Options
Server Benchmarks: Dual Xeons vs Dual Opteron vs Quad Opterons
[link=http://www.aceshardware.com/read.jsp?id=60000275]Ace's Hardware[/link] Server Guide: Dual Xeons vs Dual Opteron vs Quad Opterons
In our last article about x86 server CPUs, the Opteron 244 made a quite an impression when compared to the Xeon DP. In many of our real-world server benchmarks, the 1.8 GHz Opteron bested the 2.8 GHz Xeon DP. Of course, neither Intel nor AMD have been sitting still since that time, and to make the Xeon DP more competitive, Intel equipped its midrange server CPU with a 1 MB L3-cache. Correspondingly, 2.2 GHz Opteron 248 and 848 processors are available this month. This article serves as an update on how these server platforms compare, but it's also much more. We've benchmarked AMD's Quartet, a four-headed Opteron hydra with up to 8.8 GHz (4 x 2.2 GHz) of processing power. Unfortunately, the quad Xeon MP was not yet able to join the party, but rest assured that this is not our last server CPU article.
In the 3D Rendering market, the Opteron and Xeon perform similar, with a slight advantage for the Xeon. However, the Opteron scales slightly better with clockspeed and extra CPUs (see [link=http://www.aceshardware.com/read.jsp?id=60000284]3DSMax benchmarks[/link]), while the Xeon still has its Hyperthreading weapon: it's touch and go.
When it comes to (Java) webservers and/or MySQL, the Opteron definitely has the advantage. In some cases, the Opteron simply annihilates the Xeon, but luckily for Intel the latter offers some resistance in our GZIP dominated benchmarks.
Apachebench might be a mostly synthetic benchmark, but it is clearly indicates that the Opteron has a lot of potential left: 64-bit software, AMD64 optimized drivers and NUMA optimized operating systems can push the Opteron far beyond the numbers it is showing today. Especially the last feature could make a real difference for multi-CPU configurations (no wonder AMD and Sun are working together on 8-way+ Opteron system architectures).
Source: [link=http://www.aceshardware.com/read.jsp?id=60000275]Ace's Server Guide: Dual Xeon, Dual Opteron and Quad Opteron[/link]
In our last article about x86 server CPUs, the Opteron 244 made a quite an impression when compared to the Xeon DP. In many of our real-world server benchmarks, the 1.8 GHz Opteron bested the 2.8 GHz Xeon DP. Of course, neither Intel nor AMD have been sitting still since that time, and to make the Xeon DP more competitive, Intel equipped its midrange server CPU with a 1 MB L3-cache. Correspondingly, 2.2 GHz Opteron 248 and 848 processors are available this month. This article serves as an update on how these server platforms compare, but it's also much more. We've benchmarked AMD's Quartet, a four-headed Opteron hydra with up to 8.8 GHz (4 x 2.2 GHz) of processing power. Unfortunately, the quad Xeon MP was not yet able to join the party, but rest assured that this is not our last server CPU article.
In the 3D Rendering market, the Opteron and Xeon perform similar, with a slight advantage for the Xeon. However, the Opteron scales slightly better with clockspeed and extra CPUs (see [link=http://www.aceshardware.com/read.jsp?id=60000284]3DSMax benchmarks[/link]), while the Xeon still has its Hyperthreading weapon: it's touch and go.
When it comes to (Java) webservers and/or MySQL, the Opteron definitely has the advantage. In some cases, the Opteron simply annihilates the Xeon, but luckily for Intel the latter offers some resistance in our GZIP dominated benchmarks.
Apachebench might be a mostly synthetic benchmark, but it is clearly indicates that the Opteron has a lot of potential left: 64-bit software, AMD64 optimized drivers and NUMA optimized operating systems can push the Opteron far beyond the numbers it is showing today. Especially the last feature could make a real difference for multi-CPU configurations (no wonder AMD and Sun are working together on 8-way+ Opteron system architectures).
Source: [link=http://www.aceshardware.com/read.jsp?id=60000275]Ace's Server Guide: Dual Xeon, Dual Opteron and Quad Opteron[/link]
0