More Opteron 64-bit vs. 32-bit benchmarks

Hey all

Just came across this today while looking up some numbers on Spec's
site. Seems AMD has some new numbers posted in SPECweb99_SSL. Most
interesting is that they have two identical Opteron systems setup, one
running 32-bit Linux and 32-bit Zeus (webserver), the other running
64-bit Linux and 64-bit Zeus. Here's the results page:

http://www.spec.org/web99ssl/results/web99ssl.html

The two Opteron scores in particular are he
http://www.spec.org/web99ssl/results...818-00078.html
http://www.spec.org/web99ssl/results...818-00079.html


There results have got to actually be a bit disappointing for AMD I
would think. Web99_SSL tests encrypted HTTPS communication, and
encryption is one of the areas that should benefit a lot from 64-bit
integer registers. As it is, AMD is seeing only a 6% improvement in
performance when going to 64-bit.

Now, on the other hand, AMD is still managing to throw down with the
big boys. If you look at the 4-processor 64-bit numbers (there are
more 4P servers to compare with than 2P servers), we see that the
Opteron does pretty well, managing a score of 3399. First off, this
really puts the Xeon to shame. Dell has a 4P 2.8GHz XeonMP system
with a similar configuration to the 4P Opteron system, and it only
manages 2177. The Opteron is a whopping 56% faster!

However, top scores still go to the big boys. HP's 4P Itanium2 system
and IBM's 4P Power4+ system are neck-and-neck for the lead with scores
of 3702 and 3699 respectively. Noticeably ahead of the Opteron
systems, though only by 9%. I guess AMD can take some credit in that,
though in most of the other SPEC benchmarks the Opteron actually
manages to match or beat the Itanium2 and Power4 (CPU2000 CFP is the
notable exception). As with most of the other SPEC benchmarks, Sun is
WELL back of the pack.

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Tony Hill
hilla underscore 20 at yahoo dot ca