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Hardware AMD Opteron 6174 vs Intel Xeon X5650 Review

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Sifter3000, 31 Mar 2010.

  1. Lizard

    Lizard @ Scan R&D

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    As promised here are the frame times for the bigadv folding client on the CPUs in this article:

    2 x AMD Opteron 6174 = 18:02
    2 x Intel Xeon X5650 = 18:10
    2 x Intel Xeon W5580 = 23:00
    2 x Intel Xeon X5482 = 32:00
     
  2. Initialised

    Initialised What's a Dremel?

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    Can you post the scaling factor with the Cinebench data?

    From what I've seen Hyper-Threading helps keep it linear as core count increases but this drops off after 4 cores with AMD's X6 getting 4.75 to 4.93 while i7 980X gets ~5.7.

    Now that we are entrenched in the Core Wars it makes sense to look at the impact of Amdahl's law in massively multicore computational environments.
     
  3. adlihajarat

    adlihajarat What's a Dremel?

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    I wonder if the code in those programs is optimized for the AMD microcode as it has to emulate the code when it runs the Intel code, which slows it down. I say this out of previous experience when I coded a program to test bench a coding scheme on different platforms running on AMD and Intel processors. The first run was using a code done for Intel, and the AMD was slower in that case, but when the same code was optimized for the AMD processor, things were there other way round, as the AMD won it clear.
     
  4. pearl.of.wisdom

    pearl.of.wisdom montonies

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    Surely, this is always the case, application code optimization has always had a massive impact on performance, that's why Intel has has been obsessed with preventing a fair playing field between the two; Intel will do anything, possibly short of arson and assassination, to keep developers from supporting AMD properly.
     
  5. Tulatin

    Tulatin The Froggy Poster

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    I think you should change your username to Pearl of Bias.
     
  6. pearl.of.wisdom

    pearl.of.wisdom montonies

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    O Touche!, Dear Frog Sir [Or Madam], but please do be reasonable, coding optimizations do have such a terrible impact on performance; have you not heard the stories over the years of the fights that have been had? Wheather it may be Intel here, or Nvidia their, or AMD over that way.
    And you left the dots out of my non deplume! You accursed amphibian!
    Still, you're right a little bit; "To the last breath of my dying body, I will spit out my hate, my hate, too those demons at Intel Corp. Die! I tell you! Die!"
     
  7. Tulatin

    Tulatin The Froggy Poster

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    While Intel is far and likely to be doing things like this, it's just a function of business. I'm fairly sure AMD does it - you don't have to demonize them to the point of running a lawnmower through a field of babies.
     
  8. pearl.of.wisdom

    pearl.of.wisdom montonies

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    Well dear, Tulatin, I don't think I would, you know, eh lawnmower the baby thing. And true, all companies cheat to some degree if that think they can get away with it, God knows AMD is not some shinning knight, it's just, sigh, well, [a] Intel does is worse and there seems to be so much either anti-AMD, or pro-Intel [whichever] feeling around. Anyway, I going off to hit my punchbag, it has a pic of Mr. Otellini on it.
     
  9. Muad'Dib

    Muad'Dib What's a Dremel?

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    Well, the conclusion is not only extremely biased in favour of Intel, but also fundamentally flawed.

    Firstly, it is just absurd that 24 virtual cores at similar clock frequency and similar IPC could ever be faster than 24 real cores...
    That said, most of the so-called "test suites" are mostly a case against themselves, rather than the processors. Clearly, if a test suite cannot fully utilize a computer (with 2 Opterons 6174), what is the point of having the computer go through it?

    Anyway, I bet that most of the "overwhelming" results of Intel processors are actually the result of the ignominious Intel compiler...

    Clearly, many commercial apps and their developers have slept on their laurels are simply not ready for the offering and challenge that the Opteron G34 socket system present for them.

    Actually, it would be absurd to scathe AMD for gluing 2 processor dice, for Intel has done that for long; in fact, Intel wasn't able to produce a native quad-core CPU before Nehalem. All that matters is power consumption, which is, quite surprisingly, lower than Intel's Xeon, just check the numbers – remember that AMD's ACP means roughly the same as Intel's TDP.

    Anyway, I disagree that the best explanation is IPC and clock frequency. I'd say it is the optimization – or, better said, the lack thereof – that makes and can explain the huge difference. The real difference only shows up with applications ready for the processors.

    Besides, what WPrime does is nowhere near those "simplistic maths calculations", as alleged in the article.

    And what the hell did you study, if such an obvious thing as the tangent iterative numerical method (also known as the Newton-Rhapson method) says nothing to you??!
     
  10. Culinia

    Culinia What's a Dremel?

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    Where would one buy AMD Opteron 6174 and all the neccesary kit? I looked at the usuals i.e. Scan, OC, Ebuyer etc and none have them listed and don't sell the correct g34 motherboard.
     
  11. confusis

    confusis Kiwi-modder

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