would like to hear people describe the difference between poly-sinc-ext and poly-sync-xtr at DSD512 a bit more thouroughly as DSD512 poly-sync-ext can be achieved using a much less powerful processor such as the Xeon E3 1231v3 (8MB Cache, [email protected], 22nm CMOS) or the 6850k (15MB Cache, [email protected], 14nm); I hva tried both personally. Even when overclocking the 6850k to 4.4GHz and upping the cache multiplyer, I was not able to get -xtr DSD512 to work. Therefore, I would say that having enough cache is probably the first thing you should be looking at. Usually the processors with large cache are also the fastest. Look for processors with at least 25MB of cache and at least 3GHz base clock. I don't know if 8 Cores would be sufficient but I presume the are since my CPU load on my 6850k did never reach more than 45% using poly-sync-xtr at DSD512 at 3.8GHz (50% would be max since HQPlayer does not benefit from hyperthreading). 

 

I hope this helps and does not contribute to your confusion.

 

 

6950X: https://ark.intel.com/products/94456/Intel-Core-i7-6950X-Processor-Extreme-Edition-25M-Cache-up-to-3-50-GHz- 

1950X: https://www.amd.com/en/products/cpu/amd-ryzen-threadripper-1950x 

1231v3: https://ark.intel.com/products/80910/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E3-1231-v3-8M-Cache-3-40-GHz-

6850k: https://ark.intel.com/products/94188/Intel-Core-i7-6850K-Processor-15M-Cache-up-to-3-80-GHz-

Link to comment
1 hour ago, Jens_G said:

 Is it a matter of the base clock rate or what influence does the maximum turbo clock rate has here? For example, a (fictive) CPU with base clock rate at 2,8GHz and maximum turbo clock rate at 3,5GHz would fulfill the clock rate requirements or not?

What matters is the clock speed that is sustained on all cores utilized. For example, in the case of your fictive CPU the turbo core clock for all cores at load might be somewhere around 3.1 or 3.2GHz. The 3.5GHz is the turbo speed for a single core under load and thus not really relevalt for the application. To have the processor turbo to the maximum possible speed you need to make sure that it is adequately cooled.

As for the Xeon E5-2687W v3, I think it should work based on the similarity in specs to the 6950X. The 6950X should have higher IPC (newer manufacturing process and architecture) but the clock speed of the Xeon is higher which should compensate for that to an extent. Cache and core count is the same. However, I cannot be sure and this is merely a speculation. If you decide to try it please let the forum know if it works.

Link to comment

Benchmarking is an excellent idea. Great to know that there is software with comparable workload. I will happily contribute to the database once a specific benchmark is established.

 

These are some benchmark numbers for POV-Ray I found which include the 6950X and the 1950X which both seem to be capable of -xtr DSD512. As far as I know the 1920X does not work with DSD512 -xtr and hence the table shown should be taken with a grain of salt.

 

A2FBA33E-8953-4A5A-AF8B-67827B595B8C.png

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



×
×
  • Create New...