AMD's 3rd generation Opteron versus Intel's 45nm Xeon: a closer look
by Johan De Gelas on November 27, 2007 6:00 AM EST- Posted in
- IT Computing
64-bit MySQL (Linux 64-bit)
MySQL has released version 5.1.22, which supposedly can scale up to eight CPU cores. That would be a huge improvement considering that all versions earlier than 5.0.37 could only make good use of two CPU cores. In our experience, this new binary scales well up to four cores, but eight cores are easily 20% slower than four core systems. Thus, we tested with a maximum of four cores.
Please note that these results cannot be compared with our earlier MySQL results. MySQL v5.1.22 is a completely different binary than v5.0.2x we tested previously. Although it still doesn't scale beyond four cores, it is up to 70% (!!) faster than v5.0.26 that came standard with our SLES 10 SP1. For smaller servers with four cores, MySQL is once again an ultra fast database.
Moreover, the third generation of Opterons absolutely loves this new MySQL version. At 2.5GHz, it is just as fast (the margin of error is up to 4%) as the mighty Xeon 5472 at 3GHz. As we failed to profile MySQL in depth (CodeAnalyst for Linux still has some quirks), we cannot pinpoint the exact reason why the Opteron 23xx is so good at this. The MySQL database is mostly limited by synchronizing the locks, so we suspect that the slightly faster cache coherency syncing on the Opteron 23xx might be one of the reasons AMD's latest performs so well.
WinRAR 3.62 (Windows 32-bit)
WinRAR 3.62 is a completely different kind of workload.
| WinRAR 3.62 Profiling | |
| Profile | Total |
| Average IPC (on AMD 2350) | 0.36 |
| Instruction mix | |
| Floating Point | 0% |
| SSE | 0% |
| Branches | 9% |
| L1 datacache ratio | 1.13 |
| L1 I cache ratio | 0.35 |
| Performance indicators (on Opteron 2350) | |
| Branch misprediction | 7% |
| L1 datacache miss | 4% |
| L1 Instruction cache miss | 0% |
| L2 cache miss | 3% |
Notice that contrary to the other workloads we have profiled so far, WinRAR does not run perfectly in the L1 or L2 cache. Second, notice the huge amount of loads that happen: more than one per retired instruction.
The massive bandwidth that Barcelona can offer multi-threaded software pays off here. You can also see that the Seaburg chipset improves the score of the 3GHz quad-core Xeon by 7%.
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tshen83 - Tuesday, November 27, 2007 - link
Seriously, can you buy the 2360SE? Newegg doesn't even stock the 1.7Ghz 2344HEs.The same situation exist on the Phenom line of CPUs. I don't see the value of reviewing Phenom 9700, 9900s when AMD cannot deliver them. I am trouble locating Phenom 9500s.
alantay - Tuesday, November 27, 2007 - link
The MySQL scalability problem is not so much in MySQL as in the Linux kernel and Glibc used.To have it scale correctly to 8 CPUs you need kernel 2.6.22.x (alternatively you could try with a 2.6.24-RC -should be a bit faster-, but not with 2.6.23.x) and Glibc 2.6 or higher.
A default Ubuntu 7.10 for example should scale well with MySQL (OpenSUSE 10.3 *might* work, but they have backported the 2.6.23 scheduler which has a scalability problem).
Thanks for the article!
JohanAnandtech - Tuesday, November 27, 2007 - link
Excellent feedback.It is a bit frustrating that once again you need some ultra new kernel and libraries to get good scalability. THat is unrealistic for people who use SLES and who rely on their support contract to get updates.
MGSsancho - Wednesday, November 28, 2007 - link
how about opensolaris? i dont know how much different it is from solaris 10, but it should be able to scale to dozens of cores nicely. I was about to ask about oracle and DB2 benchmarks but you answered that in your article; expensive, and the oems usually publish that info.anyways awesome article
Roy2001 - Tuesday, November 27, 2007 - link
I cannot find a SINGLE one, nowhere.drebo - Tuesday, November 27, 2007 - link
Newegg has the Phenom 9500 in stock. At least, they did yesterday. I've also got a vendor I use that has them in stock.JarredWalton - Tuesday, November 27, 2007 - link
But Phenom isn't Opteron 23xx. Different socket, different market, and it has L3. (Does Phenom X4 have an L3 cache? Maybe I should go check....)drebo - Wednesday, November 28, 2007 - link
Yes, Phenom 9500 has an L3. But if you look at his question (in the subject line), he is asking about barcelona as a whole and phenom specifically. The answer is Yes, they are available.Slaimus - Tuesday, November 27, 2007 - link
They may be gobbled by up Cray for that Budapest supercomputer.Regs - Tuesday, November 27, 2007 - link
I would not expect any from vendors and wholesalers until early next year.Matter of fact I wouldn't want one until then anyhow. I would at least wait until B3 stepping.