Scalable CPU Performance


Unlike the AS3AP benchmark where AMD was able to match the performance of Harpertown at load point four and dominate at load point five, Intel is able to dominate this benchmark. Harpertown is able to lead by an average of 17% over Shanghai. Again, the performance of Shanghai @ 2.7 GHz is comparable to Barcelona @ 2.3 GHz at the lower load points but is able to lead Barcelona by as much as 25% at load point five.


We see similar CPU utilization profiles from the systems and the Opterons ramp quicker than Harpertown.


Opterons are again the clear winners on this one, but the Harpertown system is a little more competitive on this benchmark. Shanghai is still able to use around 17% and 27% less power compared to the Xeon configurations.


Even with Intel's better performance, Shanghai is still able to lead at three of the five load points in this test. The Xeon with eight DIMMs is not even close, but the Xeon four DIMM configuration is competitive for the first three load points.

Note: The line for Harpertown four DIMMs is dotted in the above graphs because we did not actually run this configuration but speculate this is the power consumption based on idle power consumption analysis.

Idle Power and AS3AP Performance Scalable Reads Performance
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  • Jason Clark - Thursday, November 13, 2008 - link

    Hi folks, as with most all launches, there are a number of articles we do each on a specific area. Ross and I focussed on database performance under microsoft sql server. I know a VM piece is in the works, just hang on and you'll see something soon.
  • Viditor - Tuesday, December 9, 2008 - link

    "I know a VM piece is in the works, just hang on and you'll see something soon"

    Not to be picky, but it's been almost a month now. Any word on the VM piece??
  • johnsonx - Wednesday, November 19, 2008 - link

    no, you have to have it all done at once, and you have to cover every aspect we could even imagine wanting tests for, or we're going to gripe.
  • Viditor - Thursday, November 13, 2008 - link

    I am surprised that you didn't choose any VM specific benches, as that is an obvious design goal of Shanghai's...
    It would have been nice to see if they were successful.
  • duploxxx - Thursday, November 13, 2008 - link

    that's exactly what i asked, additional Vmware testing like anand did before.

    the overall vmware performance of shanghai 2,7 is already known in VMmark, it totally destroys any x86 intel platform known today even the 6 core dunnington @2,66ghz. but additional tests would be nice.

    http://www.vmware.com/products/vmmark/results.html">http://www.vmware.com/products/vmmark/results.html
  • lplatypus - Thursday, November 13, 2008 - link

    Regarding the delayed introduction of HT3: could it be that these CPUs actually do support HT3, and we're only waiting for support in the chipset?
  • duploxxx - Thursday, November 13, 2008 - link

    Common anand you can do better then that. Where are mysql loads/io/3d measurements and hypervisor testing....
  • JohanAnandtech - Thursday, November 13, 2008 - link

    Please understand that:

    Anand is the CEO and founder of the complete Anandtech, inc. and writer of many desktop/mobile oriented articles.

    Jason and Ross are part of it.anandtech.com and run the Windows/Database tests.

    The hypervisor/ MySQL/Linux stuff is done by myself (Johan De Gelas) and I am still working on our Shanghai review. ESX does not like the new BIOS that makes Shanghai possible, so we won't be able to post ESX numbers before a new BIOS is ready.


  • duploxxx - Thursday, November 13, 2008 - link

    if you would just let us use the edit button :), my usage of anand, was just meant as a short word of anandtech actually, sry for that.

    didn't know you had bios issues, seems like some vendors (dell) had less issues. looking forward to those parts.

    the info like latency is really added value.
  • Proteusza - Thursday, November 13, 2008 - link

    We see some numbers for Shanghai. Any news on when the desktop part will be released/tested?

    I'm pleased it does well in performance/watt, but slightly disappointed that it doesnt beat Barcelona significantly in performance/clock.

    I wonder how well it will fair in games?

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