Expensive Quad Sockets vs. Ubiquitous Dual Sockets
by Johan De Gelas on October 6, 2009 1:00 AM EST- Posted in
- IT Computing
Decision Support Benchmark: Nieuws.be
| Decision Support benchmark Nieuws.be | |
| Operating System | Windows 2008 Enterprise RTM (64 bit) |
| Software | SQL Server 2008 Enterprise x64 (64 bit) |
| Benchmark software | vApus + real-world "Nieuws.be" Database |
| Database Size | > 100GB |
| Typical error margin | 1-2% |
The Nieuws.be site is sitting on top of a pretty large database - more than 100GB and growing. This database consists of a few hundred separate tables, which have been carefully optimized by our lab (the Sizing Servers Lab). We have described our testing methods previously in more detail. As some of readers suggested we upgraded from SQL Server 2005 SP3 to SQL Server 2008.
In our "hex-core Opteron" review, we noticed excellent scaling from the quad-core Opteron "Shanghai" to a hex-core Opteron "Istanbul". 50% more cores resulted in a 40% performance increase. Even with 24 cores, the scaling remains outstanding: as we add another 12 "Istanbul" cores (a 100% increase), we get 65% more queries per second at a response time of 1000 ms. The Quad Xeon X7460 has a small but noticeable lead over the powerful dual Xeon X5570. The Quad Opteron 8435 outperforms the latter by 42%, which is quite impressive. The Microsoft SQL server team also deserves a pat on the back: few "native" applications - even databases - scale well to 24 cores.
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Casper42 - Tuesday, October 6, 2009 - link
I know its late, but on page 4 of this article you say your using a Dual 2389 setup where each chip is Quad Core.Somehow that morphs into a "Quad Opteron 2389" on page 6 both in the text and in the graphic. Since a Quad 2xxx is not possible, is this a Dual 2389 or a Quad 8389?
Then on page 7 it becomes a Quad Opteron 8389
Am I losing my mind?
I see now that both a Quad 8389 and a Dual 2389 are listed in Page 4, but why on earth did you guys bounce back and forth so much between them?
JohanAnandtech - Tuesday, October 6, 2009 - link
You are not losing your mind. The Quad 2389 is a quad 8389 of course. I have fixed the error. Thanks.The dual sockets machines were mostly used to check how the software scales (MS SQL server, virtualization) and how the power consumption compares to the quad socket machines. I hope this makes it clear?