Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 and Xeon E5-2687W v2 Review: 12 and 8 Cores
by Ian Cutress on March 17, 2014 11:59 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- Intel
- Xeon
- Enterprise
Scientific and Synthetic Benchmarks
2D to 3D Rendering –Agisoft PhotoScan v1.0: link
Agisoft Photoscan creates 3D models from 2D images, a process which is very computationally expensive. The algorithm is split into four distinct phases, and different phases of the model reconstruction require either fast memory, fast IPC, more cores, or even OpenCL compute devices to hand. Agisoft supplied us with a special version of the software to script the process, where we take 50 images of a stately home and convert it into a medium quality model. This benchmark typically takes around 15-20 minutes on a high end PC on the CPU alone, with GPUs reducing the time.
For PhotoScan, the extra cores and MHz from the Xeons means most in the first stage of the computation. The second stage shows an increas in CPU Mapping Speed, however this is the stage where the GPU can accelerate when in use. Stage 3 benefits more from the MHz of the 8-core model, and the final stage is about even.
Console Emulation –Dolphin Benchmark: link
At the start of 2014 I was emailed with a link to a new emulation benchmark based on the Dolphin Emulator. The issue with emulators tends to be two-fold: game licensing and raw CPU power required for the emulation. As a result, many emulators are often bound by single thread CPU performance, and general reports tended to suggest that Haswell provided a significant boost to emulator performance. This benchmark runs a Wii program that raytraces a complex 3D scene inside the Dolphin Wii emulator. Performance on this benchmark is a good proxy of the speed of Dolphin CPU emulation, which is an intensive single core task using most aspects of a CPU. Results are given in minutes, where the Wii itself scores 17.53; meaning that anything above this is faster than an actual Wii for processing Wii code, albeit emulated.
Emulation is a pure single threaded affair, and the IPC improvements of Haswell stand out a lot against the Ivy Bridge-E based Xeons.
Point Calculations – 3D Movement Algorithm Test: link
3DPM is a self-penned benchmark, taking basic 3D movement algorithms used in Brownian Motion simulations and testing them for speed. High floating point performance, MHz and IPC wins in the single thread version, whereas the multithread version has to handle the threads and loves more cores.
The low core frequency of the 12-core Xeon puts it behind in our FP single threaded benchmark.
In out multithreaded scenario, we see the situation similar to PovRay, where cores and frequency take top spots.
Encryption –TrueCrypt v0.7.1a: link
TrueCrypt is an off the shelf open source encryption tool for files and folders. For our test we run the benchmark mode using a 1GB buffer and take the mean result from AES encryption.
Synthetic – 7-Zip 9.2: link
As an open source compression tool, 7-Zip is a popular tool for making sets of files easier to handle and transfer. The software offers up its own benchmark, to which we report the result.
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Ian Cutress - Monday, March 17, 2014 - link
Corrected :) The test setup for the A10-7850K is the same as the Kaveri review. ASRock FM2A88X Extreme6+ with extra cooling, 2x8GB DDR3-2133 (i.e. rated processor speed).Nintendo Maniac 64 - Monday, March 17, 2014 - link
So stock clocks with turbo enabled on Win7 64bit SP1 w/ core parking update?Ian Cutress - Monday, March 17, 2014 - link
Correct.mattchid - Monday, March 17, 2014 - link
I have two 2697v2 I was gifted, and while I'm only running one on an x79 MB, I have two questions I can't find answers to elsewhere on the 2697 v2:1. Is the memory limited to 1866, even on motherboards supporting higher overclocks? I have tried to run memory above that speed (1866 memory that usually over clocks well) and the computer refuses to boot past the bios at that speed.
2. What would the performance gains be with both installed, in reference to multithreaded activities, like rendering, or even more rudimentary, like x264 or handbrake conversion? I would guess with single threaded activity, there would be no difference in performance, than one CPU.
psyq321 - Tuesday, March 18, 2014 - link
I have tested two generations of 2697 v2 (C0 and C1 stepping) and both refuse to accept anything above 1866 MHz. Practically, my old workhorse (dual 2687W) was much better in that regard and could run DDR3 @2133 MHz without any trickery.Although the CPU platforms (JakeTown and IvyTown) are pin-compatible for the EP series, high-core-count (HCC) EP IvyTowns have two separate memory controllers and I suppose this introduces regressions when it comes to "overclockability" of the RAM.
As for the #2, if you are running NUMA-aware multithreaded software that can spawn 24 or 48 threads, you can expect almost linear performance scaling with dual-CPU setups.
If the software is not NUMA aware, then there are performance drops that can be 30-50% (so you get, maybe, 1.5x speedup). If the software cannot get more than, say, 8 threads, then there would be no speedups (but even in this case you can start two separate processes and do two encoding sessions at once, and regain the 2x speedup)
CamdogXIII - Monday, March 17, 2014 - link
Typo in the gaming benchmarks. Under BF4, the button selection heading reads company of heroesIan Cutress - Tuesday, March 18, 2014 - link
Corrected :)iwod - Monday, March 17, 2014 - link
This doesn't really answer any question about the State of Xeon.So what exactly is difference between a Xeon E3- v3 and a Normal Top End Haswell Chip?
We have Broadwell soon ( in a few months? ) Are we suppose to get new Haswell E5 too? Isn't the Xeon E5 always one year behind the desktop counterpart, or are they slipping even more?
JlHADJOE - Monday, March 17, 2014 - link
Xeon E3 has ECC support, which is pretty cool.venk90 - Tuesday, March 18, 2014 - link
Ian, Could you post the AMD Kaveri CPU and GPU numbers to the respective bench sections of this website ? Makes comparisons a lot easier.