Advice needed...

[freeloader1969]

I was just given 5 socket F CPU's and 16GB of DDR2 ECC Reg. ram. 4 matching Opteron 8380's (quadcores, 2.5ghz) and 1 Opteron 8431 (sixcores, 2.4ghz).

Just a few questions...

What type of PPD would the four quads make on Linux?

Is it possible to use the six core and three of the quadcores on the same board? I'm assuming no, but we all what "assume" means.

What type of power would this system use?

Looking at getting a Supermicro MBD-H8QM3-2-0f of Ebay for $300. It supports DDPM, 4 and 6 core processors.

 

[Kendrak]

Untitledone is the socket F master. He ran his 8P as a 4P for a while, and I rember him saying that you can mix some CPUs, but not sure if that extends to different core count.

I wana say that it was about 20 to 25% slower than a 61xx chip core for core. Again, Untitledone will have better numbers.

 

[402blownstroker]

My older 4P socket setup was getting about 80K PPD with 8389s installed. 6903 WUs where about 45m TPF and I think 6904 where about 60m TPF making about 96K PPD.

 

[Nathan_P]

Rough math wizardry indicates that you'll get about 60-65k on a 6903 and about 75-80k on 6904 on the quad cores.

getting some more 8431's should get around 100k on 6903 and 118k on 6904

 

[Untitledone]

Since these are shanhai CPU's, the 8380's will not have the ability to use probe filter which is a huge performance gain on socket F. As such, even the 2.9Ghz quad cores have a bit less per core performance than a 2.4Ghz istanbul (1 core vs 1 core). Since those are shanghai CPU's it may be possble to run the hex with 3 quad cores, but more than likely it may not net you any performance gain.

I dont have any shanghai data, but using 402's numbers you should see about 00:52:15 TPF on a 6903 netting you 70K PPD. For reference my dual X5570 8C 16T 3.2Ghz machine pulls about 00:40:30 on 6903 for 103K PPD. A 4P of 8431's had a TPF around 00:28:00 witch was around 180K PPD

Untitledone is the socket F master. He ran his 8P as a 4P for a while, and I rember him saying that you can mix some CPUs, but not sure if that extends to different core count.

I wana say that it was about 20 to 25% slower than a 61xx chip core for core. Again, Untitledone will have better numbers.

Istanbul's are only about 9% slower than magny-cours core per core, clock per clock.

48 cores @ 2.4Ghz Istanbul stacks up to about 48 cores @ 2.2 Ghz magny-cours. Seeing as Istanbul starts at 2.1Ghz, if you can get them, they are pretty decent.

It really depends on configuration though. The 8P was as fast a few overclocked magny-cours systems at 2.4 ish. The comparison to the 2.2Ghz system was a magny-cours system with performance ram SPD flashed, so best case senario, for the magny-cours system. The 8P I am running has mix matched DDR2 667 (10 sticks) and DDR2 800 ram (6 sticks) and obviously, every possible Untitledone mod imaginable so probably not best case senario lol.

It does 00:18:37 for 540K PPD on 6904, 00:13:51 for 514K PPD on 6903, 00:6:13 for 381K on 6901, and 00:00:42 for 196K PPD on 7148

Rough math wizardry indicates that you'll get about 60-65k on a 6903 and about 75-80k on 6904 on the quad cores.

getting some more 8431's should get around 100k on 6903 and 118k on 6904

4x 8431 will net you about 180K PPD on 6903.

 

[Nathan_P]

4x 8431 will net you about 180K PPD on 6903.

Thats a big jump for only 8 extra cores

 

[Untitledone]

Thats a big jump for only 8 extra cores

It is not just the cores, Istanbul has higher IPC than Shanghai. 2.4Ghz Istanbul cores are about as fast as 3.0Ghz shanghai cores. Due in no small part to Probe Filter.

Here is a short article: http://techreport.com/articles.x/16448

25GB/s memory bandwidth Shanghai, 42GB/s memory bandwidth Istanbul. All they did was pop and swap lol, same ram/board etc.

 

[Nathan_P]

Ahh interesting, common perception is that istanbul is just the shanghai die with 2 extra cores bolted on - looks like they took the opportunity to do some other work at the same time.

 

[Untitledone]

Ahh interesting, common perception is that istanbul is just the shanghai die with 2 extra cores bolted on - looks like they took the opportunity to do some other work at the same time.

It is quite surprising.

Essentially, Magny-Cours is two Istanbul's bolted together. The performance relatively reflects that with Magny-Cours having a few more enhancements bringing the IPC up.

 

[freeloader1969]

Since these are shanhai CPU's, the 8380's will not have the ability to use probe filter which is a huge performance gain on socket F. As such, even the 2.9Ghz quad cores have a bit less per core performance than a 2.4Ghz istanbul (1 core vs 1 core). Since those are shanghai CPU's it may be possble to run the hex with 3 quad cores, but more than likely it may not net you any performance gain.

I dont have any shanghai data, but using 402's numbers you should see about 00:52:15 TPF on a 6903 netting you 70K PPD. For reference my dual X5570 8C 16T 3.2Ghz machine pulls about 00:40:30 on 6903 for 103K PPD. A 4P of 8431's had a TPF around 00:28:00 witch was around 180K PPD



Istanbul's are only about 9% slower than magny-cours core per core, clock per clock.

48 cores @ 2.4Ghz Istanbul stacks up to about 48 cores @ 2.2 Ghz magny-cours. Seeing as Istanbul starts at 2.1Ghz, if you can get them, they are pretty decent.

It really depends on configuration though. The 8P was as fast a few overclocked magny-cours systems at 2.4 ish. The comparison to the 2.2Ghz system was a magny-cours system with performance ram SPD flashed, so best case senario, for the magny-cours system. The 8P I am running has mix matched DDR2 667 (10 sticks) and DDR2 800 ram (6 sticks) and obviously, every possible Untitledone mod imaginable so probably not best case senario lol.

It does 00:18:37 for 540K PPD on 6904, 00:13:51 for 514K PPD on 6903, 00:6:13 for 381K on 6901, and 00:00:42 for 196K PPD on 7148



4x 8431 will net you about 180K PPD on 6903.

Wow...I didn't think a socket F system could be so potent. It's too bad it's hard to find the daughter card for the Tyan 8P system. What type of power draw (if you know) on a 4P and 8P system?

 

[Untitledone]

Wow...I didn't think a socket F system could be so potent. It's too bad it's hard to find the daughter card for the Tyan 8P system. What type of power draw (if you know) on a 4P and 8P system?

About 425W in 4P operation, and 825-850W in 8P operation. Mine is running 2x 700W power supplies and I only tested individually. It was 425W for the motherboard, and 400-425W for the daughter board.