Intel Woodcrest: the Birth of a New King
by Jason Clark & Ross Whitehead on July 13, 2006 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- IT Computing
Forum Test results
Unlike the Dell DVD Store test, Woodcrest demonstrates a commanding lead at all load points. Woodcrest is able to lead the Opteron 285 by 10%-35% and Dempsey 3.73 by 18%-58%. The Forums test was harder to throttle at the lowest load point, thus the first load point results do not fit entirely into the expected linear model. In future reviews we may try and address this.
This graph is similar to the Dell Power results. Woodcrest is again the lowest consumer of power. Woodcrest leads the Opteron 285 by 13%-14%, and Dempsey 3.73 by 24%-34%.
Lower power and higher performance of course makes Woodcrest the clear leader at all load points in terms of Performance/Watt. It leads the Opteron 285 by 26%-58% and Dempsey 3.73 by 73%-108%. Again note that the Opteron 280 outperforms the Opteron 285 in terms of Performance/Watt.
Conclusion
It took a few years, which is normal for any architecture redesign, but we feel Intel has finally created a product that is not just competitive to the AMD Opteron. Woodcrest outperforms all of the competition in 2-way configurations, and it does so with lower power consumption. This combination leads to better Performance/Watt in all tested situations. Woodcrest not only outperforms it's predecessor by over 100% in Performance/Watt, but it outperforms Opteron by as much as 60% in Performance/Watt. In terms of straight performance the Woodcrest led the way by anywhere from 18 to 35% at higher system loads. We feel that Intel has the vision to continue this trend, as they have a clear roadmap for next year and beyond. Expect to see even further gains in 2007. How those parts will compete with future AMD products is unknown, but we have competition and that is always good for the consumer.
Unlike the Dell DVD Store test, Woodcrest demonstrates a commanding lead at all load points. Woodcrest is able to lead the Opteron 285 by 10%-35% and Dempsey 3.73 by 18%-58%. The Forums test was harder to throttle at the lowest load point, thus the first load point results do not fit entirely into the expected linear model. In future reviews we may try and address this.
This graph is similar to the Dell Power results. Woodcrest is again the lowest consumer of power. Woodcrest leads the Opteron 285 by 13%-14%, and Dempsey 3.73 by 24%-34%.
Lower power and higher performance of course makes Woodcrest the clear leader at all load points in terms of Performance/Watt. It leads the Opteron 285 by 26%-58% and Dempsey 3.73 by 73%-108%. Again note that the Opteron 280 outperforms the Opteron 285 in terms of Performance/Watt.
Conclusion
It took a few years, which is normal for any architecture redesign, but we feel Intel has finally created a product that is not just competitive to the AMD Opteron. Woodcrest outperforms all of the competition in 2-way configurations, and it does so with lower power consumption. This combination leads to better Performance/Watt in all tested situations. Woodcrest not only outperforms it's predecessor by over 100% in Performance/Watt, but it outperforms Opteron by as much as 60% in Performance/Watt. In terms of straight performance the Woodcrest led the way by anywhere from 18 to 35% at higher system loads. We feel that Intel has the vision to continue this trend, as they have a clear roadmap for next year and beyond. Expect to see even further gains in 2007. How those parts will compete with future AMD products is unknown, but we have competition and that is always good for the consumer.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
59 Comments
View All Comments
ashyanbhog - Tuesday, July 18, 2006 - link
Quite shocking to see Anand perform such a biased benchmark and get away so easily.Is it a coincidence that Dell did not sell AMD chips in their machines to date, and benchmarks from Dell show Intel chips perform better
Can we say tuned or skewed
photoguy99 - Thursday, July 13, 2006 - link
It's just killing fan boys like Kiijibari that Intel is the best 2-way server out there now and they have to craft these elaborate scenarios to somehow justify how AMD is still great.Man give it up - Is it not enough almost every hardware site on the net has crowned Woodcrest the new 2-way champ over AMD? How much more evidence do you want?
As I've posted before I own an FX-60 now so I don't feel great that Intel will soon be selling at Wal-mart a chip that will kick ass on my carefully overclocked FX system.
But so what? It is what it is. Sure AMD are planning new things, and when and if they are benchmarked to be superior, then you can have your day again.
For now Intel *owns* AMD except a couple niche segments - get used to it.
duploxxx - Friday, July 14, 2006 - link
i think you mean conroe... not woodcrest (the server chip) you can count the reviews on 1 hand that were made... two of them were from anand here. which are still in a large discussion about comparisson etc... and this one is comming straigth from intel...nice to see the "king" is anounced by intel themselves
vaystrem - Thursday, July 13, 2006 - link
That prevented Intel's Woodcrest computers from being considered for government bids?http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=32...">US government unit throws Intel out over RAID problems
or
http://theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=32818">Conroe shows dodgy RAID performance anomalies
I know its 'The Inq' but since this is a server test it would be nice to see some confirmation or exploration of this issue.
drwho9437 - Thursday, July 13, 2006 - link
The charts are almost totally inscrutable for the red-green color blind population, which is something like 5% of males. Learn to use a decent color scheme or incorperate symbol shapes as well as colors. Map makers know this...forPPP - Thursday, July 13, 2006 - link
All of you ranting about comparing 3.0 GHz Woodcrest to 2.6 GHz Operton, look here:http://www.behardware.com/articles/623-1/intel-cor...">http://www.behardware.com/articles/623-1/intel-cor... and see how much better Core 2 architecture is. Core 2 Duo 2.13 GHz beats Athlon FX-62 2.8 GHz in most benchmarks. Of course architecture is not everything, especially in enterprise market. Operton has advantage thanks to HyperTransort and advantage of Woodcrest is diminished because of FSB. But the main battle will occur with Desktops and here Core 2 Duo shines. Lets hope AMD will show something intersting soon, not only prices drop. All in all we consumers will benefit from this battle.
duploxxx - Friday, July 14, 2006 - link
you are looking at desktop... don't compare desktop with server... desktop is more the mass and low profit.... server and laptop are for the profit.Locutus465 - Thursday, July 13, 2006 - link
AMD will manage to come out with a decent competetor in the next little while and we'll have real compitition in the CPU space again. I'm sure this sucks for AMD right now, and if AMD were able to rebound and deliver a competitor in the relitive near term futer for intel too. But for consumers, competition is beautiful, already we can look twards dirt cheap A64's for your low to mid-range computing needs.FesterOZ - Thursday, July 13, 2006 - link
I tried skimming back through the article but is Anand just measuring the CPU wattage or the overall wattage draw for the whole platform (i.e. cpu, northbridge,dimms?Jason Clark - Thursday, July 13, 2006 - link
Wall folks, sorry that wasn't more clear. We'll ensure we include power measurement information in future articles. We use the same procedure as we've used in previous articles with power, an extech device and we log power througout the test duration.Cheers.