Since real demand for Server ARM is coming not as much from technology itself (which is interesting and has been for years), but from corporate purchaser’s desire to have a second source to negotiate Intel down on chip prices, the resurgent AMD offerings are as much a threat to server ARM as they are to Intel’s bottom line.
This will be interesting to watch. Best -F > On May 21, 2017, at 8:24 AM, Kurt Keville <[email protected]> wrote: > > That is a nice table. It would be interesting to compare other product > offerings (like those from ARM) in the same table but it would be > tough to stay "fair" relative to other the factors that influence VM > performance. For instance, certain 32-bit ARM CPUs have extensions > designed to accelerate Xen... > https://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Xen_ARM_with_Virtualization_Extensions/OdroidXU > > It is always tough to normalize this kind of data. Maybe we just want > VMs per dollar for a single metric and not worry about qualitative > comparisons since even basic VMs are going to do what we want. > > On Sat, May 20, 2017 at 3:03 PM, Tom Metro <[email protected]> wrote: >> As AMD has released some relatively high-core count desktop parts for >> low cost, I've been wondering how well they might do for building a VM >> host. I haven't researched yet to see what people are saying. I seem to >> recall that their prior FX line didn't perform as well as one might >> expect for VM loads, given their core count. >> >> Micro Center sent out an email ad this week featuring a bunch of AMD and >> Intel parts, and out of curiosity I took a look to see how they compared >> based on cost per core. >> >> $ per Cores/$ per thread (CPU cost) >> AMD FX 8320E $10/$? ($80) >> AMD FX 8350 $14/$14 ($110) >> Ryzen 5 1600 $33/$17 ($200) >> Ryzen 5 1600X $38/$19 ($230) >> Ryzen 7 1700 $40/$20 ($320) >> Ryzen 5 1400 $43/$21 ($170) >> Intel i5-7500 $48/$48 ($190) >> Intel i5-6500 $45/$45 ($180) >> Ryzen 5 1500X $48/$24 ($190) >> Intel i5-7600K $50/$50 ($200) >> Intel i7-6800K $55/$28 ($330) >> Ryzen 7 1800X $58/$29 ($460) >> Intel i5-6600K $50/$50 ($200) >> Intel i3-7350K $65/$33 ($130) >> Intel i7-6700K $70/$35 ($280) >> Intel i7-6850K $75/$38 ($450) >> >> >> So the AMD FX parts win on this metric with a mere $10 to $14 per core, >> but they're antiques. They don't support hyperthreading, and the $10 >> part's specs didn't even list thread count. On a per-thread basis, the >> Ryzen parts are nearly as cheap. Unclear why anyone would buy one today. >> (Though I could see an unscrupulous OEM stuffing them in a budget >> machine.) They don't even seem well suited to appliance use, like NASs >> or media players, as they have too many cores for that. Yet Micro Center >> keeps pushing them, well after the release of Ryzen parts. >> >> The next best are the low-end Ryzen 5 series parts, attaining $33 per >> core. In comparison, low-end Intel parts are no bargain, as they top out >> at 4 cores, and often have no hyperthreading. >> >> As the price goes up on these desktop-optimized parts, the per-core >> speed goes up, but the core count doesn't scale proportionally. No >> surprise there, as many games and apps still respond best to higher >> clock on fewer cores. The $450 i7-6850K ranks worse of all these at >> $75/core, while the corresponding $460 Ryzen 7 1800X attains $58/core >> due to having 2 more cores than the Intel part (6 vs. 8 cores). >> >> From an overall density perspective, the Ryzen 7 1700 at $40/core is >> probably the best bet, as it packs 8 cores into one part, with 16 >> threads. You can perhaps slice that up into 8 VMs with 2 virtual cores each. >> >> So if one wanted to build up a low-budget cloud, populating with Ryzen 5 >> parts (avoid the 1600X as it uses 95W compared to the non-X version's >> 65W, and is only slightly faster) or Ryzen 7 1700 (also 65W) might be >> the way to go. (The later gains you 2 cores for $120. That density >> premium might be worth it even for a small scale build from a pure cost >> basis. Every 3 nodes built with the Ryzen 7 gains you the equivalent of >> an additional node built with the Ryzen 5, but costs you $360 more. >> Unlikely you can build a Ryzen 5 node for less than that (CPU $200, MB >> $100+, RAM $200+, etc.). Though given how non-server motherboards are >> capped at 32 GB RAM, the lower core density approach would be better if >> you have high RAM workloads, or even require high storage bandwidth.) >> >> Hopefully we'll see some server parts from AMD soon with even better >> $/core, and lower power. There also seems to be almost no MiniITX boards >> available for Ryzen so far. (I see one Asrock board that's sold out.) >> And MiniITX would be preferred for building a high-density cluster. >> >> -Tom >> _______________________________________________ >> Hardwarehacking mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/hardwarehacking > _________________________________________ -- "'Problem' is a bleak word for challenge" - Richard Fish (Federico L. Lucifredi) - flucifredi at acm.org - GnuPG 0x4A73884C _______________________________________________ Hardwarehacking mailing list [email protected] http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/hardwarehacking
