After watching vApus' result for both Intel and AMD gear, the natural conclusion drawn is that Hyper-V is more optimized for the Opteron architecture than ESX since the latter achieves a lower Geometric Mean VM rate (on that platform).
I guess it has something to do with maneuver of data into the L3 cache which is a critical condition for high multithreaded performance on the AMD platform. If so, my kudos to Microsoft.
Hey Anand,
I think you should do set up a test pitting the Xeon line against their perspective i7 counterparts and run some workstation type tests. I would be very interested in any testing that had to do with video encoding/rendering. I am a video editor and would love to see a side by side comparison with a xeon sytem of the same speed against a core i7 system. Also just for fun turn off the second processor or turn it on so we can see what kinds of rendering benefits a second processor with 4/6 cores (8/12 threads) would gain.
I very much agree. It would be interesting to run a typical "enthusiast" or "workstation" application/benchmark just to see how it compares.
I would like to see a Cinebench R10 comparison, a Everest PhotoWorxx, and a Fritz Chess Benchmark. Possibly a video encoding benchmark too.
A lot of enthusiasts run dual Xeons as workstations... you cant predict what software they will be running, but the above 3 tests are good general comparatives.
There are also servers providing other services like OCR or PDF generation. These Oracle database benchmarks are useful, but represent only one type of server/workstation use.
The 550x CPUs are crap. They don't have HyperThreading or TurboBoost. The only reason they exist is for a cheap entry price tag. If you don't need a lot of CPU (e.G. unvirtualized LOB software), better go with a 34xx series Xeon. A lot cheaper than the 55xx series.
they also exist for government and public service contracts . We got a z600 with 4 gig ram ,1 5504 xeon, and an 80 gig 10k rpm enterprise sata drive (also nvida gpu) for $700. For just $239 i can add another 5504 .
Probably because the benchmarkers are not familiar with those platforms? Doing benchmarks on a platform about which you don't know enough will not give you any usable results.
"server CPU architecture which already has the fastest cores on the market and you’ll get very impressive results"
This is not entirely correct. If you limit your self to x64 architecture, it is correct, but the recently released IBM POWER7 8 core chip blows away the Nehalem architecture in the benchmarks released so far.
For example, a 4 chip, 32 core 3.55Ghz POWER7 server does 85,220 SAPS in the SAP SD 2 tier benchmark and that isn't even the top bin POWER7. (top bin is 3.86Ghz with double the memory bandwidth / core) There are even larger margins in other benchmarks like specIntRate etc.
z/OS runs on System Z systems with z10 CICS processors. Eg Mainframes.
IBM System i servers are just high-end POWER servers. Running mainly Java and database loads, directly on IBM i/OS (previously i5/OS and before that AS/400) or AIX, or Linux. IBM DB2 is integrated directly into IBM i/OS.
Are you seriously going to buy a dual socket server (or workstation at a minimum) to play games? I'd rather see them take the time to do more enterprise benchmarking than waste it on what 0.00001% of the market wants.
You see you are writing server cpu reviews to punk kids that somehow only think of playing a game on a server. They just do not get it. Babies with computers, maybe this could play mario. These are good for boring server work, database, HyperV, etc. ECC ram. And they are still the best bang for the buck in a used server in 2016.
You are right. I work for Dell, since a couple of months after the launch of the 5500 Xeons we could do 2 DIMM per Channel (DPC) at 1333 MHz. It is a property of the chipset, rather than the CPU.
Also, going to 3 DPC will clock the memory down to 800 MHz, and this has been available in R710 (and similar products from others) for some time now.
The 8GB DIMM is getting cheap enough to be quoted without shame. 16 GB DIMMS still cost as much as my car.
The Nehalem-EX (probably called the Xeon 7500 series) are for quad socket boxes. From what I've been hearing, they should be released on 3/30. Not sure when the Poweredge R910 and Proliant DL580 G7 will show up though.
I always wish with these server/workstation part reviews that we could get a gaming page just for kicks. Specifically in this case I'm thinking of the upcoming dual socket EVGA board and if it will have any effect on games or if it will be only synthetics that show a benefit. I'd also like to see a modern workstation card vs it's mainstream counterpart to see if the gaming performance gap has gotten smaller or larger over the years. I think recently there's been a push to make workstation cards do better in 3d games so you can test your work on the same rig, cutting back on the number of systems.
I'd also be curious to see the E5620 overclocked in a consumer board, as its ~$400 price fills the hole between the ~$300 i7-920/930 and the ~$600 i7-950 rather nicely.
Intel's PR people would probably get pissed, but screw 'em.
I was about to post the same. There is a lot of people using Xeons in X58 and P55 boards. Some prefer the lower power consumption others beleive the Xeons oc better. Please show us the money!
I think you've got that backwards. A dual socket motherboard needs 5-series chips, but a 5-series should work in a single socket board just fine. In general it'd be silly to run only one (a 2.66GHz W3520 costs ~$300 while a 2.66GHz X5550 costs ~$1000) but if the cheapest 32nm LGA-1366 chip is a 5-series Xeon it might be worth it.
Blender 3D 2.50 in his Alpha 2 Stage supports 64 simultaneous Threads, and it's not hard to make benchmarks, and I am missing Blender 3D benchmarks in every processor launch, what happened with ''Blender 3D Character benchamrks'' ?
Blender can extract blood from those ''beasts''...
I have indeed heard more than once that Blender is getting really popular. "Alpha 2" does not sound like the software is very stable. Any suggestion to what kind of scene I should use? The scene choice is very important as the parallel rendering part must be long enough compared to some of serial parts in the process. You can mail me at johan@anandtech.com if you like. I am open to suggestions.
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40 Comments
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Wireloop - Saturday, March 27, 2010 - link
After watching vApus' result for both Intel and AMD gear, the natural conclusion drawn is that Hyper-V is more optimized for the Opteron architecture than ESX since the latter achieves a lower Geometric Mean VM rate (on that platform).I guess it has something to do with maneuver of data into the L3 cache which is a critical condition for high multithreaded performance on the AMD platform. If so, my kudos to Microsoft.
mgbell - Friday, March 19, 2010 - link
Hey Anand,I think you should do set up a test pitting the Xeon line against their perspective i7 counterparts and run some workstation type tests. I would be very interested in any testing that had to do with video encoding/rendering. I am a video editor and would love to see a side by side comparison with a xeon sytem of the same speed against a core i7 system. Also just for fun turn off the second processor or turn it on so we can see what kinds of rendering benefits a second processor with 4/6 cores (8/12 threads) would gain.
Thanks
MB
lemonadesoda - Sunday, March 21, 2010 - link
I very much agree. It would be interesting to run a typical "enthusiast" or "workstation" application/benchmark just to see how it compares.I would like to see a Cinebench R10 comparison, a Everest PhotoWorxx, and a Fritz Chess Benchmark. Possibly a video encoding benchmark too.
A lot of enthusiasts run dual Xeons as workstations... you cant predict what software they will be running, but the above 3 tests are good general comparatives.
There are also servers providing other services like OCR or PDF generation. These Oracle database benchmarks are useful, but represent only one type of server/workstation use.
damianrobertjones - Thursday, March 18, 2010 - link
I'm sitting here at the end of and ADSL line with a fresh WIndows XP machine, all updates, new Kaspersky install.While waiting for an app to install I've visited this page....
Bang. Kaspersky popped up with a warning
Trojan downloader.java.agent.aw from www.googleadsenstats.ru/useralexey/files/gsb50.jar/Appletx.class
Do you have something against ie8 as this doesn't happen with Opera?
PLEASE MAKE YOUR SITE SAFE!
itsmeagain - Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - link
Any chance you could throw a couple of these in a mac pro and give us a preview?Shadowmaster625 - Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - link
The E5503 looks like the most reasonable and appealing server processor for those of us that live in the real world. Yet there are no benchmarks...Lukas - Thursday, March 18, 2010 - link
The 550x CPUs are crap. They don't have HyperThreading or TurboBoost. The only reason they exist is for a cheap entry price tag. If you don't need a lot of CPU (e.G. unvirtualized LOB software), better go with a 34xx series Xeon. A lot cheaper than the 55xx series.majortom1981 - Tuesday, March 23, 2010 - link
they also exist for government and public service contracts . We got a z600 with 4 gig ram ,1 5504 xeon, and an 80 gig 10k rpm enterprise sata drive (also nvida gpu) for $700. For just $239 i can add another 5504 .pvdw - Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - link
How come only Windows servers are being used. What about RHEL with a Tomcat or JBOSS bench (surely such exists).Lukas - Thursday, March 18, 2010 - link
Probably because the benchmarkers are not familiar with those platforms? Doing benchmarks on a platform about which you don't know enough will not give you any usable results.behrouz - Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - link
why did you not test magny core ?JohanAnandtech - Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - link
For the same reason that there are no Magny-Cours benchmarks on AMD's site yet :-).drewintheav - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link
The INTEL i7 980X has dual QPI's and will run in a dual socket mainboard!!! Such as the EVGA W555 /Classified SR-2Lukas - Thursday, March 18, 2010 - link
No, i7 980X has only a single QPI link. But i'm pretty sure there's a corresponding W56xx CPU, with two QPI links and twice the price tag.thunng8 - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link
"server CPU architecture which already has the fastest cores on the market and you’ll get very impressive results"This is not entirely correct. If you limit your self to x64 architecture, it is correct, but the recently released IBM POWER7 8 core chip blows away the Nehalem architecture in the benchmarks released so far.
For example, a 4 chip, 32 core 3.55Ghz POWER7 server does 85,220 SAPS in the SAP SD 2 tier benchmark and that isn't even the top bin POWER7. (top bin is 3.86Ghz with double the memory bandwidth / core) There are even larger margins in other benchmarks like specIntRate etc.
Photubias - Thursday, March 18, 2010 - link
Just curious: what software (OS/applications) run on that 8Core POWER7 chip?Lukas - Thursday, March 18, 2010 - link
Linux, AIX, IBM i, z/OSThat's pretty much it. Lot's of traditional OLTP workloads run on those platforms. Several flight booking systems run on z/OS.
Penti - Thursday, March 18, 2010 - link
z/OS runs on System Z systems with z10 CICS processors. Eg Mainframes.IBM System i servers are just high-end POWER servers. Running mainly Java and database loads, directly on IBM i/OS (previously i5/OS and before that AS/400) or AIX, or Linux. IBM DB2 is integrated directly into IBM i/OS.
Torment - Thursday, March 18, 2010 - link
And what does that setup cost?vitchilo - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link
What would be great is ONE game test... like Crysis or something...And ONE X264 encode test...
Thanks a lot.
DigitalFreak - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link
Are you seriously going to buy a dual socket server (or workstation at a minimum) to play games? I'd rather see them take the time to do more enterprise benchmarking than waste it on what 0.00001% of the market wants.Starglider - Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - link
No but some HPC / CAD / scientific computing benchmarks would be good. Presumably we'll get the full suite when Nehalem EX and Magny Cours turn up.vitchilo - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link
I want to encode video, I mean a s***load of video + play games from time to time.rajod1 - Monday, February 1, 2016 - link
You see you are writing server cpu reviews to punk kids that somehow only think of playing a game on a server. They just do not get it. Babies with computers, maybe this could play mario. These are good for boring server work, database, HyperV, etc. ECC ram. And they are still the best bang for the buck in a used server in 2016.Starglider - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link
> You can now use up to two DIMMs at 1333MHz,> while the Xeon 5500 would throttle back to
> 1066MHz if you did this.
Presumably you mean 'up to two DIMMs per channel'?
DigitalFreak - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link
Not sure about the 2 DIMMs per channel forcing 1066Mhz. We've been ordering Dell R710s with the X5570 and 12x4GB of memory, which runs at 1333Mhz.TurboMax3 - Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - link
You are right. I work for Dell, since a couple of months after the launch of the 5500 Xeons we could do 2 DIMM per Channel (DPC) at 1333 MHz. It is a property of the chipset, rather than the CPU.Also, going to 3 DPC will clock the memory down to 800 MHz, and this has been available in R710 (and similar products from others) for some time now.
The 8GB DIMM is getting cheap enough to be quoted without shame. 16 GB DIMMS still cost as much as my car.
Navier - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link
Do you have information on Nehalem-EX and how that is going to fit in the updated road map with the latest 6 core systems?DigitalFreak - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link
The Nehalem-EX (probably called the Xeon 7500 series) are for quad socket boxes. From what I've been hearing, they should be released on 3/30. Not sure when the Poweredge R910 and Proliant DL580 G7 will show up though.duploxxx - Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - link
it is launched on 30/3 but actually only available mid june, call it a paper launch or whatever you want.yinan - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link
Bah 6 cores. 8 sockets by 8 cores is where it is at :)landerf - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link
I always wish with these server/workstation part reviews that we could get a gaming page just for kicks. Specifically in this case I'm thinking of the upcoming dual socket EVGA board and if it will have any effect on games or if it will be only synthetics that show a benefit. I'd also like to see a modern workstation card vs it's mainstream counterpart to see if the gaming performance gap has gotten smaller or larger over the years. I think recently there's been a push to make workstation cards do better in 3d games so you can test your work on the same rig, cutting back on the number of systems.GeorgeH - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link
I'd also be curious to see the E5620 overclocked in a consumer board, as its ~$400 price fills the hole between the ~$300 i7-920/930 and the ~$600 i7-950 rather nicely.Intel's PR people would probably get pissed, but screw 'em.
jonup - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link
I was about to post the same. There is a lot of people using Xeons in X58 and P55 boards. Some prefer the lower power consumption others beleive the Xeons oc better. Please show us the money!DigitalFreak - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link
You do realize that the 55xx/56xx series Xeons only work in dual socket motherboards?!?GeorgeH - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link
I think you've got that backwards. A dual socket motherboard needs 5-series chips, but a 5-series should work in a single socket board just fine. In general it'd be silly to run only one (a 2.66GHz W3520 costs ~$300 while a 2.66GHz X5550 costs ~$1000) but if the cheapest 32nm LGA-1366 chip is a 5-series Xeon it might be worth it.jonup - Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - link
But you can get E5520 @2.26GHz for $390 and get a faster QPI.greylica - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link
Blender 3D 2.50 in his Alpha 2 Stage supports 64 simultaneous Threads, and it's not hard to make benchmarks, and I am missing Blender 3D benchmarks in every processor launch, what happened with ''Blender 3D Character benchamrks'' ?Blender can extract blood from those ''beasts''...
JohanAnandtech - Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - link
I have indeed heard more than once that Blender is getting really popular. "Alpha 2" does not sound like the software is very stable. Any suggestion to what kind of scene I should use? The scene choice is very important as the parallel rendering part must be long enough compared to some of serial parts in the process. You can mail me at johan@anandtech.com if you like. I am open to suggestions.MySchizoBuddy - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link
Also add HPC related benchmarks