Real-world benchmarking
AMD's new memory subsystem contains optimizer technology which AMD claims will show up to 50% increases in throughput. The benchmarks which stress the memory subsystem do show performance increases. These memory improvements are also targeted primarily at high performance computing applications, though desktop Phenoms will also see benefits.
Still, even with the memory enhancements a LINPACK benchmark at AnandTech.com shows Xeon 5345 besting Barcelona by about 17%.
The 5345 was chosen because of its commensurate power consumption, even though there are also two faster Xeons with greater performance than this one.
Of all the tests performed
at AnandTech, Barcelona won 5 and Xeon won 3. The total percentages by which each one beat the other were
27.13 and 73.94. This means that when Barcelona won, it won by much less percentage-wise. And when Xeon won it, won by a a lot more. These tests do not demonstrate the performance AMD's website indicated they should, nor do they include the fastest Intel parts available today.
If we then look to a much more comprehensive benchmark at
The Tech Report we find Barcelona winning 3 tests, and Xeon winning 23 tests. The total percentages were 123.63 and 634.26. It's also worth noting that the bulk of the large Barcelona percentage shown here comes from a single test which included a 121.14% improvement over Xeon in memory bandwidth using a 1 GB test set.
If we remove that test, then Barcelona's three wins only total a 2.49% over Xeon's. And if that memory test had used data sets of anything at 64MB or below, then it would've shown Xeon winning by similar percentages at various data set sizes.
All told at both sites, Barcelona wins 8 and Xeon wins 26. The total percentages across 38 benchmarks were 150.76 and 708.2 values. The average winning percentages are 18.85% for Barcelona and 30.79% for Xeon. If we remove the one benchmark which had Barcelona winning by 121.14%, then the results are average winning percentages for Barcelona of 4.23% on only 22% of the benchmarks. And 32.19% for Xeon on 78%. This indicates that in those instances where Barcelona wins, it wins by a much smaller margin than Xeon. So small that it's hardly worth mentioning, especially when you consider there are two faster clocked processors available today from Intel.
It's also interesting to note that AMD emphasizes Barcelona's power efficiency. And yet, they introduced a new method of rating their power consumption which shows better values than their old method. And in addition, in the real-world AnandTech.com was forced to conclude that the performance-per-watt advantage goes to Xeon 5345 by 13% over Barcelona 2350.
Conclusion
With Barcelona, there is a lot of data to analyze before you can make heads or tails out of performance claims. But in such a wide ranging set of tests a prominent picture begins to surface.
AMD's website benchmarks just don't match the real world's.
If cost is key, then Barcelona can offer greater performance with more value (today). If performance is key, then unless you have specific performance needs and it can be shown that Barcelona will perform better in those particular applications, you'd be better off going with the higher-end Xeons. They perform proportionally better when they perform better than Barcelona. And in those cases where they lose, it's only marginally. In the alternative, it might be worth waiting a few months for the upcoming 45nm Harpertowns. They will have much less power consumption and will likely be priced to compete very handidly with Barcelona on the high-end.
What should've been AMD's biggest release ever, their native quad-core design, has fallen significantly short of the hope and hype. The theoretical 2.6 GHz chip would've been wonderful if released today. The Tech Report was able to benchmark one of those chips and it performed quite well as the 2360 SE. That chip would've lived up to the expectations. But it was not released today. Of the ones available, it shows a processor that does not have a lot of performance-winning life ahead of it when we consider Intel's upcoming 45nm releases just two months and one day away.
Barcelona needed to be a slam dunk for AMD.
It has turned out to be much less. AMD now needs to focus solely on solving their manufacturing issues and releasing faster clocked Barcelonas. AMD's customers need to be knowledgeable of the fact that several of Intel's upcoming 45nm products will be here in a few months. These will likely deliver better performance on less power.
If AMD continues as they have this year. If they continue to lose large amounts of money each quarter. And if they are not able to achieve high clock speeds with their 65nm SOI technology at a pace consistent with Intel's anticipated ramping at 45nm, then this launch will be the turning point. It will prove out to be the beginning of the end for AMD.
Until we saw Barcelona numbers there was always hope. AMD knew this and kept their cards very close to their chest, not even releasing products for review until late last week. Unless AMD can turn it around and significantly ramp up the clock speed to compete with and win against Intel's 45 nm competition, then AMD may be headed into a life-threatening storm. The next six months will be telling for AMD.
Originally Posted by Hornet331
uhn, he doesn't said its k8 + 2 cores, he just said the IPC wont change, and IPC also doesn't change with higher clockspeed.
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