AMD Releases Opteron 4200 "Valencia" and 6200 "Interlagos" Series
by Kristian Vättö on November 14, 2011 12:50 PM ESTAMD launched Bulldozer about a month ago, but the initial CPUs were only for desktops. As a follow up, AMD has today released the server variants of Bulldozer. There are a total of 18 CPUs launching today, and they are branded as Opteron 4200 and 6200 series, although some of you may be more familiar with the codenames "Valencia" and "Interlagos". AMD actually began the shipments of 4200 and 6200 series in September but the lineup was not officially released until today. Below is a specification table.
| AMD Opteron 4200 and 6200 Series Specifications | |||||||
| Series | Model number | Core/Thread Count | Frequency | Max Turbo | L3 Cache | TDP | Price |
| 4200 series "Valencia" | 4226 | 6/6 | 2.7GHz | 3.1GHz | 8MB | 95W | $125 |
| 4228 HE | 6/6 | 2.8GHz | 3.6GHz | 8MB | 65W | $255 | |
| 4234 | 6/6 | 3.1GHz | 3.5GHz | 8MB | 95W | $174 | |
| 4238 | 6/6 | 3.4GHz | 3.7GHz | 8MB | 95W | $255 | |
| 4256 EE | 8/8 | 1.6GHz | 2.8GHz | 8MB | 35W | $377 | |
| 4274 HE | 8/8 | 2.6GHz | 3.5GHz | 8MB | 65W | $377 | |
| 4280 | 8/8 | 2.8GHz | 3.5GHz | 8MB | 95W | $255 | |
| 4284 | 8/8 | 3.3GHz | 3.7GHz | 8MB | 95W | $316 | |
| 6200 series "Interlagos" | 6204 | 4/4 | 3.3GHz | N/A | 16MB | 115W | $405 |
| 6212 | 8/8 | 2.6GHz | 3.2GHz | 16MB | 115W | $266 | |
| 6220 | 8/8 | 3.0GHz | 3.6GHz | 16MB | 115W | $523 | |
| 6234 | 12/12 | 2.4GHz | 3.1GHz | 16MB | 115W | $377 | |
| 6238 | 12/12 | 2.6GHz | 3.3GHz | 16MB | 115W | $455 | |
| 6262 HE | 16/16 | 1.6GHz | 2.9GHz | 16MB | 85W | $523 | |
| 6272 | 16/16 | 2.1GHz | 3.1GHz | 16MB | 115W | $523 | |
| 6274 | 16/16 | 2.2GHz | 3.2GHz | 16MB | 115W | $639 | |
| 6276 | 16/16 | 2.3GHz | 3.3GHz | 16MB | 115W | $788 | |
| 6282 SE | 16/16 | 2.6GHz | 3.5GHz | 16MB | 140W | $1,019 | |
We did an overview of Bulldozer lineup in our Details on AMD Bulldozer: Opterons to Feature Configurable TDP article. The basics are still the same. 4200 series is compatible with 4100 series' C32 socket; and 6200 series is compatible with 6100 series' G34 socket. That means existing motherboards are compatible with the new CPUs, although a BIOS update may be needed. The main difference between 4200 and 6200 series, on top of the core count, is the CPU configuration support: 4200 is limited to dual CPU configuration whereas 6200 series supports up to four CPUs in one system. 6200 also has a quad-channel memory controller, whereas 4200 is limited to two channels.
While Bulldozer was a letdown for desktops, it may be more attractive for servers. The biggest shortage of Bulldozer was its poor single-threaded performance, but server software is usually well threaded and can hence take advantage of all Bulldozer's cores.
Johan has received Opteron 6276 CPU and is already working on a review, so stay tuned!
Source: AMD
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Beenthere - Monday, November 14, 2011 - link
I'm sure Johan's review will confirm what Cray and others have learned already that the Opteron 6200 and 4200 series are far better CPUs than most people expected, and that's a good thing.shiznit - Monday, November 14, 2011 - link
Source?Kristian Vättö - Monday, November 14, 2011 - link
http://blogs.amd.com/work/2011/11/13/with-the-laun...Should be related, at least.
Beenthere - Monday, November 14, 2011 - link
Over double the prior server performance in the same socket...http://www.crn.com/news/data-center/231902878/late...
MonkeyPaw - Monday, November 14, 2011 - link
Yeah, I think the only reason AMD launched bulldozer for was for holiday sales. Traditionally, AMD has been designing high end CPUs for the server market first, desktop second. For good reason, as this approach has gained them traction in a more lucrative market. These CPUs will likely shine in this regard.Kristian Vättö - Monday, November 14, 2011 - link
And that's where the big money is. One company can buy more CPUs in one order than consumers buy as a whole in months. While everyone talks about the high-end consumer CPUs, they represent a fairly small volume. The big demand is in budget CPUs and server CPUs.frozentundra123456 - Monday, November 14, 2011 - link
well, if servers are where the big money is, AMD had better hope that Bulldozer is much more competitive than it was on the desktop and helps them gain some market share. What I dont understand is how it can be such a great server chip when the power consumption is so high. Guess the review will clarify the situation. Will be anxious to see it.The last figures I saw if I recall correctly showed AMD with I believe only about 5% of the server market.
shiznit - Monday, November 14, 2011 - link
You can't understand it because it's probably not true. Sure there are cases where AMD's design is better such as huge clusters like Cray, but for the majority of 2p and 4p servers, AMD is behind in performance and efficiency.Beenthere - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
You continue to talk foolishness.Over double the system performance from the same socket means lower TCO in addition to the substantial lower power consumption from 35w-115w.
http://www.crn.com/news/data-center/231902878/late...
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=23267
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/14/amd_optero...
HATING does not change reality !
ajp_anton - Monday, November 14, 2011 - link
I think the problem is that they don't do very well at high frequencies. These server chips have a more "sweetspot" frequency where they are much more power efficient.And here they can trade frequency for more cores without losing performance, because servers can use them. Only problem is they are expensive to make, but that's AMD's loss. The chips themselves are just fine.