What is better? More Cores or Higher CPT Frequency ?

[DraycD]

Hi, i want to skale up in my home.

Now i have a i5-4590T CPU @ 2.00GHz and 8 GB Ram.

for my future Projects it will be to weak.

now i think about two Processors:

Old:
0. i5-4590T (4 Core 4 threads) @ 2,0 - 3,0 GHz 35W

1. Xeon E5 2650L v2 (10 Core 20 threads ) @ 1,7 - 2,1 GHz 70W
2. Xeon L5640 (6 Core 12 threads ) @ 2. 2,26 - 2,8 GHz 60W


what is better for Proxmox vm's higher CPU clock speed or more cores with lower clock speed?

 

[apoc]

It really depends on what you want to do with it.
Considering everything this is a very complex topic after all and there is no simple answer.

There are lots of single threaded applications which won't benefit at all from multiple cores. So they will run better with more clockrate. Same applies if you plan to do Terminal servers or VDI - those are very clock-requiring applications.

On the other hand you will run multiple VMS. They will definetly benefit from more cores as the virtual CPU to physical CPU ratio is better.

So all your clock speed won't help if the vCPU to pCPU ratio is bad and too many s VMS are sharing the same physical core and the system is busy scheduling all the vCPUs...

I'd prefer more cores as it adds more flexibility but that's really my approach for my workload.
I also switched from a 16C processor with 2.3 GHz to a 16C with 1.8 GHz because of thermal and power consumption reasons.

 

[DraycD]

My future target:

VM1 - Linux with Pihole
VM2 - Windows 10 for Office and TAX
VM3 - Windows 10 for Webradio recording & video recording (screencapture)
VM4 - Winows 10 for 7 IP Cams (720P) recording and Motion detection (is now on: i5 3470S 4 Core 4 threads 2,9GHz @ 60-70% Load)
VM5 - Linux Minecraft server (max 5 Player)
VM6 - Linux Map Server requres a lot of cpu power 4 -cores - OpenDroneMap
+ some VM's for jupyther notebooks, pytorch , and more.

only the Bold marked has to run 24/7 the rest will only started if needed

 

[apoc]

Imho: Forget about both options you have mentioned - or use a dual-socket machine which might make things unattractive from multiple perspectives.

The IP Camera VM has 2.9 GHz today and if runs on that load already you will likely run into trouble.
You can easily do the simplified math. 2.9 GHz by four cores and 70% load would roughly equal 100% load on 4cores with 2.1 GHz.
With that load you would need to assume a 1:1 ratio for vCPU to pCPU and scale up the VM with more vCPUs - eating more cores away.

I personally wouldn't even try to run it on a single socket.
Latest if you fire up the "optional" VMs I expect you will smash the system.

 

[DraycD]

hm i have a HP ProLiant DL360 G7 (2x Xeon L5640) with 96GB RAM,
but it the power consumtion with 200 + is to expensive
even it is in my home to loud...

i need something what can replace it and needs only arround 100 - 120w and is a lot quieter.
plus it has to be in budget 200 - 300€
it dont need so mutch power the dual setup was always to big for my requirements

 

[H4R0]

It always depends on your work load, wheter to choose higher clock speed over more cores/threads.

Clock speed alone doesnt say anything about how the cpu performs. There are many other factors.

You are best of comparing benchmarks https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-Xeon-E5-2650L-v2-vs-Intel-Xeon-L5640/2989vs1263

Single thread performance is about the same, so E5 2650L v2 is the clear winner and almost 2x better.