Intel’s new Xeon 5500 series uses the chip giant's 'Nehalem' architecture to effectively put a pair of Core i7 CPUs on a workstation motherboard.
Intel Xeon 5500 Intel's Xeon 5500: scorcher
That news should come as a pleasant surprise, but of course Apple ruined our fun when it launched its new Mac Pro a couple of weeks ago, …
IMHO the driving force behind all this multi-core CPU development has been nothing to do with desktop\workstation performance or applications. Illusrated by the lack of multi-core aware applications for desktop computing. It is about virtualisation.
How about shoving some of these bad boys in an ESX server and doing some VM benchmarking as i suspect that is the area Intel will be shipping most of these (initially at least)?
I was excited to see The Register have these amazing new CPUs in for real world testing. But anyone with at least £4000 spare to buy a complete system would not be buying it to play games. Most buyers will want to do grown-up business things like run databases or virtual machines.
Please run your tests again to show transaction I/O/sec and other useful benchmarks that reflect what the vast majority of people will be using the new Xeon 55xx CPUs for. Pretty please? Thanks.
We already know what these processors can do with desktop apps and games. The info in this article is irrelevant to just about everyone. Only a small small number of people will use dual nehalem systems for the desktop.
How about a test using real enterprise or professional software? Things like RDMS's, HPC apps, web apps, java middleware, professional rendering apps and engineering/CAD/CAM apps!
Two things I noticed, the 3D Professor review reports a main memory latency of only 65ns for 12GB RAM. And that the 3D Studio Underwater benchmark normaly takes 75 minutes, their review PC did it in ~35 minutes. Sounds fast to me!
I hope El Reg doesn't object but Anandtech have published a very thorough review of this new CPU when used in a real business environment. For example, running MS SQL it will be 7x faster than a 3 year old Xeon server that you might be wanting to replace.
An estimated 50% of the new server market is for running VMs. A server with dual X5570 CPUs runs neck and neck on a VMWare benchmark to a server with *quad* CPUs from last generation's Xeons. It's performance as a workhorse is breathtaking. Link: http://it.anandtech.com/IT/showdoc.aspx?i=3536
Register
Intel 'Nehalem' Xeon 5500 series
Intel’s new Xeon 5500 series uses the chip giant's 'Nehalem' architecture to effectively put a pair of Core i7 CPUs on a workstation motherboard. Intel Xeon 5500 Intel's Xeon 5500: scorcher That news should come as a pleasant surprise, but of course Apple ruined our fun when it launched its new Mac Pro a couple of weeks ago, …
This topic is closed for new posts.
Posted Wednesday 1st April 2009 12:36 GMT
Rik Hemsley
These are server processors #
Why are you reviewing server processors using desktop apps?
Posted Wednesday 1st April 2009 13:13 GMT
david
V #
IMHO the driving force behind all this multi-core CPU development has been nothing to do with desktop\workstation performance or applications. Illusrated by the lack of multi-core aware applications for desktop computing. It is about virtualisation.
How about shoving some of these bad boys in an ESX server and doing some VM benchmarking as i suspect that is the area Intel will be shipping most of these (initially at least)?
Paris - because she likes her bad boys....
Posted Wednesday 1st April 2009 13:13 GMT
Hombre sin nombre
HD 4890 eh? #
Not so unannounced anymore.
Posted Wednesday 1st April 2009 14:01 GMT
Gary F
Please run business tests, not children's tests #
I was excited to see The Register have these amazing new CPUs in for real world testing. But anyone with at least £4000 spare to buy a complete system would not be buying it to play games. Most buyers will want to do grown-up business things like run databases or virtual machines.
Please run your tests again to show transaction I/O/sec and other useful benchmarks that reflect what the vast majority of people will be using the new Xeon 55xx CPUs for. Pretty please? Thanks.
Posted Wednesday 1st April 2009 15:39 GMT
RichardB
+1 for the bandwagon #
Server apps please!
SQL Server for a start - but any other RDBMS would be a good place to begin.
Posted Wednesday 1st April 2009 21:56 GMT
E
Adding my voice. #
We already know what these processors can do with desktop apps and games. The info in this article is irrelevant to just about everyone. Only a small small number of people will use dual nehalem systems for the desktop.
How about a test using real enterprise or professional software? Things like RDMS's, HPC apps, web apps, java middleware, professional rendering apps and engineering/CAD/CAM apps!
Posted Wednesday 1st April 2009 22:10 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Another review... #
Hello,
3D Professor has a workstation review of these Xeons that people may find interesting.
http://www.3dprofessor.org/Reviews%20Folder%20Pages/EP/EP0.htm
Two things I noticed, the 3D Professor review reports a main memory latency of only 65ns for 12GB RAM. And that the 3D Studio Underwater benchmark normaly takes 75 minutes, their review PC did it in ~35 minutes. Sounds fast to me!
Posted Wednesday 1st April 2009 22:10 GMT
Gary F
Found some real server benchmarks #
I hope El Reg doesn't object but Anandtech have published a very thorough review of this new CPU when used in a real business environment. For example, running MS SQL it will be 7x faster than a 3 year old Xeon server that you might be wanting to replace.
An estimated 50% of the new server market is for running VMs. A server with dual X5570 CPUs runs neck and neck on a VMWare benchmark to a server with *quad* CPUs from last generation's Xeons. It's performance as a workhorse is breathtaking. Link: http://it.anandtech.com/IT/showdoc.aspx?i=3536
Posted Thursday 2nd April 2009 09:15 GMT
Goat Jam
Ummm FAIL #
So, you run a bunch of tests that
1) Can't actually test the performance of the kit
2) Is not actually relevant to the intended uses of the kit
3) Despite points 1 and 2, declare the performance as breathtaking.
If you MUST do video compression testing on multi-core CPU's, then at least endeavour to use software that, you know, can utilise multiple cores.
DVDRIP on linux springs to mind.
Posted Thursday 2nd April 2009 19:16 GMT
edward wright
Pounds, dollars #
Is the X5550 really £958 and not $958? :)
Steve because he shipped them 1st.
Posted Thursday 2nd April 2009 19:16 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Impressive test results #
http://www.finextra.com/fullstory.asp?id=19858
Posted Thursday 2nd April 2009 23:01 GMT
Anonymous Coward
@ "Not desktop" #
Odd. The MacPro, containing a pair of these mofos, looks a lot like a desktop to me.
All we need to do is get shot of that 'orrible OSX...
Posted Tuesday 7th April 2009 20:02 GMT
Anonymous Coward
benchmarks #
how about php/webserver tasks and database tasks vs a similar spec xeon 5400.
This topic is closed for new posts.