AMD Phenom Preview: Barcelona Desktop Benchmarks
by Anand Lal Shimpi on September 10, 2007 12:03 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
The Servers
AMD was kind enough to send us two servers, identically configured, from Colfax. The configurations were as follows:
| AMD | Intel | |
| Motherboard | Supermicro H8DMU+ | Supermicro X7DBE+ |
| BIOS Revision | DMU8157v3.ROM | R1.3C |
| CPU | 2 x Opteron 2350 (2.0GHz) | 2 x Xeon 5345 (2.3GHz) |
| Memory | 8GB (8 x 1GB DDR2-667) | 8GB (8 x 1GB FBDIMM-667) |
| Hard Disk | 1 x Seagate Barracuda ES (400GB) | 1 x Seagate Barracuda ES (400GB) |
| Power Supply | 700W Redundant | 700W Redundant |
| OS | Windows Server 2003 SP1, 64-bit | Windows Server 2003 SP1, 64-bit |
These are standard Socket-1207 servers, meaning they don't take advantage of the split power-planes of Barcelona. Newer motherboards (such as the one Johan used in his tests) will support split power-planes, allowing Barcelona to run its North Bridge at a higher clock frequency, thus improving memory performance. Note that our desktop benchmarks were run under Windows Vista Ultimate (32-bit). Update: AMD has confirmed that these motherboards are Socket-1207+ and thus support split power-planes. We apologize for the error.
2U Colfax server
Colfax Intel Server
Colfax AMD Server, one CPU removed
Both systems worked just fine, but we did spend more time with the AMD system (obviously). During our testing we'd occasionally get a Hyper Transport error upon reboot, but it was intermittent and didn't interfere with our results:
Then, at the very end (literally two hours before publication) of our benchmarking, the AMD server stopped POSTing. As of now the system will simply sit there and spin its fans without actually putting anything on the screen. A number of things could have happened, but thankfully the Barcelona system decided to die after we ran all of our tests.
The take away point here is that AMD is working as quickly as possible to push out this Barcelona release. While AMD states to expect availability as early as today, we're concerned about the maturity of these platforms. We got our test systems on Friday, if this were truly a large, widespread launch we would've had hardware long ago. Whereas everyone and their mom already has a sample of Intel's 45nm CPUs, Barcelona continues to be tough to come by and performance hasn't been anywhere near final until now.
Logistics aside, we now have final silicon in hand (and a dead server on our floor), so let's see what we can do.
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Regs - Tuesday, September 11, 2007 - link
Sorry, I did not mean to sound like a Dick Jack.The L3 cache is specifically designed with data sharing in mind. Which means all data unshared is evicted from the cache back into main memory. The L3 is also shared between four different cores and the access to the L3 must be arbitrated between them. This means the latency of the L3 actually depends on the core frequencies.
Pre-fetches are made by the core and stored in the L1D cache of the Barc. They used to be stored in the L2 on the K8. So if the pre-fetch misses, it will look for information in the L2 and not the L3.
xenon74 - Monday, September 10, 2007 - link
So if I understand this correctly:1.) You were trying to overclock registered DDR2 memory to give us a bit more even comparison between Athlon X2 and Phenom X4 using Opteron Barcelona QC and old Opteron DC.
2.) OCing reg.DDR2 memory was unsuccessful which resulted that AMD sever stopped POSTing.
3.) In two hours you come up with this "Phenom preview".
Anand Lal Shimpi - Monday, September 10, 2007 - link
Not exactly :) The server not POSTing had nothing to do with trying to run faster DDR2 memory in the system, all of the benchmarking for the Phenom preview was done before the board stopped POSTing, I was simply trying to add more benchmarks to Johan's article when it ceased operation. Apparently others have been having issues with these motherboards and it appears that a new rev of the board may correct the problems.Take care,
Anand
Reynod - Monday, September 10, 2007 - link
Great first article Anand.As usual exceptionally well written and you avoided all of the fanboi nonsense.
I'd like more detailed stuff when you get the chance please?
Cheers :)
Regs - Monday, September 10, 2007 - link
I guess only more clock speed, a better revision of the processor, and maybe a AM2-AM3 mobo will be a bit better for the Phenom?I wasn't expecting a whole lot out of AMD's barc. Though I do wonder what they have planned to help it for the retail desktop version. Like you said it just makes it more difficult to price it unless it can compete better.
Locutus465 - Monday, September 10, 2007 - link
I've been waiting to see what AMD would do as a frist step on the comeback trail... This is a good opening salvo... True it's not going to be a Core 2 killer, but coupled with future technologies this is a great start! I hope they can afford to continue keeping pricing low while producing newer/better chips...Etern205 - Monday, September 10, 2007 - link
Hope this preview about Barcelona is as honest article where it tellsthe consumer the truth as to how well this cpu performs.
Anandtech is all about honesty right?
If that is true (which it always is), then this article better not be one
of those that got approved by AMD before it was pubished!
http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=441">http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=441
Locutus465 - Monday, September 10, 2007 - link
Not sure why you're questioning anand's honesty, they've always been fair and accurate as far as I can see. And frankly, this artical fits with everything that's been said thus far about the new chip, it'll be much more competitive, but not to the point of winning the battle for AMD.retrospooty - Monday, September 10, 2007 - link
Agreed AT has always been fair and unbiased with reviews, that is why it is so popular.Even if there was an error in the test methodology, and someone points it out, they will update the article with the correction.
Etern205 - Monday, September 10, 2007 - link
Anandtech is a great site and their article is always gives thebest info, which is why when I'm about to get a new part like a cpu, or video card, I'll
come to this site for reviews. And 100% of the time the results are always correct.
But as for this "Barcelona"... mmm I don't know
not just this site but to all the other sites as a whole.