What Intel and AMD are Offering
Before we can dive into benchmarks, it is good to see how the vendors position their CPUs. Before we do that, a quick specsheet of the most important AMD and Intel CPUs.
| Model | Speed (GHz) | Max. clock 4 cores busy (GHz) | L2 Cache (KB) | L3 Cache (MB) | Interconnect Bandwidth in One Direction |
| Intel Xeon X5570 | 2.93 | 3.2 | 4 x 256 KB | 8 MB | 12.3 GB/s |
| Intel Xeon X5560 | 2.80 | 3.066 | 4 x 256 KB | 8 MB | 12.3 GB/s |
| Intel Xeon X5550 | 2.66 | 2.93 | 4 x 256 KB | 8 MB | 12.3 GB/s |
| AMD Opteron 2435 | 2.6 | 2.6 | 6 x 512 KB | 6 MB | 9.8 GB/s |
| Intel Xeon E5540 | 2.53 | 2.66 | 4 x 256 KB | 8 MB | 11.7 GB/s |
| AMD Opteron 2431 | 2.4 | 2.4 | 6 x 512 KB | 6 MB | 8.8 GB/s |
| AMD Opteron 2389 | 2.9 | 2.9 | 4 x 512 KB | 6 MB | 8.8 GB/s |
| Intel Xeon E5530 | 2.4 | 2.53 | 4 x 256 KB | 8 MB | 11.7 GB/s |
| Intel Xeon E5430 | 2.66 | 2.66 | 2 x 6 MB | N/A | Via FSB |
| AMD Opteron 2427 | 2.2 | 2.2 | 6 x 512 KB | 6 MB | 8.8 GB/s |
| AMD Opteron 2384 | 2.6 | 2.6 | 6 x 512 KB | 6 MB | 4 GB/s |
| Intel Xeon E5520 | 2.26 | 2.33 | 4 x 256 KB | 8 MB | 11.7 GB/s |
| Intel Xeon E5506 | 2.13 | 2.13 | 4 x 256 KB | 4MB | 9.8 GB/s |
| AMD Opteron 2378 | 2.4 | 2.4 | 4 x 512 KB | 6 MB | 4 GB/s |
What do you get for your money? The six-cores of AMD are shown in “forest green”.
| Intel Xeon Model | Speed (GHz) / TDP | Price | AMD Opteron Model | Speed (GHz) / TDP - ACP | Price |
| X5570 | 2.93 / 95W | $1386 | |||
| X5560 | 2.80 x 95W | $1172 | |||
| X5550 | 2.66 / 95W | $958 | 2435 | 2.6 / 75-115W | $989 |
| E5540 | 2.53 / 80W | $744 | 2431 | 2.4 / 75-115W | $698 |
| 2389 | 2.9 / 75-115W | $698 | |||
| E5530 | 2.4 / 80W | $530 | 2387 | 2.8 / 75-115W | $523 |
| L5520 | 2.26 / 60W | $530 | 2376 HE | 2.3 / 55-79W | $575 |
| L5510 | 2.13 / 60W | $423 | 2374 HE | 2.2 / 55-79W | $450 |
| E5520 | 2.26 | $373 | 2427 | 2.2 / 75-115W | $455 |
| E5506 | 2.13 | $266 | 2382 | 2.6 / 75-115W | $316 |
| E5504 | 2.00 | $224 | |||
| E5502 | 1.86 | $188 | 2378 | 2.4 / 75-115W | $174 |
AMD has clearly recognized that it can not beat the best Xeon X55xx when it comes to raw performance. The two top models, the X5570 and X5560 stay out of reach. AMD is basically saying that – with the right application – the new six-core Opteron should be able to keep up with equally clocked Xeons X55xx. In case of the 2435, you get lower power consumption as a bonus. Notice also that the best quad-core Opterons have become significantly cheaper. The 2.9 GHz 2389 “Shanghai”, which used to be positioned against the 2.66 GHz X5550 is now competing with the E5540. The 2.9 GHz Shanghai is still no match for the Xeon E5540 2.53 but it is important to look at the complete server price. 32 GB of reg DDR-3 1066 still costs about $1200, whereas 32 GB of DDR-2 800 costs around $850. It is out of the scope of this article, but it is clear that even if the CPUs cost the same, the AMD based server will be less costly. The Xeon X55xx is after all a very new platform.
For those who love stats, the die size and transistor count table:
| CPU | Transitor Count (Million) | Process | Die Size | Cores |
| Intel Dunnington (Xeon 74xx) | 1900 | 45 nm | 504 mm2 | 6 |
| Intel Gainestown (Xeon 55xx) | 731 | 45 nm | 265 mm2 | 4 |
| AMD Istanbul (Opteron 24xx) | 904 | 45 nm | 346 mm2 | 6 |
| AMD Shanghai (Opteron >237x) | 705 | 45 nm | 263 mm2 | 4 |
| AMD Barcelona (Opteron 23xx) | 463 | 65 nm | 283 mm2 | 4 |
| Intel Tigerton (Xeon 73xx) | 2 x 291 = 582 | 65 nm | 2 x 143 mm2 | 4 |
| Intel Harpertown (Xeon 54xx) | 2 x 410 = 820 | 45 nm | 2 x 107 mm2 | 4 |
AMD’s Istanbul is quite a large chip, but not as expensive as “Barcelona” to produce. The champion is the Harpertown when it comes to the lowest production costs.
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befair - Wednesday, June 3, 2009 - link
yeah, yeah, its always "more details review coming soon"smith1795 - Thursday, June 4, 2009 - link
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genkk - Tuesday, June 2, 2009 - link
ohhh I see, johan is only doing what his boss (anand) has told him so...aguilpa1 - Monday, June 1, 2009 - link
As an AMD fanboy I skipped to the one metric that AMD shows competitive performance and focused on that ignoring all other.classy - Monday, June 1, 2009 - link
That is laughable. Lets see I have only purchased all Intel servers in the last 7 years. But in the last 2 years anyone who does any system administration knows virtualization has just leaped to the forefront. Its that important. Even email is being virtualized. Databases are still physical and will probably be for some time to come. But make no mistake about it, how well it does at virtualizing is at the top of the list. Especially considering the recent recession. Virtualizing allows more to be done with less of everything. Next time maybe have some experience in something else besides reading the internet and maybe you might understand a thing or two.Natfly - Monday, June 1, 2009 - link
Virtualization isn't the be-all end-all of computing. It definitely can be a way to make more efficient use of your hardware, but the "virtualize everything" mentality isn't going to help you in the long run.solicitorsuk - Saturday, September 26, 2009 - link
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nycromes - Tuesday, June 2, 2009 - link
I don't think thats really what he/she was saying, they were saying that in terms of the IT world, Virtualization is now one of the (if not the) most important features. Right now, there are major pushes in the industry to make more efficient use of hardware, virtualization is one major part of doing that. I agree that a "virtualize everything" mentality is not good, but the OP makes a great point about the importance of virtualization in todays IT world.Jakey1999 - Thursday, May 6, 2010 - link
Dudes,What would you recommend for a SQL Server 2005 64bit database server? Hybrd, system OTLP and OLAP - 75% read. Thanks. Please respond to e-mail "jerry@tre.wa.gov". Thanks man.
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