The Intel Xeon 5670: Six Improved Cores
by Johan De Gelas on March 16, 2010 3:39 PM EST- Posted in
- IT Computing
SAP Sales and Distribution 2-tier
The SAP SD (sales and distribution, 2-tier internet configuration) benchmark is an interesting benchmark as it is a real world client-server application. We decided to take a look at SAP's benchmark database. The results below all run on Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition and MS SQL Server 2005 database (both 64-bit). Every 2-tier Sales & Distribution benchmark was performed with SAP's latest ERP 6 enhancement package 4. These results are NOT comparable with any benchmark performed before 2009. The new 2009 version of the benchmark produces scores that are 25% lower. We analyzed the SAP Benchmark in-depth in one of our earlier articles. The profile of the benchmark has remained the same:
| SAP S&D 2-Tier | |
| Operating System | Windows 2008 Enterprise Edition |
| Software | SAP ERP 6.0 Enhancement package 4 |
| Benchmark software | Industry Standard benchmark version 2009 |
| Typical error margin | Very low |
No results were available for the Xeon X5670, so we estimated the expected performance of the Xeon X5670 based on the X5680 result that Fujitsu published and on some preliminary industry reports.
(*) Estimated result
The six-core Xeon is no less than twice (!) as fast as the six-core Opteron in a similar configuration. Pretty dramatic results, but not unexpected of course as the six-core Opteron could never come close to the quadcore Xeons in the first place, let alone an improved six-core version of the latter. The reasons are many-fold, but one of the important ones is the fact that Hyperthreading boosts performance by at least 30%.
Even worse, 12 Westmere cores are enough to come very close to the performance of a 24-core Opteron machine. This is does not bode well for the newest octal and twelve-core Opterons (Magny-cours). To be really frank, we think the SAP market is Intel owned until AMD launches the multi-threaded Bulldozer CPU. Most of the SAP server market is not very sensitive to pricing, let alone CPU pricing. SAP projects, which need expensive licenses and many consulting hours are typically in the $100K to $100M range and x86 hardware costs are most of the time only a small percentage of the total project costs. The final blow is the appearance of the Nehalem EX at the end of this month.
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yinan - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link
Bah 6 cores. 8 sockets by 8 cores is where it is at :)landerf - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link
I always wish with these server/workstation part reviews that we could get a gaming page just for kicks. Specifically in this case I'm thinking of the upcoming dual socket EVGA board and if it will have any effect on games or if it will be only synthetics that show a benefit. I'd also like to see a modern workstation card vs it's mainstream counterpart to see if the gaming performance gap has gotten smaller or larger over the years. I think recently there's been a push to make workstation cards do better in 3d games so you can test your work on the same rig, cutting back on the number of systems.GeorgeH - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link
I'd also be curious to see the E5620 overclocked in a consumer board, as its ~$400 price fills the hole between the ~$300 i7-920/930 and the ~$600 i7-950 rather nicely.Intel's PR people would probably get pissed, but screw 'em.
jonup - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link
I was about to post the same. There is a lot of people using Xeons in X58 and P55 boards. Some prefer the lower power consumption others beleive the Xeons oc better. Please show us the money!DigitalFreak - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link
You do realize that the 55xx/56xx series Xeons only work in dual socket motherboards?!?GeorgeH - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link
I think you've got that backwards. A dual socket motherboard needs 5-series chips, but a 5-series should work in a single socket board just fine. In general it'd be silly to run only one (a 2.66GHz W3520 costs ~$300 while a 2.66GHz X5550 costs ~$1000) but if the cheapest 32nm LGA-1366 chip is a 5-series Xeon it might be worth it.jonup - Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - link
But you can get E5520 @2.26GHz for $390 and get a faster QPI.greylica - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link
Blender 3D 2.50 in his Alpha 2 Stage supports 64 simultaneous Threads, and it's not hard to make benchmarks, and I am missing Blender 3D benchmarks in every processor launch, what happened with ''Blender 3D Character benchamrks'' ?Blender can extract blood from those ''beasts''...
JohanAnandtech - Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - link
I have indeed heard more than once that Blender is getting really popular. "Alpha 2" does not sound like the software is very stable. Any suggestion to what kind of scene I should use? The scene choice is very important as the parallel rendering part must be long enough compared to some of serial parts in the process. You can mail me at johan@anandtech.com if you like. I am open to suggestions.MySchizoBuddy - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link
Also add HPC related benchmarks