AMD's Barcelona: benchmarks

Kai Schmerer ZDNet Germany

Published: 08 Oct 2007

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Go to section: Introduction Performance Conclusion Benchmarks

Conclusion
With only a few benchmark results available, it's not possible to reach any definitive conclusions. Even so, it's clear that the quad-core Opteron has a distinct advantage when handling multi-threaded floating-point operations. It's worth noting that the SPEC benchmarks can only serve as a guide since they represent the maximum performance level when running code that's optimised for the appropriate CPU architecture. However, many real-world applications are not optimised in this way, and so it's not possible to generalise the SPEC suite results.

Further testing will give a clearer picture of the performance differences between AMD's and Intel's quad-core processors. As far as virtualisation is concerned, though, AMD's Rapid Virtualization Indexing offers a clear advantage over Intel's frontside-bus-based architecture. For many IT managers, this could be reason enough to prefer AMD's quad-core processors over Intel's chips. However, the virtualisation software must support this extension: VMWare will support Rapid Virtualization Indexing in ESX Server 3.5, which is due to ship in December.

When it comes to desktop applications, AMD's current maximum clock speed of 2GHz for its quad-core chips is not sufficient to keep pace with Intel's Core microarchitecture. Single-threaded applications, such as 3D games, abound on the desktop, and here the Intel processors offer a clear performance advantage. As a result, AMD is only likely to ship desktop quad-core chips in December if the production process permits higher clock frequencies.

 

Go to section: Introduction Performance Conclusion Benchmarks

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