The Intel Xeon D Review: Performance Per Watt Server SoC Champion?
by Johan De Gelas on June 23, 2015 8:35 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- Intel
- Xeon-D
- Broadwell-DE
Benchmark Configuration
All tests were done on Ubuntu Server 14.04 LTS (soon to be upgraded to 15.04). Aside from the SuperMicro Xeon-D system, we also have the ASRock Rack C2750D4I (eight core Silvermont), a Xeon E3-1200 v3 system, a Xeon E3-1200 v2 system, a 1P Xeon E5-2600L v3 and a HP Moonshot cartridge based system. We tested the HP Moonshot cartridges remotely.
Supermicro's 5028D-TN4T
| CPU | Xeon D-1540 2.0 GHz |
| RAM | 4x16GB DDR4-2133 |
| Internal Disks | Samsung 850 Pro 128 GB |
| Motherboard | SuperMicro X10SLD-F |
| PSU | FSP250-50LC (250 W, 80+ Bronze) |
Below you can find most of the CPU settings in the BIOS:
ASRock's C2750D4I
| CPU | Intel Atom C2750 2.4 GHz |
| RAM | 4x8GB DDR3-1600 |
| Internal Disks | Samsung 850 Pro 128 GB |
| Motherboard | ASRock C2750D4I |
| PSU | Supermicro PWS-502 (80+) |
The Xeon D is not a replacement for the Atom C2000. Although the Xeon D is also a SoC, the Atom C2000 remains Intel low power options for microservers. Of course, we want to know how much power you save, and how large the performance trade-off is.
Intel's Xeon E3-1200 v3 – ASUS P9D-MH
| CPU | Intel Xeon processor E3-1240 v3 3.4 GHz Intel Xeon processor E3-1230L v3 1.8 GHz |
| RAM | 4x8GB DDR3-1600 |
| Internal Disks | 1x Samsung 850 Pro 128 GB |
| Motherboard | ASUS P9D-MH |
| PSU | Supermicro PWS-502 (80+) |
As the Xeon D is limited to 2 GHz (2.6 GHz turboboost), higher clocked Xeon E3s might still make sense where single threaded performance is a major concern. The Xeon E3-1230L was included as a low power alternative, although we wonder it still make sense, considering that the Xeon E3 needs a separate 1-4W chipset (C220).
Intel's Xeon E3-1200 v2
| CPU | Intel Xeon processor E3-1265L v2 |
| RAM | 4x8GB DDR3-1600 |
| Internal Disks | 1x Intel MLC SSD710 200GB |
| Motherboard | Intel S1200BTL |
| PSU | Supermicro PWS-502 (80+) |
The previous generation low power Xeon E3.
Intel's Xeon E5 Server – "Wildcat Pass" (2U Chassis)
| CPU | One Intel Xeon processor E5-2650L v3 (1.8GHz, 12c, 30MB L3, 65W) |
| RAM | 128GB (8x16GB) Samsung M393A2G40DB0 (RDIMM) |
| Internal Disks | 2x Intel MLC SSD710 200GB |
| Motherboard | Intel Server Board Wildcat Pass |
| PSU | Delta Electronics 750W DPS-750XB A (80+ Platinum) |
Although our E5 server is not comparable to the other systems, it important to gauge where a low power E5 model would land. We like to understand when it make sense to invest more money in an Xeon E5 system, and here we only use one Xeon. Note that this system also requires power from a separate PCH.
HP Moonshot
More info about this configuration can be found in our previous article about micro server SoCs.
We tested two different cartridges: the m400 and the m300. Below you can find the specs of the m400:
| CPU/SoC | AppliedMicro X-Gene 2.4 |
| RAM | 8x 8GB DDR3 @ 1600 |
| Internal Disks | M.2 2280 Solid State 120GB |
| Cartridge | m400 |
And the m300:
| CPU/SoC | Atom C2750 2.4 |
| RAM | 8x 8GB DDR3 @ 1600 |
| Internal Disks | M.2 2280 Solid State 120GB |
| Cartridge | m300 |
Other Notes
Both servers are fed by a standard European 230V (16 Amps max.) power line. The room temperature is monitored and kept at 23°C by our Airwell CRACs. We use the Racktivity ES1008 Energy Switch PDU to measure power consumption in our lab. We used the HP Moonshot ILO to measure the power consumption of the cartridges.
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Krysto - Tuesday, June 23, 2015 - link
Betteridge law.Metaluna - Tuesday, June 23, 2015 - link
...fails in this case. Did you read the review?CajunArson - Tuesday, June 23, 2015 - link
While desktop Broadwell isn't all that great, these server parts really show off Intel's accomplishments in improving power efficiency and performance-per-watt with 14nm.ARM has a huge hill to climb to really compete with these parts, and we've already seen AMD effectively skip its first iteration of an ARM product because they probably got wind of the Xeon D and decided they would have to do both a die-shrink and completely customized ARM core just to keep up.
The_Assimilator - Tuesday, June 23, 2015 - link
I very much doubt whether we'll ever see another server CPU from AMD, regardless of ARM cores or not. If they even manage to get Zen out the door, *and* it's not another massive flop, I will be impressed.Refuge - Tuesday, June 23, 2015 - link
I root for them everyday, but lets not give them too big of a hill to climb with a broken leg now. lolextide - Tuesday, June 23, 2015 - link
Take it easy man, AMD is not going down the drain any time soon, and we WILL see some future server oriented parts come from them. But how fast will they be? That's the question and we wont know for a while...Kjella - Tuesday, June 23, 2015 - link
Really? Last quarter they had a $187 million total comprehensive loss on $1030 million in revenue, even if you exclude the restructuring cost they lost $100 million for a -10% deficit. The stockholder's equity is almost gone with $17 million left, after that getting funding or a credit limit will become much harder.And Q2 is probably going to be another bloody quarter with no major CPU or GPU launches and firesales of old Win8 stock in preparation for Win10. The console ramp-up is usually in Q3 in preparation for Christmas, not before the summer. Last quarter's loss they took almost entirely from their cash reserves, they're now in the lower end of what they need to operate, if they lose this quarter too they must cut where it hurts bad.
Guspaz - Tuesday, June 23, 2015 - link
When we needed a low-power and low-cost server solution, we went with a desktop i3, because for some reason Intel supports ECC RAM on the i3 and lower, but not in the i5 and higher.julianb - Tuesday, June 23, 2015 - link
Very interested in this SOC.If possible could we see how the Xeon D deal with Cinebench Multithreaded test?
I am into 3D CPU rendering and would like to know how does the Xeon D-1540 compare to say i7-3930K or i7-4790K.
I realize the purpose of Xeon D-1540's existence is different but still...
Thank you.
MrSpadge - Saturday, June 27, 2015 - link
An eco-tuned 5820K seem better. I don't suppose you're going to render 24/7 all the time, so the electricity savings from the 14 nm Broadwell will have a hard time making up for the massive difference in initial cost.