Benchmarks: AMD's 45nm 'Shanghai' Opteron

Christoph Hochstätter ZDNet Germany

Published: 20 Nov 2008

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Go to section: Introduction Virtualisation compatibility Expanded L3 cache Arithmetic performance Memory performance Virtualisation Conclusion

Memory throughput: no chance for Intel
As soon as main memory performance comes into play, AMD regains the advantage over Intel.

In rendering tests, the Shanghai (Opteron 2384) and Harpertown (Xeon E5462) systems deliver nearly identical results. The Shanghai system processed the Persistence of Vision (PovRay) benchmark 6.6 percent slower than Harpertown, with 3.5 percent less clock speed. The AMD machine took 5.3 percent longer to complete the Cinebench R10 benchmark than the Intel quad-core system. Meanwhile, with 50 percent more cores and an almost identical clock speed to the Shanghai testbed, the Dunnington (Xeon X7460) system ran the PovRay benchmark 54 percent faster and the Cinebench R10 test 41 percent faster.

Although CPU performance is the dominant factor in ray-tracing, memory throughput also plays its part. The Shanghai processors handled ZIP compression (Lavalys ZLib) 2.2 per cent faster than their Harpertown counterparts. That difference in performance becomes clearer with the 7Zip benchmark, in which the AMD system is 6.9 percent faster than the Intel quad-core machine. The 12-core Dunnington system outstrips Shanghai in the Lavalys ZLib benchmark by some 44 percent, but only by about 12 percent in the 7Zip test.

The Lavalys Photoworxx benchmark makes only small demands on arithmetic performance, but stresses memory throughput. Here AMD has the advantage, with the Shanghai system beating Harpertown by 10.5 percent. Dunnington's complex memory architecture and its snoop filter between the L3 cache and main memory get in the way. Intel's six-core system bring up the rear, 27 percent slower than AMD's quad-core Shanghai machine.

Go to section: Introduction Virtualisation compatibility Expanded L3 cache Arithmetic performance Memory performance Virtualisation Conclusion

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