From: Gianluca Interlandi (gianluca_at_u.washington.edu)
Date: Fri May 20 2016 - 22:09:16 CDT

Dear list,

I am about to purchase a new workstation for trajectory analysis. I am
trying
to decide between the following two prcessors:

E5-2620 v3 E5-2623 v3
Cores 6 4
Freq 2.4 GHz 3.0 GHz
Cache 15 MB 10 MB
Cost + 50$

I wonder whether the higher clock rate of the E5-2623 justifies having a
smaller number of cores and smaller cache. Do the additional 0.6 GHz
translate
into a significant speed increase when post-processing a trajectory with
VMD,
e.g. RSMD, energy evaluation, surface analysis, etc.? According to
passmark.com, the higher clock frequency brings a speed increase of only
8-9% when comparing single thread.

Also, does the L3 cache matter for VMD/NAMD?

Thanks!

     Gianluca

-----------------------------------------------------
Gianluca Interlandi, PhD gianluca_at_u.washington.edu
                    +1 (206) 685 4435
                    http://artemide.bioeng.washington.edu/

Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Bioengineering
at the University of Washington, Seattle WA U.S.A.
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