Intel and AMD in a Web Application Shoot-out
by Jason Clark on October 18, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- IT Computing
Microsoft .NET
This was probably the most interesting test out of the bunch, as there was a recognizable difference in the two architectures. Our .NET test was run on the recently released FuseTalk .NET collaboration application.The .NET platform is the new framework for building Windows-based and web-based applications from Microsoft. It not only replaces the older ASP platform, but introduces some up-to-date languages that run on the Common Language Runtime, which is the backbone of .NET. The three main languages used with .NET are: C# (similar to C++), VB.NET (somewhat similar to VB), and J# (fairly close to JAVA). Whatever language in which you write your code, it is compiled into an intermediate language, CIL (Common Intermediate Language). It is then managed and executed by the CLR (Common Language Runtime).
As you can see from the test results below, the Xeon managed to take the lead by approximately 8%. Why? Well, the one interesting piece of information that the .NET JIT (Just in Time) compiler takes into account during the compilation to native code is CPU architecture. According to a Microsoft MSDN article published by Allan McNaughton from Intel, the .NET JIT compiler takes CPU architecture into account during the last phase of compilation to native code. Specifically, during compilation, the JIT will detect Intel processors and produce code that takes advantage of Intel NetBurstTM and Hyper-Threading technology. With version 1.1 of the JIT compiler, Intel's Streaming SIMD Extensions 2 can also be a factor. At the time of publication, no information regarding any performance enhancing optimizations that occur for the AMD Opteron were found.
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Saist - Monday, October 18, 2004 - link
I just wanted to comment that as I read the graphs, the opteron lead all but .NETjustly - Monday, October 18, 2004 - link
22 There was a thread here that talked about the infoword article, I suggest you at least lokk at it before you claim there are no holes in its conclusion.http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid...
Like any other thread it does drift of topic at times but there are a lot of conclusions made by the author of the article (rck01) that he either could not or would not elaborate on. Personally I wouldnt trust the results of that article untill some of the questions asked in that thread get answered.
Chuckles - Monday, October 18, 2004 - link
#34:No, lets hope that AMD responds by getting a compiler team and optimizing the binary daylights out of the various compilers in addition to boosting the clock. That way everybody wins.
dollar - Monday, October 18, 2004 - link
- The Xeons and the Opterons have the same 1MB L2 cache, cached up Xeons? Huh?- There are no Windows Server 2003 64-bit edition but the betas, and people looking for servers most likely aren't using betas. Also there is little or no real software availible. Plus, the Xeons are also 64-bit capable (so that would't put the Opterons at any real advantage anyways.
- The fact that software is optimized for Xeons turns the tide in their favour, but it's nothing wrong with that, the costumer still gets more performance. Unfortunatly for AMD there isn't likely to be any widespread Opteron optimization with a 5% markedshare. That's what it's like to be the little guy :(
Xeon's came out victorious (for once), let's hope AMD responds with faster CPUs ;)
sprockkets - Monday, October 18, 2004 - link
I guess my only question is what type of Xeon was used, the ones with huge cache, or what?I liked that Infoworld report, in a way. It's weird that Opterons are faster, but load up a Xeon with work and it is faster. Kinda makes sense, but if you are faster when under load, wouldn't you run faster without load? Does that mean Xeons waste most of the time without other programs to take advantage then of Hyper Threading?
Then again, with a shared bus architecture it's been proven here until the Xenon went up to a 800mhz bus that Opterons scale much better.
Guspaz - Monday, October 18, 2004 - link
Isn't it kind of an unfair test to compare a 64-bit processor in 32 bit mode to a 32 bit processor?If you're going to benchmark without taking advantage of one of the Opteron's biggest features (AMD64), why not disable something like Hyper-Threading to compensate? From what I understand both AMD64 and HyperThreading provide similar performance increases of something like 5 to 15 percent.
WooDaddy - Monday, October 18, 2004 - link
I understand for the purpose of the review, it might be easier to order from the same vendor, but since the architecture of each one is different (AMD/Intel), most companies wouldn't sell conflicting yet equivalent servers. The server market caters less to fanboys/men/women than the fickle consumer market.My point is that if you are going to compare full blown pre-assembled systems, you should look at competing vendors since it isn't cost effective for the vendor to release self-competing products. But since you probably built your own (the test configuration info was rather sparce), make sure the component cost is the same. That's the comparision that would count.
Jason Clark - Monday, October 18, 2004 - link
I plan on adding a cost comparison in our next article in this series. The trick is to make it as fair as possible where each system is outfitted in a similar fashion from the same vendor if possible.Questar - Monday, October 18, 2004 - link
Oh yeah, that's a really good idea. I should base business buying decisions based upon a review at a gaming site. There's a source I would quote in my research.mrdudesir - Monday, October 18, 2004 - link
That review at info world was a joke. No Data, just assertions that they claim, would they care to back it up with evidence. If you want to see a real review check out this one over at GamePC that i found, which actually outlines all of the hardware and apps used.http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=opt...