Virtualization Benchmarks

[The Gecko]

This is a continuation of a thread in the Deals section. I realized that the thread was going to move further away from being a discussion about deals and more about "which hardware is better"; hence the switch.

I've got a Dell R710 w/256GB RAM (16x16) running dual X5560. I'd like to upgrade to something a little faster. The server is a virtualization platform running Hyper-V 2012 R2. I was looking to move from X5560 to X5660. Some board members suggested I look at X5650 for the cost savings.

I've also recently discovered the X5667 and X5672 variants. The '67 and '72 are quad-core, but clocked much higher compared to the '50 and '60, and still fit within the 95W TDP envelope. The '67 and '72 are also cheaper than the '50 and '60.

I tried looking for some SPECvirt benchmarks that compared these processors, but my Google-fu failed me. Can someone point me towards some virtualization benchmarks or offer some advice? Thank you, much appreciated.

CPU-World comparison linky.

 

[T_Minus]

I haven't seen much in virtualization benchmarks, especially the newer stuff on the older generation systems.

I can say that I went from an x55xx 2P system to a SINGLE Sandby Bridge (E3-1230 v1) and performance increase was nothing short of amazing.

I personally have: 2P x5675 and 2P x5680 setups.

Intel Xeon X5672 vs X5675

4 cores at 3.6 vs 6 at 3.4, I'll take the 3.4 with 6 cores all day myself, especially for virtualization where those extra cores (x2) really start to add up. IF you were talking 6 Core 2.0ghz vs 4 core 3.6 then that may be worth testing/comparing but I'd stick with the 6 core myself for the performance.

The x5675 I think I paid around $100 each for, the x5680 I was impatient and paid around 200/each.

The x5650 is def. a sweet spot, I forget I may have some of these laying around even, I think they go for $40-60 on ebay.

When you start comparing the 2P x5670 to modern day E3 and E5s on passmark you can see how they're still a good bang for buck if you're not in a rush to buy, and can snag them at great deals or good deal type prices. There are some sellers still asking retailers, and buyers still buying!!!

If you watch you can even find complete systems (1U) <200$

 

[Patrick]

I think they go for $40-60 on ebay.

Back when the 2nd gen Facebook / Twitter Dell C6100's were being decommissioned that was the case. Now they are actually selling for a bit more. Somewhat like the C6100 barebones.

Still my general rule is that if you are not limited by single threaded performance, within the same generation you are basically cores * frequency = relative performance (within generation). That is super simple, but it is surprising how well it works.

So simple math:
X5650 = 6C * 2.66 = 15.96
X5660 = 6C * 2.8 = 16.8
X5667 = 4C * 3.06 = 12.24
X5672 = 4C * 3.2 = 12.8
L5640 = 6C * 2.26 = 13.56

Now there are some differences like the QPI speed of the L5640 I think was lower but realistically, that is a good ballpark way to estimate total available performance. Each generation adds 5-15% in terms of micro architecture performance and other bits (e.g. transition to DDR4) at the same clock speed. Virtualization is an area that Intel does invest in making VMM exits more efficient so that has gotten better moving to the E5 and then within those generations. Also, the E5-x600 generation got more bandwidth due to quad channel memory and being able to support higher frequencies with more DIMMs populated.

So your baseline X5560 would be 4C * 2.8 = 11.2 * (1- 6%) = 10.53

That is a bit (ok really) crude but ballpark that is directionally correct. The Westmere-EP generation also had a major architecture improvement in terms of adding AES-NI. AES-NI is such a big accelerator if doing encryption either of data on the server, OpenSSL standard libraries and etc, that it will have an enormous impact if you can use it. Also the 32nm had much better power characteristics than the Xeon 5500 series so net. Figure X5560 -> X5650 will be ~50% more performance available and lower power consumption for $120-150.

The other consideration is licensing costs. If you have a DB that is licensed per core, then the X5672 is a better option since that is higher clocks and fewer cores. Also, if the DB is limited by single threaded performance (or if you have virtualized minecraft servers for example.) Then you want higher clock speeds.

Hope that helps.

 

[The Gecko]

Thank you all for your input. I just scored a pair of x5675 CPUs for $200 shipped.