Intel Xeon E5-26xx v3 10 Cores Conclusion

Intel’s product stack for 2P capable CPUs is somewhat frustrating. The lower cost models always offer the best value for money, but getting a more expensive and faster CPU means that you end up with a faster unit. So if a user is buying purely on bang-for-buck, they might end up with a quad core.

The essence of the workstation is always centered on compute-limited throughput. I have mentioned this in a previous review – almost all computer usage can be split into idea-limited throughput or compute-limited. For the former, the user needs a faster brain, but for the latter a super-fast CPU is needed. Being able to get through a compute task even faster means the user is able to complete contracts quicker enabling more work and more money. Ultimately this means that if it can be justified in getting a higher core count processor, even at the expense of 100-200 MHz per thread, it might be worth investing in another $500.

In my previous existence requiring workstation CPUs, I was naïve and assumed that a 2P rig was the way to go – I even convinced my boss to invest in three for our simulation team. Our basic C++ simulations used threads, but no-one in the team understood about thread and cache management, let alone NUMA programming, because we were more chemists than computer scientists. I always encourage users to test their software on 1P and 2P workstations before convincing the people with the money to buy a machine – depending on the software, a big 1P system might have fewer cores but the cache management might increase throughput even more.

With this in mind, the Xeon E5 v3 workstation focused CPUs like the W range now sit in a more generalized form. Other CPUs, with more cores for 25% more in cost on paper might offer a 40% potential increase in throughput for less power. The E5-2687W v3 is a similar price to its last generation brethren, but the landscape around it has changed in favor of other processors – 160W is still a lot to take in, especially when 145W processors seem to offer more.  As a 10-core processor, the E5-2687W v3 still represents the best 10-core you can buy. But we have preliminary numbers in house for 12 core and 14 core CPUs, showing that a small increase in cost results in a better-than-cost increase in performance with lower power consumption.

The Xeon E5-2650 v3 represents part of the E5-2687W v3 problem. For just over half the price ($2057 vs. $1166), this CPU has two thirds of the TDP while only losing 500-600 MHz frequency across the power range. When paired up in a 2P system, two E5-2650 v3 CPUs against one E5-2687W v3 CPU will offer almost double the threads for only 13% extra CPU cost. For users that have software to take advantage of this, it makes a lot more sense while offering double the DRAM capabilities.

Over the coming weeks we hope to also supply reviews of 12 core and 14 core Xeon E5 v3 CPUs. Stay tuned for those! All our results will also be included in our CPU comparison section, Bench.

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