ES Xeon Discussion
- Thread starter britinpdx
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i never had any unstable conditions with my Q2SR or other EMR A0 ES, can be bad CPU(too hot?),RAM,mobo, PSU, etc.
Maybe I've missed this, but are there issues with a Q2SR and the Gigabyte MS03-CE0 with PCIE slot 2? I cannot get anything to show up in this slot, even when I set slot 1 to 8x lanes. My plans have all of the slots populated so fingers crossed this is possible.
if there bad contacts in this area, the CPU type doesn't matter.
have you tried with any other CPU ?
I didn't try any of the other CPUs I have. I was testing them all with just the motherboard and no PCIe cards. I wondered if I had a setting messed up because I know slot 1 and 2 are shared 16x.
sure you may got a bad Q2SR, best would be to compare with another one. that's the risk of (cheaper) goofish comapred to ebay where you can easy swap or return.
I have a second one to try, just not sure if I can make time to try it tonight
Well turns out it's not the CPU or the board. I actually have a bad Intel P4800x optane drive.
Hi everyone, I'm looking to build the most cost-effective machine possible for CPU inference with large language models (LLMs), keeping the budget under $1000.
Since the cheapest RDIMM DDR5 is at least six times more expensive than RDIMM DDR4 2667MHz, I have no choice but to use a DDR4-based platform. I'm fully aware that Ice Lake-SP lacks AMX instructions, but 512GB of DDR5 is simply out of my budget.
From my understanding, Ice Lake-SP Xeons are the most capable Intel CPUs for DDR4. I found a few engineering sample (ES) models on eBay that fit my budget (I would need two for my setup):
Xeon 8352Y – $120
Xeon 8358 QVM8 – $120
Xeon 8360Y – $160
Xeon 8368 – $160
For those unfamiliar with CPU inference for LLMs, memory bandwidth is the biggest bottleneck. 32 cores should be enough, but since I'll also be using the machine for other purposes, including gaming, single-core performance might be even more important than the number of cores when comparing these options. I would most likely disable hyper-threading (HT) as well.
My Questions:
Are these ES CPUs generally compatible with Xeon motherboards (specifically the Tyan S7120)?
Do these ES CPUs support dual-socket configurations (this is critical)?
Do all of these CPUs have 8 memory channels?
Which one would you pick? (If they’re functionally similar, I’d choose the cheapest models.)
Do any of these CPUs have unique features that might be useful for my setup?
How do these compare to EPYC Milan CPUs with a similar core count in terms of single-core and multi-thread performance? Most benchmarks compare them against 64-core EPYC models, which isn't helpful for my case.
Since the cheapest RDIMM DDR5 is at least six times more expensive than RDIMM DDR4 2667MHz, I have no choice but to use a DDR4-based platform. I'm fully aware that Ice Lake-SP lacks AMX instructions, but 512GB of DDR5 is simply out of my budget.
From my understanding, Ice Lake-SP Xeons are the most capable Intel CPUs for DDR4. I found a few engineering sample (ES) models on eBay that fit my budget (I would need two for my setup):
Xeon 8352Y – $120
Xeon 8358 QVM8 – $120
Xeon 8360Y – $160
Xeon 8368 – $160
For those unfamiliar with CPU inference for LLMs, memory bandwidth is the biggest bottleneck. 32 cores should be enough, but since I'll also be using the machine for other purposes, including gaming, single-core performance might be even more important than the number of cores when comparing these options. I would most likely disable hyper-threading (HT) as well.
My Questions:
Are these ES CPUs generally compatible with Xeon motherboards (specifically the Tyan S7120)?
Do these ES CPUs support dual-socket configurations (this is critical)?
Do all of these CPUs have 8 memory channels?
Which one would you pick? (If they’re functionally similar, I’d choose the cheapest models.)
Do any of these CPUs have unique features that might be useful for my setup?
How do these compare to EPYC Milan CPUs with a similar core count in terms of single-core and multi-thread performance? Most benchmarks compare them against 64-core EPYC models, which isn't helpful for my case.
not clear on Tyan, but Ice Lake is not supported by latest BIOS on other motherboards (Supermicro, Gigabyte, ASRock)
you don't want to go with early BIOS full of bugs.
yes some.
yes, but some early steppings loose channels one by one over time, not clear if silicon or oxidation issue.
none
Ice lake have low clocks but can turbo to half of the core count (same with later SP gens)
only QDF models QWxx are prod.stepping and work with latest BIOS, sellers know and "adjust" the prices.
e.g. QWAT,QWAQ,QWAS,QWAP etc.
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Thanks a lot for your response and apologies in advance if I may write somethings stupid.
Just to clarify, when you say Ice Lake is not supported by latest BIOS, are you referring to those ES models and not Ice Lake-SP models in general, correct?
To avoid any confusion, I was referring to this motherboard: MiTAC S7120 S7120GM2NRE
Even QWxx models as the ones you suggested in the following post are not worth it in your opinion?
Assuming the models I listed are all QWxx, which model would you pick?
i refer to your list
no because regular motherboard prices are not much lower compared to LGA4677.
QWAP 38C (2.3 - 3.7ghz) 270W $290
QWAT 38C (2.2 - 3.4ghz) 270W $180
QWAN/QWAV 32C (2.2 - 3.4ghz) 240W
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note if the listing states e.g. platinum 8358 ES, don't expect the same features than production model 8358, the Brand String of ES is "0000" (show in CPU-Z and BIOS ) for good reasons.
imho you should go with EPYC SP3 platform ( because DDR5 is not in your budget )
QWAT 38C (2.2 - 3.4ghz) 270W $180
edit: QWAP is better but double the price
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BIOS crossflash is not possible, too many differences.
the target motherboard needs at least a BIOS with 5th gen EMR support, then modifiy it IF ealry BIOS not work with A0
( e.g. ASRock Rack SP(2)C741 early/debug BIOS work with A0, later/official not, Hetzner worked with Q2SR )